Ozaki Hōsai — 'Even When I Cough, Alone' — The Still Free-Verse Poet

Born to a Tottori Samurai Family (1885-1905)

Ozaki Hōsai (1885-1926), given name Hideo, was born on January 20, 1885, in Yoshigata, Ōmi District, Tottori Prefecture (present-day Yoshigata, Tottori City). His father Shinzō was a Tottori Prefecture official. The Ozaki family were former domain retainers; in the Meiji period, they were a middle-class provincial name.

Hōsai was early known as a talent, graduating from Tottori First Middle School (now Tottori Nishi High) with excellent marks. In 1902, at 17, he went to Tokyo and entered First Higher School (Ichikō) — the preparatory institution for Tokyo Imperial University Law, and the pinnacle of Japan’s elite-education system at the time.

While at Ichikō, Hōsai met Ogiwara Seisensui (one year his junior) and began composing haiku. At this stage they were fixed-form 5-7-5 verses.

Tokyo Imperial University and the Life Insurance Company (1905-1913)

In 1905, after Ichikō, Hōsai entered Tokyo Imperial University Law. Graduating in 1909, he joined Tōyō Life Insurance (a predecessor of today’s Asahi Life). He climbed to branch chief in Osaka and Kyoto — the peak of his elite career, in his late 20s and around 30. In 1911 he also married. His wife Kaoru; they had no children, but the outer life was smooth sailing.

But inside, something was already breaking. Hōsai increasingly drank. At company entertainment gatherings, he got extremely drunk and started fights. On top of that, a deep alienation from the very life of a first-class company employee gradually appeared in his diaries and haiku.

Transfer to Manchuria and Loss of Position (1923-1924)

In 1923, at 38, Hōsai transferred to Dalian branch chief in Manchuria. But in Dalian he drank even more heavily, made management mistakes, and clashed repeatedly with local staff.

In early 1924, Hōsai left Tōyō Life. Effectively dismissed. He was 39, separated from his wife, having lost most of his savings, and returned to Japan with nothing.

Ordination and Movement Between Temples (1924-1926)

In August 1924, Hōsai entered the Chion-in sub-temple Jōshō-in in Kyoto and took Buddhist orders. Four months before Santōka’s ordination in December 1924. Ordained in the Pure Land line, not Sōtō Zen.

From here on, Hōsai tried to settle at a single temple, but at each one he couldn’t last. In under two years:

• Jōshō-in (Kyoto, Aug-Nov 1924)
• Ittōen (Kyoto Yamashina, Nishida Tenkō’s religious community, autumn 1924)
• Chion-in Sanki-an sub-temple (Jan-May 1925)
• Suma-dera Daishi-dō (Hyōgo, Jun-Aug 1925)
• Obama Jōkō-ji (Fukui, Aug-Sep 1925)
• Fukui Ishiyama Kannon-dō (Sep 1925)
• Shōdoshima Saikō-ji Nangō-an (Kagawa, Oct 1925-Apr 1926)

Where Santōka is “moving” free-verse (keeps walking), Hōsai is “still” free-verse (tries to stay put). But in Hōsai’s case, physical and mental exhaustion, plus illness (tuberculosis), forced brief stays only.

Shōdoshima Nangō-an — The Final Six Months (1925-1926)

In October 1925, at 40, Hōsai went to Saikō-ji on Shōdoshima (Kagawa Prefecture) through Seisensui’s introduction. Within Saikō-ji’s grounds, Nangō-an — a three-tatami-mat crude hut — became his final home.

At Shōdoshima he already had severe tuberculosis. Small remittances from Seisensui and fellow poets, and the kindness of the islanders, sustained him. But nearly all his time was alone, in a three-mat room.

In these six months, Hōsai composed almost all of his best-known verses. Sickness, solitude, and a life reduced to the extreme purified his language to the limit.

Hōsai’s Masterworks

“Seki wo shitemo hitori” — Coughing, Alone (1925-1926)

• Seki wo shitemo — Even when I cough
• Hitori — Alone

3-3 = 6 morae. The shortest of the free-verse haiku classics. A sick body coughs, but no one is there to worry. In just six morae, ultimate solitude engraved.

“Just 6 morae, yet weight and content more than 17.” This is Hōsai’s peak. Abandoning the 5-7-5 mold, only content remains, purified. To do this required a life stripped of nearly all daily elements.

“Iremono ga nai / ryōte de ukeru” — No Container; I Receive in Both Hands (1926)

• Iremono ga nai — no vessel
• Ryōte de ukeru — I receive with both hands

6-6 = 12 morae. The islanders bring food and alms, but there is no bowl to receive them. So he holds out both hands.

