Shuntaro Tanikawa was born in 1931 in Tokyo. He is the only child of well-known philosopher TetsuzōTanikawa, and among the most popular contemporary poets in Japan. After finishing high-school, he decided not to go on to university. His first book of poems Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude appeared in 1952. He has since produced some 70 books of poetry and won every major Japanese award for his writings.