Kawahigashi Hekigoto () 1873–1937

Hekigot was one of Shiki’s most important disciples. After the master’s death, he continued to support Shiki’s emphasis on objectivity and went even further in the pursuit of innovation. He wrote many haiku without following the seventeen-syllable rule, writing some in twenty or more syllables. He promoted haiku “without a center of interest” and his haiku often have a bland, descriptive quality. His importance lies in the effect he had on the direction others were to take. He started the New Trend Haiku Movement, attracting such radical poets as Ogiwara Seisensui (1884–1976), who helped argue for the viability of dropping the traditional form. Seisensui wanted other changes and broke with Hekigot. Rejecting the season-word requirement and advocating a move to more subjectivity in haiku, he attracted such modern free-verse haiku individualists as Hsai and Santka.

Born in Matsuyama, Hekigot was friends with both Shiki and Takahama Kyoshi from the time they were still young. He had many other interests aside from his work as a haiku poet and critic. He was active as a calligrapher, mountain climber, classical scholar, and noh dancer, while still finding time to travel to, and to write travel essays about, North America, Europe, and China. Masaoka Shiki, besides being his haiku master, also taught him how to play baseball. In 1889, after he had discovered baseball at a school in Tokyo, Shiki brought a bat and ball back to Matsuyama for Hekigot and taught him the game. Hekigot apparently published only one baseball haiku, written in 1924.

 

 

while playing ball

it becomes time to go home

for supper

tama asonde ite yhan ni kaeru koro