Ki no Kaion (紀海音)
KI no Kaion (1663 - October 31, 1742) was joruri (dramatic narrative chanted to a shamisen accompaniment) author, kyokashi (a person who makes and teaches a comic tanka), and haiku poet who lived during the middle of the Edo period. His real name was Zenemon ENAMI. He was born in Osaka. His father was Zenemon TAIYA, a merchant of confectionery in Midomae, Osaka Prefecture (with the haiku pen name of Teiin), and his older brother was kyokashi named Yuensaiteiryu.
When he was young, he studied under Etsuzan at Manpuku-ji Temple, Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture and became a monk; he gave himself the name Takafushi. Later he quit the priesthood and went to Osaka and studied waka (Japanese poetry) under Keichu (a scholar of Japanese classics), haikai (seventeen-syllable verse) under Teishitsu YASUHARA, and kyoka under his older brother. From around 1707 until 1723, he was active as joruri author at Toyotake-za Theater in Osaka and was a rival of Monzaemon CHIKAMATSU of the Takemoto-za Theater, but he devoted to haikai and kyoka since then. In 1736, he was ordained to hokkyo (the third highest rank for Buddhist priests).