SOURCE: "Santoka," in A History of Haiku, Vol. II , The Hokuseido Press, 1971, pp.173-88.

In the following essay, which was originally published in 1964, Blyth studies Santoka's haiku poems, especially as they signify the poet's acceptance of more melancholy aspects of life.

To give a modern poet a whole chapter to himself, albeit a short one, may seem strange, but Santoka belongs to the small group of beggar-like haiku poets; Rotsu is another example, and Basho and Issa are not dissimilar. Santoka, was born in 1882 of a landowner in Yamaguchi Prefecture. After retiring from Waseda University on account of a nervous breakdown in 1904, he married, set up a brewery with his father, whose business had failed, and together with him went bankrupt in 1916. He had begun to write haiku already in 1911, under Seisensui. He separated from his wife in 1920, and tried various jobs, but did not continue in them...