Ryu Soro (龍草廬)
Soro RYU (or TATSU) (1714 - 1792) was a Confucian scholar and a composer of Chinese poems in the late Edo period.
Last name was TAKEDA. First name was Tokinori. Azana (Chinese courtesy name formerly given to adult Chinese men, used in place of their given name in formal situations; Japanese scholars and the literati adopted this custom of courtesy name) was Kungyoku. Common name was Hikojiro and later changed to Emon. Soro was a go (pen name). He temporarily used Motosuke for name and Shimei for azana, but changed back to original.
He was born and lived in Kyoto.
Career
Soro RYU was born in Fushimi, Kyoto Prefecture and he became disciple of Meika UNO in Kyoto when he grew up. After he had become estranged from Meika, he founded Shisha (poetry club) in Karasumaru-Koji Street, claiming that 'there is no fixed teacher'. In 1750, he worked as Shinkosha (a person who gives a lecture or explain achievements to the Emperor, the Empress, and the nobility) by invitation from Naosada II, the lord of the Hikone domain. In 1756, he was appointed as a Hanju (a Confucian scholar who work for a domain) and after 18 years in the post, returned to Kyoto. After the resignation, he called Shisha as Yuransha and promoted popularization of Chinese-style poem.
He had written "Soro bunshu (Collection of anthologies of Soro)," "Soro shishu (a collection of poetry by Soro)," "Kinran shishu," "Materials for poetry of Tang Dynasty," "Book of Japanese poetry," "Summary of Rongo Analects," and "Moshi (the book of poetry in ancient china) sho."
There were Romon OKAZAKI and Genpo OE for disciple of Yuransha.