Takashi Nagatsuka

According to prominent historian Ann Waswo, Nagatsuka Takashi was born into a landowning family.

In accordance with his duties as eldest son, he assisted his mother Taka in managing their six acres of arable land.

These are just some of his attempts to save the family's finances from the political career of his father Genjiro (who was elected during the late 1880s to the prefectural assembly), since he tended to absorb other people's debts.

[1] His only novel 土 ("Tsuchi"; "The Soil") was published in 151-installment series from June–November of1910 in the 東京朝日新聞 (Tokyo Asahi Shimbun; Tokyo Morning-Sun Newspaper), which eventually became today's 朝日新聞 (Asahi Shimbun ; Morning-Sun Newspaper) after a merger with the 大阪朝日新聞 (Osaka Asahi Shimbun; Osaka Morning-Sun Newspaper).

Two years after its newspaper serialization, 土 was published as a complete work in book form in 1912.