Partly due to the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright, Takehiko came to enjoy telling stories to children in Sunday School.
During this time, works which he had submitted under the pen name Onoe Shinbee (尾上 新兵衛) were accepted by Iwaya Sazanami (巌谷 小波), the head writer at the magazine Shōnen Sekai (少年世界), "'World' for Boys".
In 1906, he began his tour of Japan, during which he gave readings of children's stories at over 6000 kindergartens and elementary schools.
In 1924, Takehiko and Iwaya Sazanami became consultants to the recently established Japanese Children's Story Guild (日本童話連盟, Nihon Dōwa Renmei).
Moved by his concern, the Danish people came to call Takehiko “the Japanese Hans Christian Andersen”.