List of Japanese-language poets

The following is a list of Japanese-language poets.

Poets are listed alphabetically by surname (or by a widely known name, such as a pen name, with multiple names for the same poet listed separately if both are notable). Small groups of poets and articles on families of poets are listed separately, below, as are haiku masters (also in the main list). Years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article.

A

• 770) scholar, administrator, and waka poet in the Nara period
• Aizu Yaichi 会津 八一 (1881–1956), poet, calligrapher and historian
• Kaijin Akashi 明石 海人 (1901-1939), author of poetry inspired by his leprosy
• 1041) waka poet of the mid-Heian period; a member of both the Thirty-six Elder Poetic Sages and Kintō's 36 female poetry immortals (or "sages") of the Kamakura period
• Fuyue Anzai 安西 冬衛 (1898–1965) poet and co-founder of the magazine Shi To Shiron ("Poetry and Poetics")
• Shinto priest; said to have excelled in waka, renga, and in particular haikai
• Shirakaba
  literary circle
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals
• 1301), Kamakura period nobleman and poet; has 86 poems in the official anthology Shokukokin Wakashū

• Matsuo Bashō 松尾 芭蕉 (1644–1694), the most famous Edo-period poet, recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; now more widely recognized as a master of haiku
• Nozawa Bonchō 野沢 凡兆 (c. 1640 – 1714), haikai poet and student of Matsuo Bashō

C

• Chiyo-ni 千代尼, or Kaga no Chiyo, (1703–1775), prominent female haiku poet of the Edo period
• 1375
  ), poet and Zen Buddhist monk of the Rinzai sect who headed many Zen establishments

D

• Hendrik Doeff (1764–1837), the first westerner to write haiku in Japanese

E

• 1342) Kamakura period poet and a consort of the 92nd emperor, Fushimi; she belonged to the Kyōgoku school of verse; has poems in the Gyokuyōshū
  anthology

• Sadakazu Fujii 藤井 貞和 (born 1942), Japanese poet and literary scholar
• Misao Fujimura 藤村操 (1886–1903), philosophy student and poet, largely remembered for the poem he carved into a tree before committing suicide over an unrequited love; sensationalized by Japanese newspapers after his death
• 1123), late Heian-period poet and nobleman, member of the Fujiwara
  poetic and aristocratic clan
• Hyakunin Isshu
  anthology
• Hyakunin Isshu
  anthology
• 790), poet and a nobleman of the Nara period; best known for Kakyō Hyōshiki, the oldest extant piece of Japanese poetic criticism, in which he attempts to apply phonetic rules of Chinese poetry to Japanese poetry; son of Fujiwara no Maro
• Hyakunin Isshu, others in several imperial poetry anthologies, including Kokin Wakashū and Gosen Wakashū
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; has poems in anthologies including the Shūi Wakashū, the Wakan rōeishū, and Shūi Wakashū
• 1158–1237), early Kamakura-period waka poet; has several poems in the Shin Kokin Wakashū anthology; related by marriage to Jakuren; pupil of Fujiwara no Shunzei
  's
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; second son of Fujiwara no Kanesuke; younger brother of Fujiwara no Masatada
• 961), poet with family connections to several other poets: first son of Fujiwara no Kanesuke; grandfather of Murasaki Shikibu ("Lady Murasaki"); older brother of Fujiwara no Kiyotada; married a daughter of Fujiwara no Sadakata; father of Fujiwara no Tametoki; also acquainted with Ki no Tsurayuki
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; has poems in imperial anthologies, including the Shin Kokin Wakashū
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; has poems in several imperial anthologies, including the Chokusen Wakashū
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals"; taught waka to the poet Nōin
• Hyakunin Isshu anthology and several imperial poetry anthologies, including Kokin Wakashū
• Hyakunin Isshu
  anthology
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; has poems in imperial poetry anthologies starting with Gosen Wakashū
• 1198–1275), the central figure in a circle of poets after the Jōkyū War in 1221; second son of poets Teika and Abutuni
• 1029?), poet, minor official and governor of various provinces, scholar of Chinese literature and the father of Murasaki Shikibu
  ("Lady Murasaki")
• Hyakunin Isshu and poems in several imperial poetry anthologies, including Kokin Wakashū and Gosen Wakashū
• Imperial anthology of waka poetry,; father of Fujiwara no Teika; son of Fujiwara no Toshitada
• 1162–1242), a widely venerated late Heian period and early Kamakura period waka poet and (for centuries) extremely influential critic; also a scribe, scholar and widely influential anthologist; the Tale of Matsura is generally attributed to him; son of Fujiwara no Shunzei; associated with Jakuren
• Fumiko Nakajō 中城ふみ子, pen name of Noe Fumiko 野江富美子 (1922–1954), tanka poet who died at age 32 after a turbulent life and struggle with breast cancer, as recorded in her poetry
• Yoshihiko Funazaki 舟崎 克彦 (born 1945), novelist, poet, illustrator, manga writer, songwriter, and academic

