Kitamura Totsuya was born in 1868 (the first year of Meiji). He was not only an outstanding poet, but also a critic. In literary reviews such as "What is Literature Concerning Life" (1893), he repeatedly emphasized that literature is an "illusive undertaking" and should not be pursued in the secular world. He said that the bounden duty of literature is to face the invisible force of nature and point the edge of the soul towards the absolute. This kind of literary proposition obviously opposed the theory of realistic function of literature, so it was unique in the socialist atmosphere where pragmatism was prevalent at that time. Later, Kitamura Totsuya further evolved his literary theory into a literary treatise "The Theory of Inner Life" (1893). In response to the ideological tendency of ignoring human life at that time, he advocated the importance of attaching importance to human inner vitality. At the same time, literature cannot just be satisfied with observing people's "inner life", but must visually display the ultimate in inner life based on that moment of inspiration. Although this theory of Kitamura Touya is biased, it touches on the unique characteristics of literature and art. In a historical and cultural stage like the Meiji era, it was indeed sharply opposed to literary concepts and literary consciousness with feudal characteristics. He places literature in some kind of imaginary world of ideas.

Kitamura Touya's main works are the long poems "Poetry of Prisoners of Chu" (1889) and "Henglai Song" (1891). The work expresses Touya's romantic and inner self-experience. Among them, "Poems of Prisoners of Chu" is the earliest collection of free-form long poems. The long poem is based on personal experience of the "Osaka State Prisoners" incident, and is influenced by Byron's free verse poetry. "Penglai Song" was also influenced by Byron and Goethe, and the work has obvious traces of imitation. However, through this immature poetry form, Touya showed a strong denial of reality and showed the awakening of modern people in the painful experience. A major feature of "Penglai Song" is that the work is like a commentary written in the form of free verse poetry. It can be said that the more important historical value of Kitamura Touya is reflected in the cultural commentary. One of his most famous critical articles is his poetry theory "The World-Weary Poets and Women" published in the "Women's Journal" in 1892. One of the famous quotes is quite representative. He said, "Love is the secret of life. Love comes first and then life...". This famous saying embodies the requirements of the times in modern Japan to break the shackles of feudalism and realize the liberation of individuality.

Around the Meiji 20s (1887), the new government established an absolute political power system. That is to say, at this time, political power ruled the inner spirit of the people, that is, religion, thought, art and other fields. In October of the 23rd year of Meiji (1890), in the name of the Emperor, the highest embodiment of national power, the so-called "Educational Rescript" was promulgated, the core of which is "state supremacy." As a common concept at that time, political power also represented ideological or ethical authority. Therefore, non-social culture and art or individual consciousness that are insignificant to national politics were regarded as ethical "evils" from the beginning. It can be said that modern society has been in the process of absolute political power from the beginning. Therefore, the enlightenment movement of Fukuzawa Yukichi in the early Meiji period is of great historical significance. The freedom and civil rights movement around Meiji 10 (1878) also has historical merits that cannot be ignored, because the movement was a direct political resistance to the feudal government at that time. The "Freedom and Civil Rights" movement had a great influence on Japan's future ideological and cultural development.