 In 1911, Horiguchi left school to accompany his father on overseas postings and during the next 14 years overseas he became fluent in French (assisted by his Belgian stepmother) and interested in French literature, particularly the novels and poetry of the Symbolist movement.He first spent over a year in Mexico, where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, causing Horiguchi to abandon his father's hope that he become a diplomat, and he devoted his time to writing verse and translation of French works instead.He was in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, and it was also during this time that he was drawn to Parnassianism as a style of verse.