Takahama Kyoshi 1874–1959

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Takahama Kyoshi 1874–1959

PERSONAL: Born February 22, 1874, in Matsuyama, Japan; died April 8, 1959, in Kamakura, Japan.

CAREER: Writer. Editor of Hototogisu, beginning 1898.

WRITINGS:

Haikaishi (novel; title means "Haiku Master"), 1909.

Susumubeki haiku no michi (title means "The Proper Direction for Haiku"), 1918.

Sōseki-shi to watakushi/Takahama Kyoshi cho/kaisetsu Inoue Yuriko (correspondence), Arusu (Tokyo, Japan), 1918.

Kunikki, six volumes, 1936–60.

Haiku no gojūnen, 1947.

Kyoshi shōsoku (correspondence and reminiscences), 1948.

Kyoshi kyōyū kuroku, 1948.

Kaki futatsu, 1948.

Kyoshi jiden (biography), 1948.

Teihon Kyoshi zenshū, Sogensha, Showa (Tokyo, Japan), 1948.

Kijuen, 1950.

Bashō (literary criticism), 1951.

Kyoshi jisen kushū, Sogensha, Showa (Tokyo, Japan), 1951.

Haiku-dokuhon, Sogensha, Showa (Tokyo, Japan), 1951.

Haiku no tsukuriyō, 1952.

Haiku e no michi, 1955.

Gendai shasei bunshū (short stories), 1955.

Hototogisu zatsuei senshu, 1962.

Kyoshi haiwa, edited by Toshio Takahama, 1963.

Kyoshi no meiku, edited by Toshiro Kyosaki, 1967.

Gohyakku, 1969.

Haiku tokuhon, 1972.

Takahama Kyoshi zenhaiku shu (title means "The Complete Haiku Poems of Takahama Kyoshi"), two volumes, 1980.

Takahama Kyoshi (collected works), edited by Toshihiko Matsui, Nihon Tosho Senta (Tokyo, Japan), 1994.

Contributor to anthologies, including Masaoka Shiki, Takahama Kyoshi, Nafatsuka Takashi, Isikawa Takuboku shū, 1978, and Kyoshi, Toshio Teiko sandai bokuhitsu shū, 1980.

SIDELIGHTS: Japanese poet Takahama Kyoshi was a major contributor to the development of the modern haiku form. A devoted student of haiku master Masaoka Shiki, in 1898 he took over editorship of the haiku magazine Masaoka had founded, titled Hototogisu. After his master's death, Takahama quarreled with his old friend, the poet Kawahigashi Hekigoto, who sought to invigorate haiku by disregarding the form's traditional pattern of syllables. Takahama firmly disagreed with this development and further argued that haiku should continue to focus on realistic descriptions of nature.

In addition to his many volumes of haiku, Takahama wrote several novels, as well as books of criticism. His Susumubeki haiku no michi, for one, is an argument for what he considered to be the proper direction for modern haiku; he also wrote a study of sixteenth-century poet Bashō Matsuo, who is considered the greatest haiku poet in Japanese literary history.