G

• Robin D. Gill (1951–), American japanologist who uses the haigō Keigu (敬愚)
• 1180–1239
  )
• Fujiwara no Motofusa

• Hagiwara Hiromichi 萩原広道 (1815–1863), late-Edo period scholar of literature, philology, and nativist studies (Kokugaku) as well as an author, translator, and poet; known for his commentary and literary analysis of The Tale of Genji
• Shōwa period
  literary critic and free-verse poet called the "father of modern colloquial poetry in Japan"
• Hanabusa Itchō 英一蝶 (1652–1724), painter, calligrapher, and haiku poet
• Fumiko Hayashi 林 芙美子 (1903 or 1904 (sources disagree) – 1951), female novelist, writer and poet
• Lafcadio Hearn also known as Koizumi Yakumo 小泉八雲 (1850 – 1904)
• Horiguchi Daigaku and Saijo Yaso
  , of Shijin ("Poets") magazine
• Meiji period novelist, poet, and lawyer; represented defendant in the High Treason Incident
  ; a co-founder of the literary journal Subaru
• Taisho era avant-garde
  poet
• 710), late Asuka period poet, nobleman and government official; the most prominent poet in the Man'yōshū
  anthology
• Shōwa period
  writer, poet and translator
• Shōwa period poet and translator of French literature; a member of the Shinshisha
  ("The New Poetry Society"); accompanied his father on overseas diplomatic postings
• Asahi Shimbun
  newspaper; contributed to haiku columns in various newspapers and magazines
• Yagyu Shinkage-ryu
  martial-arts school
• Incident at Honnō-ji, he took the Buddhist tonsure and changed his name to "Yūsai"; but he remained an active force in politics, under Shōguns Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu

• Takahama Kyoshi
• Ikezawa Natsuki 池澤夏樹 (born 1945), novelist, essayist, translator and poet who stopped publishing poetry in 1982
• Rinzai Zen Buddhist priest, poet and sometime mendicant flute player who influenced Japanese art and literature with an infusion of Zen attitudes and ideals; one of the creators of the formal Japanese tea ceremony; well-known to Japanese children through various stories and the subject of a popular Japanese children's television program; made a character in anime
  fiction
• Shōwa period journalist and writer of senryū
  (short, humorous verse)
• 938), waka poet and noblewoman in the Imperial court; granddaughter of waka poet Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu; born the Fujiwara no Tsugikage of Ise; lover of the Prince Atsuyoshi; a concubine to Emperor Uda; her son by him was Prince Yuki-Akari; has many poems in the Kokin Wakashū
  anthology
• Ishigaki Rin 石垣りん (1920–2004), poet, employee of the Industrial Bank of Japan, sometimes called "the bank teller poet"
• Shōwa period
  modernist author, translator and literary critic
• Ishikawa Takuboku
  see Takuboku Ishikawa
• Shōwa period haiku
  poet and novelist
• Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 (1763–1828), poet and Buddhist priest known for his haiku and haibun; widely regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki
• Meiji period
  tanka poet and novelist
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; known for a sequence of affairs at the court in the capital; close friend of Akazome Emon, rival of Lady Murasaki, and mother of poet Koshikibu no Naishi; poetry praised by Fujiwara no Kintō

