Kurita Chodō

Literary career Masaoka Shiki 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, Kamigata, and Owari province.

His first travel writing, Tsumajirushi (爪じるし) where he kept his journal during his trip to Setouchi, Kii, Yamato and Kyoto, 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 (The Harvest of Leisure), written by the monk Yoshida Kenkō with everyday reality. 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).