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Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902)
A Meiji-era poet and critic from Matsuyama who reformed haiku and tanka. He championed 写生, describing things as they are seen, and made "haiku" the standard name for the form. He died of tuberculosis at 34.
Cultural note
- His pen name 子規 is another word for the 時鳥 (lesser cuckoo), a bird said to cough blood as it sings; he took it after he began coughing blood
- The haiku magazine ホトトギス, founded by his circle, is named after the same bird
- He loved baseball and wrote some of the first Japanese poems about it