She was a student at the Tokushima Prefectural Girls' High School, and trained to be a teacher.

Ikuta wrote for magazines beginning in her teens, and was a elementary school teacher as a young woman.

[3][4][5] She wrote cultural reviews, including a 1914 review of a Japanese performance of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession,[6] and first-person essays on womanhood, including essays on the "chastity debates".

After the war, she led literary discussions for women, and published a popular edition of The Tale of Genji.

[10] A quote by Ikuta was used on a poster for the 1946 general election, encouraging women to vote.