Masaoka Shiki
Masaoka Shiki (正岡 子規; September 17, 1867, Matsuyama - September 19, 1902, Tokyo) is a Japanese author, poet, critic and journalist.
An accomplished haiku poet revered as the last of the four great masters, he is known as a critic of Matsuo Basho and often credited with single-handedly revitalizing the art form.
Shiki attended college in Tokyo with Natsume Soseki and Akiyama Saneyuki, later dropping out to work as a columnist for the newspaper company Nippon. He suffered from tuberculosis and was cared for in his final days by his mother. With the aid of others, he was able to dictate his final haiku from his futon.
Shiki claimed that Japanese poetry should be modernized, and coined the terms haiku (replacing hokku) and tanka. His contribution as a critic is rediscovery of Man'yōshū and revaluation of Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shogun of Kamakura Shogunate.
