Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959) was born in Matsuyama into a family with a deep-rooted taste for literature. He studied at university in Tokyo, where he met Masaoka Shiki, a haiku innovator who would become his teacher and mentor. In 1895, he definitively abandoned his studies to devote himself to poetry. In 1998, he became editor of the celebrated magazine Hototogisu and, in 1902, after Shiki's death, he assumed leadership of the group, advocating to remain faithful to classical haiku and attracting brilliant new poets.

Kyoshi's literary output is not limited to poetry alone, as he also cultivated the novel, short stories, and Nō theater. His undoubted quality as a writer added to his important work as a haiku critic and promoter of new talents earned him numerous recognitions among which the Order of Culture and the Order of the Sacred Treasure, the latter awarded posthumously after his death occurred in 1959.