Kawahigashi Hekigotō

Place: Matsuyama

Born: 1873

Death: 1937

Biography:

Kawahigashi Hekigotō was a Japanese poet and modern pioneer of the haiku form. He was born on February 26, 1873, in Matsuyama, Japan. His father was a Confucian scholar, and his childhood was steeped in Chinese classics. Kawahigashi was a childhood friend of Kyoshi Takahama, who later became a poet and novelist. In 1894, they both left school together to move to Tokyo. There, he and Kyoshi became the chief disciples of modern haiku master Shiki Masaoka. After Shiki's death, Kawahigashi succeeded him as the editor of Hototogisu magazine in 1897 and Nippon newspaper in 1902. Hekigoto extended the innovations of Shiki by abandoning the traditional 5-7-5 syllable pattern of haiku in favor of free verse, which he called tanshi. Kawahigashi continued to use seasonal words (kigo) but some of his followers even abandoned that. He was also a travel writer, journalist, calligrapher, art critic, noh dancer, and mountaineer. Kawahigashi died on February 1, 1937, in Tokyo.