Yamaguchi Seishi (山口誓子; November 3, 1901 – ) was a Japanese '' haiku'' poet.

Early life

Yamaguchi Seishi was born on November 3, 1901, in Kyoto. His father, an electrical engineer, took him at age eleven to Karafuto Prefecture on

Sakhalin Island Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

, where his grandfather ran a newspaper press. Yamaguchi left Karafuto permanently in 1917, but the desolate winter landscape there would feature often in his poetry. Yamaguchi attended the

Third Higher School , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff = 3,978 (Total Staff) , students = 22 ...

in Kyoto and joined the student ''haiku'' society, where he met poet

Sōjō Hino Sōjō Hino (日野草城; July 18, 1901 – ) was a Japanese poet. His ''haiku'' involved subjects then considered controversial for the form, including erotic sexuality, fictionalized scenarios, and mundane topics outside of nature. Biograph ...

. In 1922, he met Kyoshi Takahama, the doyen of the traditionalist school of ''haiku'' centered on the magazine '' Hototogisu'' ("Cuckoo"). Kyoshi encouraged Yamaguchi and the latter's poems began to regularly appear in ''Hototogisu''. Yamaguchi attended Tokyo University, where he was a founding member of the Tokyo University Haiku Society. He graduated in 1926 with a Bachelor of Laws and began working for an Osaka commercial firm. He also came down with a serious of illnesses that would plague him for the rest of his life, eventually contracting pleurisy. In 1932, he released his first volume of ''haiku, Tōkō'' ("Frozen Harbor"). Along with ''Katsushika'' by

Shūōshi Mizuhara Shūōshi Mizuhara (水原秋桜子; October 9, 1892 – 1981) was a Japanese ''haiku'' poet and physician. Shūōshi Mizuhara was born on October 9, 1892, in Tokyo. Shūōshi's father was a doctor and raised Shūōshi to follow in his footsteps ...

, it is considered by critics to be one of the collections to have done the most to modernize the form. Yamaguchi wrote ''haiku'' on unconventional subjects such as steam engines, dance halls, skating rinks, board meetings, typists, sports, and parades. Eventually he broke with Kyoshi and the conservative ''Hototogisu'' school in 1935 and joined Shūōshi's publication ''Ashibi'' (" Staggerbush"). In 1948 he started his own publication, ''Tenrō'' ("Dog Star"), where he was joined by his disciple

Hashimoto Takako is a Japanese name meaning 'base of bridge', from 'bridge' and 'base'. It may refer to: *Hashimoto (surname) * Hashimoto, a place in the city of Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan *Hashimoto, Wakayama, a city in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan *Hashimoto-sa ...

(1899-1963), a poet who was sometimes called the "female Seishi". Yamaguchi eventually published over a dozen volumes of haiku, including ''Kōki'' ("Yellow Flag", 1935)'', Gekirō'' ("Raging Waves", 1944), ''

Wafuku There are typically two types of clothing worn in Japan: traditional clothing known as , including the national dress of Japan, the kimono, and , which encompasses all else not recognised as either national dress or the dress of another country. ...

'' ("Japanese Clothing", 1955), and ''Setsugaku'' (1985), and numerous essay collections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamaguchi, Seishi Created via preloaddraft 1901 births 1994 deaths 20th-century Japanese poets People from Kyoto Japanese haiku poets