While born in Shiga Prefecture, he was raised in Manchukuo in China due to his father's work on the South Manchurian Railway,[2] and then graduated from Tokyo University.

[3] He began publishing his own poetry in Manchukuo in 1924 and his work was influenced by that colonial context.

Kitagawa was also a well-known film critic, one who especially praised the work of Mansaku Itami (the father of Juzo Itami), calling it a new, realistic "prose cinema" (sanbun eiga) in opposition to the old "poetic cinema" (inbun eiga) of Sadao Yamanaka, Daisuke Itō, and others.

He, Shuzo Takiguchi, Akira Asano and other members formed a group called 'Ten Scenario-Researchers'.

They advocated the movement from a standpoint considering a scenario a literary genre.