Mukai Kyorai (向井去来)

Kyorai MUKAI (1651 - October 8, 1704) was a haiku poet in the early part of the Edo period. He was one of the ten representative pupils under Basho MATSUO. He was born in the Hizen Province (present Kozen Town, Nagasaki City). After served the Tosho family (the hereditary lineage of Court nobles occupying relatively high ranks), he lived in the Rakushisha (Kyorai's hermitage named after the persimmons in the garden fell in a typhoon) in Sagano in Kyoto where Basho MATSUO wrote "Saga nikki" (Saga diary). Together with Boncho NOZAWA, he compiled 'Sarumino,' a collection of representative haiku in the Basho school.
He was nicknamed 'haikai bugyo (magistrate) in 33 provinces in Saigoku (western part of Japan).'

Works

Kyoraisho

Important Haiku

Mizuumi no Mizu Masarikeri Satsukiame (Lake Biwa rose like that after a spell of early summer rain).

[Original Japanese]