• Hyakunin Isshu
  anthology
• Rinzai Zen master, poet, flute player, and first abbot of Eigen-ji
  , which was constructed solely for him to teach Zen
• 1155–1225
  ) poet, historian, and Buddhist monk
• Shōwa-period
  novelist, translator, literary critic, poet and playwright
• 703; 702 in the lunisolar calendar
  used in Japan until 1873), 41st imperial ruler, fourth empress and a poet

• philologist and teacher as well as poetry tutor to one of the sons of Emperor Reigen; together with Keichū, co-founder of the kokugaku
  ("national studies") intellectual movement
• Kaga no Chiyo see Chiyo-ni
• Shōwa-period
  poet and novelist
• 1155–1216), author, waka
  poet and essayist
• philologist
• Kamo no Yasunori no musume (late 10th century), daughter of Kamo no Yasunori, personal name unknown; Heian-period poet
• Lady Kasa 笠女郎 (fl. early 8th century) waka poet
• Shōwa-period tanka
  poet and entrepreneur
• Shōwa-period
  poet and literary critic
• Shōwa-period
  female novelist, short-story writer and poet
• 996), one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; one of the four compilers of the Kokin Wakashū
  anthology
• Tosa province (930–935) and later possibly governor of Suō Province
• Takarai Kikaku 宝井其角, also known as "Enomoto Kikaku" (1661–1707), haikai poet and disciple of Matsuo Bashō
• Kyōsuke Kindaichi 金田一 京助 (1882–1971), linguist and poet; his son is linguist Haruhiko Kindaichi
• Taishō-period
  tanka poet
• Kisen 喜撰 also known as "Kisen Hōshi" 喜撰法師 (fl. early 9th century), early Heian-period Buddhist monk and poet
• 985), middle Heian period Waka
  poet
• Shōwa-period
  poet and children's fiction writer
• Fuyuhiko Kitagawa 北川冬彦 (1900–1990), modernist poet and film critic
• Shōwa-period tanka
  poet
• Meiji-period poet, essayist and a founder of the modern Japanese romantic literary movement
• Takeshi Kitano 北野 武 (born 1947), filmmaker, film editor, screenwriter, comedian, actor, author, poet and painter
• 990), one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber
• Kobayashi Issa see Issa
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals
  ; has many poems in imperial poetry anthologies
• Yakumo Koizumi 小泉八雲 see Lafcadio Hearn
• Mantarō Kubota 久保田万太郎 (1889–1963), author, playwright and poet
• Shingon
  or "True Word" school of Buddhism, followers of that school usually refer to him by the honorific title "Odaishisama" お大師様
• pen-name
  of Santei)
• Meiji-period romantic poet and one of the novelists who pioneered naturalism
  in Japan
• Sadako Kurihara 栗原貞子 (1913–2005), poet who survived the Hiroshima nuclear holocaust there and became known for her poems about her city
• Shōwa-period poet; close disciple of Masaoka Shiki

