He is also considered one of the supreme stylists in modern Japanese literature, and the difficulty and richness of his prose has been frequently noted by fellow authors and critics.

Even before he entered grade school, young Kyōtarō's mother introduced him to literature in picture-books interspersed with text called kusazōshi, and his works would later show the influence of this early contact with such visual forms of story-telling.

[2] Kyōka was deeply impressed by Ozaki Kōyō's "Amorous Confessions of Two Nuns" and decided to pursue a career in literature.

In November of that year, however, Kyōka's aspiration to an artistic career drove him to Tokyo, where he intended to enter the tutelage of Kōyō himself.

On 19 November 1891, he called on Kōyō in Ushigome (牛込)) (part of present-day Shinjuku) without prior introduction and requested that he be allowed into the school immediately.

In that same year, "A Living Puppet" (活人形, Iki-ningyō) was published by Tantei Bunko and "The Golden Clock" (金時計, Kindokei) by Shonen Bungaku.

In October, he published "The Reservist" (予備兵, Yobihei) and "The Righteous and the Chivalrous" (義血侠血, Giketsu Kyōketsu), after substantial corrections from Kōyō, in the Yomiuri Shimbun.

The next year in February, in order to continue to support his family in Kanazawa, Kyōka moved into the Otowa Ohashi household in Koishikawa in Tokyo to follow work on an encyclopedia.

In April 1895, Kyōka's first, real critical success, “The Night Watchman” (夜行巡査, Yakōjunsa), was published in the magazine Bungei Kurabu.

In spite of illness that often left him in a dream-like state and a house that leaked when it rained, he managed to compose several stories there, including "One Day in Spring" (春昼・春昼後刻, Shunchū/Shunchū gokoku).

In 1913, he composed Demon Pond (夜叉ヶ池, Yasha ga Ike) and The Sea God's Villa (海神別荘, Kaijin Bessō), and the next year, Nihonbashi (日本橋) was published.

Kyōka saw humans through the lens "of evolutionary regression, whether man into beast or adult into child," indicative of his critique of modern society.

The Ruby, first published and performed in 1913, daringly applies this chain of color-coded images to tell a beautifully poetic story of adultery, eroticism, and jealousy.

[4] Kyōka's narrative style borrows from traditional rakugo storytelling, and also uses dramatic dialogues similar to that used in kabuki drama.

Kyōka often depicted life in the hanamachi of downtown Edo or Tokyo, which is why he is often compared with his contemporaries Nagai Kafū and Tanizaki Jun'ichirō.

His plays are particularly popular in Japan: such works as Demon Pond (夜叉ヶ池, Yasha ga Ike), The Sea God's Villa (海神別荘, Kaijin bessō), and The Castle Tower (天守物語, Tenshu monogatari) are performed regularly.