Shofu-haikai (the right style haikai poetry) (正風俳諧)
"Shofu-haikai" is the word for the concept of haikai (seventeen-syllable verse) which Basho MATSUO completed.
It was originally the name that Moritake ARAKIDA coined at the same time when he set haikai rules in the autumn of 1540. Nevertheless, it was Basho MATSUO who brought haikai, popular literature based on the nature and human life, to the high art in its form and substance. Basho was the core of Shomon (Basho School) Haikai, and he traveled to various parts of the country to spread 'Shofu' (right style) with deep thought over the nature and human life. Therefore the word Shofu-haikai came to be used as a word that means Haikai of Basho, and the Chinese character for 'sho' of Shofu was sometimes written as 'sho' of Basho.
The following is the golden and everlasting saying of Basho
Shofu-haikai is the spirit of Manyoshu (the oldest anthology of tanka, thirty-one-syllable poem).'
Therefore it is the way that everybody should appreciate.'
In the Tenmei era in the latter half of the eighteenth century, Buson YOSA tried to make a great 'innovation' by keeping the essence of Shofu but allowing freer use of words and raised a modern sense, in other words, excitement towards nature and daily life grounded in reality.
However, in the Meiji period in the beginning of twentieth century, led by Shiki MASAOKA, Seisei MATSUSE, Hekigoto KAWAHIGASHI, Meisetsu NAITO, and Kyoshi TAKAHAMA organized an association, New Hototogisu (name of magazine) based on "Japan" (a newspaper) and targeted to overthrow Shofu. Consequently haiku in the later ages cannot necessarily be said to have succeeded Shofu.