• Manko 万乎| (birth year unknown – 1724) middle Edo period poet and wealthy merchant; apprentice of Matsuo Bashō
• 720), Buddhist priest and poet; a member of Ōtomo no Tabito's literary circle; has poems in the Man'yōshū
  anthology
• Kaoru Maruyama 丸山 薫 (1899–1974)
• Masamune Atsuo 正宗敦夫 (1881–1958), poet and academic
• Masaoka Shiki see Shiki
• Meiji period
• Meiji period aristocrat and skilled waka poet who instructed Matsudaira Katamori
  in poetry and calligraphy
• Kawabata Bosha
  ; founded a literary magazine, Fue ("Flute") in 1946
• Matsuo Bashō see Bashō
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; son of poet Mibu no Tadamine
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; father of Mibu no Tadami
• Michio Mado (1909–2014), poet who worked for the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan
• Shōwa period
  poet and novelist in the Han ("Inundation") poetry circle
• Shōwa period
  poet, novelist, literary critic and essayist
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals, along with his son Minamoto no Saneakira; an official in the imperial treasury; has poems in imperial poetry anthologies, starting with the Goshūi Wakashū
• Hyakunin Isshu
  anthology
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; his poems are in imperial poetry anthologies from the Goshūi Wakashū
  onward
• Hyakunin Isshu
  anthology
• Taketori Monogatari; original compiler of the Wamyō Ruijushō
  , the first extant Japanese dictionary organized into semantic headings
• 1129) poet who compiled the Gosen Wakashū anthology; passed over to compile the Goshūi Wakashū, Shunrai's angry polemical, "Errors in the Goshūishū", apparently led Emperor Shirakawa to appoint him to compile the Kin'yō Wakashū
  imperial anthology, which was itself controversial
• Minamoto Toshiyori, see Minamoto no Shunrai
• 1180
  ) poet, government official and warrior; his poems appeared in various anthologies
• Yukio Mishima 三島 由紀夫. pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka 平岡 公威 (1925–1970), author, poet and playwright
• Shōwa period
  poet and author of children's literature
• Shōwa period
  literary critic, editor and poet
• Mizuta Masahide 17th century, Edo period poet and samurai who studied under Basho
• Mori Ōgai 森 鷗外 / 森 鴎外 (1862–1922) physician, translator, novelist and poet
• Motoori Norinaga 本居宣長 (1730–1801) Edo-period scholar of Kokugaku, physician and poet
• Emperor Godaigo) and poet of the Nijō poetic school who is known for his compilation of the Shin'yō Wakashū
  poetry anthology
• 1025), Heian-period novelist who wrote The Tale of Genji, poet, and a maid of honor of the imperial court
• Shōwa-period
  novelist, playwright, poet, artist and philosopher

• Shōwa-period novelist, short-story writer, haiku
  poet, editor and journalist
• Shōwa-period
  poet, playwright and screenwriter
• Shōwa-period
  poet, playwright and screenwriter
• Takashi Nagatsuka 長塚 節 (1879–1915), poet and novelist
• Naitō Jōsō (1662–1704), Genroku-era haiku poet, a principal disciple of Bashō
• Fujiwara no Nakafumi family name: Fujiwara, see "F" section
• Shōwa-period
  poet
• 991), middle Heian-period Waka
  poet
• Nanao Sakaki (1923–2008), poet and leading personality of "the Tribe", a counter-cultural group
• Meiji-era
  novelist, haiku poet, composer of Chinese-style poetry, writer of fairy tales and a scholar of English literature; from 1984–2004, his portrait was on the 1000 yen note
• Shōwa-period
  poet and literary critic
• Nishiyama Sōin see Sōin
• Yone Noguchi 野口米次郎 (1875–1947), poet, fiction writer, essayist, and literary critic in both English and Japanese; father of the sculptor Isamu Noguchi
• Nozawa Bonchō see Bonchō
• 690), Asuka-period
  poet
• Thirty-six Medieval Poetry Immortals
  "