The description of “no container” (poverty) and the posture of “receiving in both hands” (acceptance) sit together not as grief but as quiet affirmation. Another Hōsai masterpiece.

“Iremono ga nai ryōte de ukeru” (Alternate form)

Same content, different notation. Modern textbooks tend toward “iremono ga nai ryōte de ukeru.”

“Haru no yama no ushiro kara kemuri ga dedashita” — Smoke from Behind the Spring Mountain (1926)

• Haru no yama no ushiro kara — from behind the spring mountain
• Kemuri ga dedashita — smoke has started to rise

9-6 = 15 morae. An islander is burning something behind the mountain. The gentle scene of early spring, sketched flat and factual, no excess sentiment. An exemplar of Hōsai’s still shasei.

“Shōji shimekitte / samishisa wo mitasu” — Closing the Shōji, Filling the Loneliness (1926)

• Shōji shimekitte — closing the shōji screens tight
• Samishisa wo mitasu — I fill (complete) the loneliness

7-8 = 15 morae. Closing the shōji cuts off the outer world, and in that closed space, “loneliness is filled” — that is, loneliness is completed. Paradoxical.

Not “flee loneliness” but “complete it” — a way of thinking that sets Hōsai apart from his contemporaries.

“Tsukuzuku samishii wa ga kage yo / ugokashite miru” — My Lonely Shadow, I Try Moving It (1926)

• Tsukuzuku samishii — utterly lonely
• Wa ga kage yo — my shadow
• Ugokashite miru — I try moving (myself)

6-5-6 = 17 morae — by chance the same syllable count as fixed haiku. Alone, when loneliness has cooked down, he stares at his own shadow. He tries moving it. In the fact that he can move it, a small comfort. Extreme interiority.

Death at 41 (1926)

On April 7, 1926, Hōsai died at Nangō-an at 41. Cause: pulmonary tuberculosis. Islanders and haiku friends attended.

A verse composed shortly before death: “Haka no ura ni mawaru” — “I turn to the back of the grave.”

After his death, Seisensui collected Hōsai’s verses and published Ōzora (“Great Sky”) in May 1926 — a single volume that has since served as the main record of Hōsai for later generations.

Contrast with Santōka

The two contemporaries (born 1880s, ordained 1920s, Seisensui disciples, free-verse haiku) are often paired as twin pillars:

Item	Santōka	Hōsai
Origin	Hōfu, Yamaguchi (sake brewery)	Tottori (samurai family)
Education	Waseda dropout	Tokyo Imperial Univ. Law
Prior career	Sake brewery/unemployed	Life insurance executive
Ordained	Dec 1924 (Sōtō Zen)	Aug 1924 (Pure Land)
Type	Moving free-verse (keeps walking)	Still free-verse (stays put)
Best-known verse	“Wading in, wading in, blue mountains”	“Coughing, alone”
Life span	58, 80,000 ri of travel	41, 6 months at Nangō-an

Santōka = motion, Hōsai = stillness — this pairing, extending free-verse haiku from two directions, is firmly established in modern haiku history. Against Santōka’s spectacular wandering, Hōsai’s quiet consumption has a different, heavier awe.

Hōsai’s Reassessment

Hōsai’s fame in life was extremely limited; only a few haiku friends knew him. But from the 1970s onward, the reassessment has been dramatic:

• In textbooks: “Coughing, alone” appears frequently in middle and high school Japanese textbooks
• NHK documentaries: “Hōsai — Solitude on Shōdoshima” (1972, 1998, 2015, and more) have been broadcast repeatedly
• Shōdoshima tourism: Nangō-an is preserved and visited annually by many haiku enthusiasts
• Influence on modern colloquial haiku — modern tanka poets like Hōmura Hiroshi also share something with Hōsai’s six-mora solitude

Today, when Japanese hear “free-verse haiku,” Santōka’s “wading in” and Hōsai’s “coughing, alone” come to mind together as twin pillars. The words Hōsai composed at 41, in six months at Nangō-an, live on 100 years later.

Toward the Next Article

Santōka (died 1940) and Hōsai (died 1926) were not the mainstream of early-20th-century haiku. The mainstream was Kyoshi’s Hototogisu and the New Trend haiku that split from it. In the next article, we trace Mizuhara Shūōshi — who left Kyoshi’s school and founded Ashibi in 1931 — and Yamaguchi Seishi, the New Trend haiku movement. This lineage received the wartime suppression in the Kyoto University Haiku Incident (1940).