Kurita Chodo

• Birth: 1749
• Death: 1814/8/21
• Other Names: 後藤政範 (birth name: Gotou Masanori), 蘭芝, 二畳庵, 息隠 (poetry names: Ranshi, Nijouan, Sokuin)
• Japanese: 栗田樗堂 (Kurita Chodou)

Kurita Chodô was a haikai poet of the late 18th and early 19th century; he was considered one of the seven great haikai poets (the shichi-haijin) of his time.

Kurita was born into a saké brewers' family in Matsuyama (Iyo province), where as an adult he served as a local town elder (machikata ô-toshiyori). He studied under Katô Kyôtai, and had close interactions with Kobayashi Issa and Inoue Shirô. For example, he is known to have engaged in poetry recital alongside Kobayashi Issa on an occasion in 1795, at Matsuyama's famous Dôgo Onsen.

Kurita is buried at Manshû-ji in the Inland Sea port town of Mitarai (today, part of Kure City, Hiroshima prefecture). A wooden plaque, or hengaku, which still hangs in the temple's main hall (hondô) was created by Kurita as a copy of a work of calligraphy, also still today in the temple's collection, by Ryukyuan envoy Ryô Kôchi.

References

• "Kurita Chodô," Nihon jinmei daijiten 日本人名大辞典, Kodansha, 2009.