Kenta Takamura [AUTHENTIC]

Kenta and his cousin, Tommy Arashikage, were once closer than brothers. Both were in line to lead the Arashikage clan, but Kenta’s ambition was a dark fire that couldn't be contained by the clan's strict moral code. When Kenta attempted to have Tommy murdered to clear his own path to leadership, the plot was uncovered. Instead of the throne, Kenta received total banishment—a stain on his name that he would never forgive. The Alliance with Cobra

His final collection, Endless Rain (2016), was written while he was caring for his mother, who had Alzheimer’s. These poems are devastating in their restraint. He avoids sentimentality entirely, instead cataloging small degradations: a misplaced key, a repeated question, a photograph no longer recognized. The collection ends with a poem titled “The Wardrobe,” which describes emptying his mother’s closet after her death—nothing more, nothing less. Critics have called it the most honest Japanese elegy since The Selected Poems of Nakahara Chūya . kenta takamura