While still at middle school, Ariake developed an interest in the works of Byron and Heine, and began writing poetry in a similar style.

In 1894, he started a literary journal called Ochibo Zōshi ("Gleaners’Notes") together with Hayashida Shuncho and Yamagishi Kayo, in which he serialized his first novel, Autumn Mountain Village (秋の山ざと, ”Aki no Yamazato”).

In 1898, Ariake won first prize in a Yomiuri Shimbun contest with his second novel Great Mercy (大慈悲, Daijihi), which was highly praised by one of the judges, Ozaki Kōyō.

In this anthology, he also included Japanese translations of the works of Keats, in which he attempted to follow the rhyming pattern of the original sonnet, but resorting to many archaic and difficult words.

In his fourth anthology, Ariake's Collection (有明詩集, Ariaki Shu), in 1922, he introduced the 14-line sonnet, which was previously seldom used in conventional Japanese modern poetry.