• Shōwa periods
• Shōwa periods; mother of artist Tarō Okamoto
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals
• Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu, 大中臣能宣 (921–991) one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals
  ; noted as a rare beauty and became a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan
• tanka
  poet and calligrapher
• Makoto Ōoka 大岡信 (1931–2017), poet and literary critic
• Shinobu Orikuchi 折口 信夫, also known as Chōkū Shaku 釋 迢空 (1887–1953), ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist and poet; a disciple of Kunio Yanagita, he established an academic field named "Orikuchiism" (折口学, Orikuchigaku), a mix of Japanese folklore, Japanese classics, and Shintō religion
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals
• 1486), also known as "Ōta Sukenaga" (太田資長 or "Ōta Dōkan Sukenaga"^[1]
  samurai warrior-poet, military tactician and Buddhist monk; said to have been a skilled poet, but only fragments attributed to him have survived
• Ōta Nanpo 大田南畝, the most oft-used penname of Ōta Tan, whose other pen names include Yomo no Akara, Yomo Sanjin, Kyōkaen, and Shokusanjin 蜀山人 (1749–1823), late Edo period Japanese poet and fiction writer
• Shōwa period
  poet and literary scholar
• Buddhist
  nun, widely regarded to have been one of the greatest Japanese poets of the 19th century; potter, painter and expert calligrapher
• Ōtomo no Kuronushi 大友黒主, poet, one of the Rokkasen, the "Six Poetic Geniuses"; considered one of the greatest masters of waka poetry
• 750), early Nara period female poet; member of the prestigious Ōtomo clan; has 79 poems in the Man'yōshū
  anthology
• Kyūshū
  , from 728-730
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals; member of the prestigious Ōtomo clan; son of Ōtomo no Tabito, older brother of Ōtomo no Kakimochi, nephew of Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume
• Taishō period
  poet
• Shōwa period
  poet
• Ozaki Kōyō 尾崎 紅葉, pen name of Ozaki Tokutaro 尾崎 徳太郎 (1868–1903), novelist, essayist and haiku poet

R

• Ryōkan 良寛 (1758–1831), waka poet and calligrapher, Buddhist monk, hermit

S

• 1190), late Heian and early Kamakura period waka poet who worked as a guard to retired Emperor Toba
  , then became a Buddhist monk at age 22
• Kita Morio
• Sakae Tsuboi 壺井栄 (1899–1967), novelist and poet
• Hyakunin Isshu
  anthology
• Sakanoue no Mochiki, 坂上望城, (dates unknown) one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber
• Santō Kyōden 山東京伝, pen name of Samuru Iwase 岩瀬醒, also known popularly as "Kyōya Denzō" 京屋伝蔵 (1761–1816), Edo period poet, writer and artist; brother of Santō Kyōzan
• Taneda Santōka 種田 山頭火 pen name of Taneda Shōichi 種田 正一 (1882–1940), author and free-verse haiku
  poet
• Yamashiro no Ōe
• Mikirō Sasaki 佐々木幹郎, also known as "Mikio Sasaki", (born 1947), poet and travel writer
• Shōwa period tanka poet and scholar of the Nara and Heian periods
• Satomura Shōkyū 里村昌休 (1510–1552), leading master of the linked verse renga after the death of Tani Sobuko in 1545
• 1017), middle Heian period author, poet and court lady who served Empress Teishi/Empress Sadako; best known as the author of The Pillow Book
• Ninmyō Tennō
• Shōwa period
  poet
• Rinzai
  sect who founded temples
• Shōwa period tanka
  poet
• Masaoka Shiki 正岡 子規, pen name of Masaoka Tsunenori 正岡 常規, who changed his name to Noboru 升 (1867–1902), author, poet, literary critic, journalist and, early in his life, a baseball player
• Kamo Shrine in Kyoto in 1159, later left the shrine, in later years a Buddhist nun; has 49 poems in the Shin Kokin Shū
  anthology
• Heisei period
  novelist and poet
• Shirome (fl. 10th century), minor female waka poet and common prostitute
• Shizue Iwatsuki (1897–1984), who began writing in tanka, a traditional genre of Japanese poetry, and who immigrated to the United States
• Princess Shikishi; her grandfather was the poet Fujiwara no Shunzei
• 1459), considered by some the last great poet in the courtly waka tradition; his disciples were important in the development of renga, which led to haiku
• Zen monk who studied waka and renga
  poetry, then became a professional renga poet in his thirties
• Danrin
  school of haikai poetry
• Sion Sono 園 子温 (born 1961), controversial avant-garde poet and filmmaker
• Sonome 斯波 園女 (1664–1726), female poet, friend and noted correspondent of Matsuo Bashō
• Heian Period scholar, poet and politician; grandson of Sugawara no Kiyotomo; also wrote Chinese poetry

