Moritake
(1452–1540)

Moritake was a priest as well as one of the leading Japanese poets of the 16th century. He was a distinguished renga poet who originated witty and humorous verses he called haikai, which later became synonymous with haiku. Renga is a poem often composed by several different poets who alternate between adding verses of 17 and 14 syllables, until they complete a poem generally composed of about 100 verses. Poet Ezra Pound translated Moritake's haiku, "A falling blossom / Returns to Branch: / A butterfly" into English, and that poem is said to have had a great influence on the Imagist movement of poetry.

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