was an Ainu waka poet and social activist.
He devoted his life to improving the standing of the Ainu people, expressing his ideas as tanka in newspapers and magazines and influencing the Ainu youth of the time. He also circulated around the Ainu kotan (villages) of Hokkaido, preaching of the need for unity and the formation of an Ainu identity.
Along with Yaeko Batchelor and , Iboshi is counted as one of the . He has been called the "Takuboku of the Ainu".
Life
Childhood
Hokuto was born in 1901 in the first district of Ōgawa-chō in the town of Yoichi, the third son of his father Jinsaku and mother Haru. Jinsaku made his living fishing for herring, but was also an accomplished bear hunter.
The Iboshi family name dated back to the time of Hokuto's grandfather Manjirō. Manjirō went in 1872 to study in Tokyo on the grounds of Zōjō-ji, at the "Aborigine Education Facility" associated with the Kaitakushi (Hokkaido Development Commission). With excellent grades, he remained in Tokyo as an official of the Kaitakushi. Manjirō was one of the first Ainu permitted to adopt a Japanese name. His family possessed a hereditary symbol called an — something like a Japanese kamon crest — consisting of two lines crossed in an "X" and two round dots to the top and bottom, situated between the lines (like ※ without the left and right dots). From the special terminology of kamon, which refers to the cross shape as and the dots as , he derived the name . In the course of usage, though, the name took on the shorter reading of "Iboshi".
Hokuto's official name in the family register was thus – but the first name was a misprint by the scribe, who had been told the boy's name was . His friends called him Takejirō or just Take, and he himself wrote his name either way, or even as "竹二郎".
When Hokuto was young he was a ringleader for the local children. In 1908, though, his education-minded mother Haru sent him to the 6-year , rather than the 4-year "Former Aborigine School" most of the local Ainu children attended. With only a few Ainu peers at the school, he endured severe discrimination. When he was in his fifth year, his mother died, and he abandoned aspirations for educational advancement, instead beginning to work upon his graduation in 1914. In addition to helping with his father's fishing work, he did manual labor away from home in forestry and agriculture, but continued to meet with societal discrimination as an Ainu.
Teenage years
Perhaps from the severe pressure of demanding manual labor and discriminatory treatment, the already frail Iboshi fell seriously ill at 17, and from this point on came to take an interest in more ideological pursuits. Around the same time, he saw two tanka in the Hokkai Times that showed disdain for the Ainu, further increasing his bitterness towards the Japanese. Around this time, though, he was deeply moved by some small words a Japanese school principal he sat beside spoke to him at a meeting. As minor a thing as it was, this event completely changed his opinion of the Japanese he'd seen as cold-blooded.
Influenced by his old schoolteacher Naoya Nara, Iboshi became interested in ideas of culture and character. He became involved in youth groups and made an effort to get along with the Japanese, coming to believe that the Ainu needed to develop their own cultural awareness, as well as a consciousness of their status as Japanese nationals, and develop both people and a society of splendid character that would contribute to society alongside the Japanese. During this time he was also conscripted, in 1923, as a logistics officer in the 7th division of the Imperial Japanese Army, but after a little more than a month he was discharged, perhaps for illness.
From this time on, Iboshi formed the culture group with other Ainu youth from Yoichi, including his childhood friend , under the guidance of his teacher Nara. Holding study sessions and publishing a bulletin called , they held various activities to raise awareness. By Nara's introduction, Iboshi became a devoted reader of Mitsujirō Nishikawa's culture magazine and met Nishikawa in person when the latter visited Hokkaido.
It was also around this time that Iboshi began producing haiku under the tutelage of Nara and the newly appointed teacher Kenji Yoshida. He participated in gatherings of haiku poets in Yoichi and began submitting his work to the Tokyo poetry magazine Nihihari.