• Tachibana Akemi, 橘曙覧 (1812–1868), poet and classical scholar
• Tachihara Michizō 立原道造 (1914–1939
  ), poet and architect
• Hyakunin Isshu anthology; father of poet Akazome Emon
• Kyoshi Takahama see Kyoshi
• Shōwa period
  poet
• Dadaism in Japan.According to Makoto Ueda, he is also the only major Zen poet of modern Japanese literature
  .
• Shōwa period
  novelist and poet
• Kōun Takamura
• Chieko Takamura (1886–1938)
• Takarai Kikaku see Kikaku
• Takamure Itsue 高群逸枝 (1894–1964), poet, writer, feminist, anarchist, ethnologist and historian
• Tsugi Takano 鷹野 つぎ (1890–1943), female novelist and poet
• Takuboku Ishikawa 石川 啄木 (1886–1912), tanka and free-verse poet
• Shōwa period
  poet, essayist and translator of English-language novels and poetry
• Shōwa period
  poet
• Taneda Santōka see
  Santōka
• Tani Soyo 谷宗養 (1526–1563), renga poet; a rival of Satomura Joha; son of Tani Sobuko
• Shuntarō Tanikawa 谷川 俊太郎 (born 1931), poet and translator
• Tatsunojō, pen name of Yokoi Yayū
• Machi Tawara 俵万智 (born 1962), writer, translator and poet
• Shūji Terayama 寺山 修司 (1935–1983), avant-garde poet, playwright, writer, film director and photographer
• 1372
  ), poet and Buddhist monk
• Shigeji Tsuboi 壺井繁治 (1897–1975)
• Jun Tsuji 辻 潤 (1884–1944), author, poet, essayist, musician and bohemian

U

• Ueda Akinari, 上田 秋成, also known as "Ueda Shūsei" (1734–1809), author, scholar and waka poet

W

• Bokusui Wakayama, 若山 牧水 (1885–1928), Japanese "Naturalist" tanka poet

Y

• Yagi Jūkichi 八木重吉 (1898–1927
  )
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals
• Bochō Yamamura 山村 暮鳥 (1884–1924), vagabond Christian preacher who gained attention as a writer of tales and songs for children and as a poet
• 733), best known for his poems of children and commoners; has poems in the Man'yōshū
  anthology
• American poet Gary Snyder
• 1465–1553), renga and haikai poet, court calligrapher for Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshihisa
  ; became a secluded Buddhist monk following the shōgun's death in 1489
• Shōwa period tanka
  poet
• Rie Yasumi やすみ りえ pen name of Reiko Yasumi 休 理英子 (born 1972), senryū poet
• Shōwa period
  poet and children's book author
• Yokoi Yayū 横井 也有, born Yokoi Tokitsura (横井 時般) and took the pseudonym Tatsunojō (1702–1783), samurai, scholar of Kokugaku, and a haikai poet (family name: Yokoi)
• Yosa Buson see Buson
• Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 (1716–1783), Edo-period poet and painter; along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, considered among the greatest poets of the Edo period and one of the greatest haiku poets of all time
• Shōwa period
  poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist and social reformer; one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets of Japan
• Shōwa period author and poet ; husband of author Yosano Akiko.; grandfather of cabinet minister and politician Kaoru Yosano
• Shōwa period tanka
  poet and playwright
• Takaaki Yoshimoto 吉本隆明, also known as "Ryūmei Yoshimoto" (born 1924), poet, literary critic, and philosopher; father of the writer Banana Yoshimoto and cartoonist Haruno Yoiko
• Shōwa period tanka
  poet

• Danrin school
• Five Men of the Pear Chamber
• Nijō poetic school
• Rokujō family
• Six best Waka poets
• Thirty-six Poetry Immortals

Haiku masters

• Matsuo Bashō
• Yosa Buson
• Fukuda Chiyo-ni
• Kobayashi Issa
• Masaoka Shiki

See also

• Haiku
• Japanese poetry
• Kanshi (poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets)
• List of Japanese poetry anthologies
• Waka including tanka
• Timeline Infographic of Japanese Language Poets

Notes