Masaoka Shiki
At many tourist spots in Matsuyama you'll find wooden postboxes bearing the Japanese for "Haiku post". Haiku are a traditional poetic form just three lines long containing respectively five, seven and five syllables, and the subject of the poem is usually connected with the seasons. Anyone can drop their poems into the boxes and souvenirs are sent to those who submit praiseworthy efforts. The postboxes were established in 1967 to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Matsuyama's most famous haiku poet, Masaoka Shiki . Befitting his profession, Masaoka was a rather tragic figure, who died at 35 from tuberculosis. He took his pen name Shiki from that of a bird, which according to legend coughs blood as it sings. His life story, which included a spell reporting on the Sino-Japanese War, can be traced at the Shiki Kinen Museum in Dogo and there are two houses connected with the poet preserved as tourist attractions in the city, including the villa he shared for a short time with Matsuyama's other adopted literary son, Soseki Natsume . Masaoka is particularly remembered in Japan for encouraging reforms to the rather hidebound haiku artform - he thought it should be more reflective of real life. He famously criticized the master of the genre, Basho, and advocated that poets be allowed to use whatever words they wanted for haiku, on any subject matter. One of his most famous poems is: "Kaki kueba kane-ga narunari Horyu-ji " ("I was eating a persimmon. Then, the bell of Horyu-ji temple echoed far and wide"), which is both realistic and immediate, two qualities that Masaoka argued poets should be striving for.
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