Early Life
Soen Nakagawa was born as Motoi Nakagawa on March 19, 1907 in Keelung, Taiwan as the eldest of three boys: Matoi, Tamotsu and Sonow. His father, Suketaro Nakagawa, was an army medical officer and his mother's name was Kazuko. His family moved shortly after to Iwakune, and then finally to Hiroshima. In 1917, at age 12, Nakagawa's father died, leaving his mother Kazuko a young widow. Soen's younger brother, Tamotsu, died soon after in his early childhood. His mother was forced to work to make ends meet and educate her young children herself. It was an unforgiving childhood for Soen. Soen's family was of samurai class, so in his youth he was trained as a samurai. But Soen was much more interested in the arts, where at a young age he displayed a gift for poetry.
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