[1] Sakae Tsuboi was born in the village of Sakate (now part of the town of Shōdoshima) in Kagawa Prefecture, the fifth daughter of soy sauce barrel maker, Tokichi Iwai.

Despite the bankruptcy of her father's employer, and the consequent worsening of her family's economic situation, she was still able to complete eight years of schooling, before going on to work in the post office and town hall.

[1] After the publication of her debut work Daikon no Ha (Radish Leaves) in 1938, she wrote prolifically, winning the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts among other prizes.

In 1954 the director Keisuke Kinoshita made a film adaptation, starring Hideko Takamine, of her 1952 novel, Nijushi no Hitomi (Twenty-Four Eyes), and Shodoshima became a household name in Japan.

In 1967, she was made an honorary citizen of Uchinomi, Kagawa before dying the same year at the age of 67.