Kagami Shikō

Kagami Shikō, often known by the mononym Shikō, was a Japanese haiku poet of the early Edo period, known as one of Matsuo Bashō's Ten Eminent Disciples and the originator of the Shishimon school of poetry. As of 2024, his school of poetry has remained active to the present day, having had its 41st consecutive master at its head since 2006.

Biography

Shikō was born in Nishiyama, Kitano Village, Yamagata district, Mino Province. He lost his father at a young age and entered the to train as a Zen Buddhist monk. Around the age of 19, however, he left the temple and returned to secular life, living in Kyōto and Iseyama. He was adopted by the Kagami family, into which his second eldest sister had married, and took their name.
Shikō met Matsuo Bashō in Ōmi in April 1690, at the age of 26, and became his disciple. Consequently, he accompanied Bashō to Edo the following year. In 1692, he travelled to Mutsu Province and published his first treatise on haiku, Kuzu no matsubara. In 1694, he accompanied Bashō on his journey from Iga Province to Osaka. When Bashō came down with a stomach illness, Shikō was present at his deathbed and wrote Bashō's will.
Following his teacher's death, Shikō frequently toured around Iga, Ise, Ōmi, Edo, and elsewhere in the country, holding memorial performances in his teacher's memory. During this time, he also collected Bashō's poems and writings into the Oi nikki.
In 1711, wishing to hear his own posthumous reputation, he feigned his own death. Thereafter, he posed as his own disciple, publishing under pseudonyms like Renjibō and Watanabe no Kyō, and established himself at a hermitage in Yamada, Ise Province. By the time that he published the Ise shin hyakuin, his poetic style had become firmly established. Shikō was very active during this period: he travelled far, visiting Kyūshū, Chūgoku, Shikoku, and Hokuriku; published many haiku collections and treatises; and took on many disciples.
After 1724, he returned to his hometown in Mino, where he lived at the Shishi-an hermitage. During these final years of his life, he named Rogenbō Rikō as the successor of his school of poetry, which came to be known as the Mino School, after his home province, or Shishimon. Shikō died at Shishi-an in 1731, at the age of 67, having continued to write right up to his death. He was buried in the tomb he had built himself at Daichi-ji Temple. Subsequently, Rogenbō published a memorial anthology of Kagami's writings titled Bunseikan.
The Shishi-an hermitage where Shikō spent his final years is designated a historic site by Gifu Prefecture.