Takarai Kikaku

His father was an Edo doctor, but Kikaku chose to become a professional haikai poet rather than follow in his footsteps.^[2]

Kikaku set the tone for haikai from Basho's death until the time of Yosa Buson in the late 18th century.^[2] He also left an important historical document describing Bashō's final days, and the immediate aftermath of his death, which has been translated into English.^[3]

In commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Kikaku's death, Nobuyuki Yuasa led an international bilingual (Japanese and English) renku, or collaborative linked poem, which opened with the following hokku by Kikaku:^[4]

鐘ひとつ賣れぬ日はなし江戸の春

Springtime in Edo,

Not a day passes without

A temple bell sold.

• Kikaku wrote of coarser subjects than Bashō, and in this respect his poetry was closer to earlier haikai, as well as to senryu,^[5] and his master is known to have denigrated Kikaku's 'flippant efforts'.
• Comparing Kikaku's paired haiku in 'The Rustic Haiku Contest', Bashō remarked of one that "these are artifices within a work of art; too much craft has been expended here".^[6]
• One day, Kikaku composed a haiku,

Red dragonfly / break off its wings / Sour cherry

which Bashō changed to,

Sour cherry / add wings to it / Red dragonfly;

thus saying that poetry should add life to life, not take life away from life.^[7][8]

• Hattori Ransetsu
• Mukai Kyorai