, was a Japanese

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

of the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

(1600–1867), regarded as a leading figure in poetry world in

Matsuyama 270px, Matsuyama City Hall 270px, Ehime Prefectural Capital Building is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, in Japan and is also Shikoku's largest city. , the city had an estimated population of 505,948 in 243,541 h ...

former

Iyo Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northwestern Shikoku.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Iyo bordered on Sanuki Province to the northeast, Awa Province (Tokushima), Awa to the east ...

Life

Gotō Masanori, commonly called Teizō, was born in 1749 in Iyo now

, and married into the Kurita family at the age of 17. The Kurita and Gotō family both owned prosperous

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

, they served

Katō Kiyomasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period, Azuchi–Momoyama and Edo periods. His court title was . His name as a child was ''Yashamaru'', and first name was ''Toranosuke''. He was one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi's Seven ...

, who built Matsuyama Castle. Chodō became the 7th owner of the brewery when he was 23. Around this time, under the encouragement of his wife and his father-in-law who were haiku poet, he began to compose his haiku. For his pen name, he took “Cho (樗). In Japan, Choboku (樗木) is commonly known as a useless tree. This is his expression of his determination to give up fame and wealth. Besides his successful brewery owner and haiku poet career, Chodō performed an important role in the Matsuyama

Clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

. He was respected by many people. Even after that, he continued to make haiku and became the central figure of

Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

society in Iyo.　He built Kōshin-an in 1800 to devote himself to haiku activities, and retired from governmental service. Kobayashi Issa, one of the greatest haiku poets of their period, was an important friend of Kurita Chodō. Issa was younger than Chodō by fourteen years, and Chodō gave him guidance about haiku. Issa visited his house in 1795 and 1796 and they enjoyed composing haiku together. Their friendship lasted until Chodō’s death. In 1807, Chodō moved to Mitarai-jima, a small island of former

Aki Province or Geishū () was a province in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, comprising the western part of what is today Hiroshima Prefecture. History When Emperor Shōmu ordered two official temples for each province (one for male Buddhist prie ...

, now

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

prefecture where he spent the rest of his days. He died at sixty-five in 1814.

Literary career

Masaoka Shiki , pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...

praised Chodō as the best poet of their age in Iyo. Chodō was widely known as a famous haiku poet Kato Kyodai’s disciple, having a connection with poets in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

Kamigata Kamigata (上方) was the colloquial term for a region today called Kansai region, Kansai (''kan'', barrier; ''sai'', west) in Japan. This large area encompasses the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe. The term was also sometimes used to refer only ...

, and

Owari province was a province of Japan in the area that today forms the western half of Aichi Prefecture, including the modern city of Nagoya. The province was created in 646. Owari bordered on Mikawa, Mino, and Ise Provinces. Owari and Mino provinces w ...

. His first travel writing, '' Tsumajirushi'' (爪じるし) where he kept his journal during his trip to Setouchi, Kii,

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...

and

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, was completed in 1787. When Kobayashi Issa visited Chodō, they enjoyed making poems '' Uguisu no maki'' (鶯の巻) together. At the age of 50, he composed '' Tsukiyo saushi'' (月夜さうし). Successfully, he combined “grace” in ''

Tsurezuregusa is a collection of essays written by the Japanese monk Kenkō (兼好) between 1330 and 1332. The work is widely considered a gem of medieval Japanese literature and one of the three representative works of the zuihitsu genre, along with ''The ...

'' ('' The Harvest of Leisure''), written by the monk Yoshida Kenkō with everyday reality.Matsui 2003, 17 Moreover, in 1805, five years after his building of Kōshin-an, he wrote about his reclusive life in Kōshin-an in a journal '' Kōshin-an-ki'' (庚申庵記).

References

External links

Koshin-an Club (in Japanese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurita Chodo 19th-century Japanese poets 1749 births 1814 deaths People from Matsuyama, Ehime Writers of the Edo period 18th-century Japanese poets Japanese male poets 18th-century male writers Japanese haiku poets

Life

Literary career

See also

References

External links