He wrote some of the most beloved and familiar pieces for children and youth choirs, such as "Akai Kutsu (Red Shoes)".

He, along with Hakushū Kitahara, and Yaso Saijō [ja] are considered to be the three great poets and children's songwriters in Japan.

He was now able to avail himself of private funds to make his first publication, a collection of min'yō poems, titled Karekusa (枯草) out of Mito, but it failed to bring him either fame or fortune.

They had first met while still in Sapporo, and in his journal (9/23/1907) Ishikawa described his first impression of Noguchi as being "gentle and polite, black-moustached, and from his very looks he was obviously of a introverted character".

Takuboku in Kanashiki omoide adds that Noguchi was "very self-deprecating and would say -goansu instead of -masu," going on to say that the man was less than dashing, and had certain distinct quirks in his pronunciation.

[12] In 1919, Noguchi published the poetry collection Tokai to Den'en (都会と田園) ("Urbanity and pastoral"), returning to the literary circle.

[3] Teaming up with such composers as Shinpei Nakayama,[2] and Nagayo Motoori,[2] and the prolific but obscure Kiyomi Fujii [ja], Noguchi wrote a number of classic songs of lasting fame.

In the recession in the wake of World War I, Noguchi & Nakayama's minyō folksong Sendō kouta (Boatman's song, 1921)[13] struck chord with he audience with its melancholic strains, with its use of the pentatonic minor scale (五音短音階).

Noguchi's children's pieces have a distinct "lonely, melancholic note" (compared with other songwriters of the period), as evident in such works as Jūgoya Otsukisan (十五夜お月さん, "Harvest moon") (the old nanny was given her leave, younger sister was sent away, I wish I could meet mother again), Nanatsu no ko (七ツの子) (why does the crow cry, because it has seven dear children it has left in its old nest in the mountains), Aoi me no ningyō (青い眼の人形 (楽曲), "Blue-eyed doll") (I am a doll from America came to port in Japan, I don't know what I'll do if I lose my way; will the darling girl from Japan play with me?

[2] Noguchi was one of the major exponents of the "first literary movement for improvised children's tales and children's songs (fairy tales and nursery rhymes)" (童話と童謡を創作する最初の文学的運動), to borrow the oft quoted words from the manifesto of Akai tori (although that publication was not where Noguchi published his works).

[15] The movement was part of a tide of liberal reforms to children's literature, art, and music, reacting against what musicologist Saburō Sonobe [ja] has called the "moralistic and individuality-suppressing, government-brand type of songs and tunes".

[2] Noguchi resurrected the Nihon Minyō Kyōkai in 1935, becoming its chair (note that this is a different group from the eponymous society active today, which was founded in 1950).

In 1943 he suffered a mild brain hemorrhage, and died in 1945 in the suburbs of Utsunomiya, Tochigi, where he had been evacuated during the bombing of Tokyo in World War II.