Makoto Ooka was born on February 16, 1931, in Mishima, Shizuoka, and died on April 5, 2017.

He was a Japanese poet and literary critic.

Ōoka pioneered the collaborative poetic form renshi in the 1990s, in which he has collaborated with such well-known literary figures as Charles Tomlinson, James Lasdun, Joseph Stanton and Mikiro Sasaki.

His poetry column was published without a break seven days a week for more than 20 years on the front page of Asahi Shimbun, which is Japan’s leading national newspaper

Makoto Ōoka passed at 86 years old.