was the pen-name of , a Japanese author and haiku poet. He is known for his free verse haikuâÂÂa style which does not conform to the formal rules of traditional haiku.
Santà Âka was born in a village located in Yamaguchi prefecture, to a wealthy land-owning family. When he was eleven his mother committed suicide by throwing herself into the family well. Though the exact reason for her action is unknown, according to Santà Âka's diaries his mother had finally reached the point where she could no longer live with her husband's philandering. Following the incident, Santà Âka was raised by his grandmother.
In 1902, he entered Waseda University in Tokyo as a student of literature. While there, he began drinking heavily, and in 1904, at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, he dropped out of school. The documented reason was "nervous breakdown", which some believe to be a euphemism for frequent and severe drunkenness. By that time his father Takejirà  was in such dire financial straits that he could barely afford to pay his son's tuition.
In 1906, Taneda father and son sold off family land in order to open a sake brewery. In 1909 his father arranged for Santà Âka to marry Sato Sakino, a girl from a neighboring village. In his diaries, Santà Âka confesses that the sight of his mother's corpse being raised from her watery grave had forever tarnished his relationship with women. In 1910 Sakino gave birth to a son, Ken.
In 1911, Santà Âka began publishing translations of Ivan Turgenev and Guy de Maupassant in the literary journal under the pen name Santà Âka (å±±é Âç«). The name is originally one of the list of ' (ç´Âé³), i.e., labels given to a person's year of birth according to the Chinese sexegenary cycle, which are used for divination. However, the natchin Santà Âka is unrelated to the actual year in which the poet was born.
The word Santà Âka can be understood in at least two different ways. The literal meaning is "Mountain-top Fire". However, it can also mean "Cremation-ground Fire", since "mountain-top" is a metaphor for cremation grounds in Japanese. It has been speculated that this choice of name could be related to the traumatic experience of the suicide of Santà Âka's mother.
That same year, 1911, Santà Âka joined his area's local haiku group. At that time, his haiku mostly adhered to the traditional syllabic format, though some were hypersyllabic, for example:
In 1913, Santà Âka was accepted as a disciple by the leading haiku reformist Ogiwara Seisensui. Seisensui (1884âÂÂ1976) could be regarded as the originator of the free-form haiku movement, though fellow writers Masaoka Shiki and Kawahigashi Hekigoto also deserve recognition. Writers following the early-twentieth century movement known as free-form or free-style haiku (shinkeikà  æ°å¾åÂÂ, lit. 'new trend') composed haiku lacking both the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic rule and the requisite seasonal word (kigo).
Santà Âka began regularly contributing poetry to Seisensui's haiku magazine Sà Âun (層é², Layered Clouds). By 1916 he became an editor.
That same year, however, was marked by the bankruptcy of his father's sake brewery after two years of spoiled stock. The family lost all that remained of their once great fortune. His father fled into hiding and Santà Âka moved his family to Kumamoto City on the southern island of Kyà «shà «, where plans to open a second-hand bookstore soon materialized into the opening of a picture frame shop. Two years later, plagued by debt, Santà Âka's younger brother Jirà  committed suicide. Then Santà Âka's grandmother died. In 1919, at the age of thirty-seven, Santà Âka left his family in order to find a job in Tokyo. In 1920, following her parents' wishes, Santà Âka divorced his wife. His father died soon after.
As an exponent of free style haiku, Santà Âka is often ranked alongside Ozaki Hà Âsai (1885âÂÂ1926), a fellow student of Seisensui. They both suffered from the ill effects of their drinking habits and were similar in their reliance on Seisensui and other patrons of the arts for aid and support. The literary tone of their poems, however, differs.
Santà Âka proved no more reliable at working a steady job than he had at going to college, and though he did secure a permanent position as a librarian in 1920, by 1922 he was again unemployed due to another "nervous breakdown". He stayed in Tokyo long enough to experience the Great Kantà  earthquake, after which he was apparently jailed as a suspect Communist. Soon after being released, he returned to Kumamoto City where he helped Sakino keep shop.
In 1924, an extremely drunk Santà Âka jumped in front of an oncoming train in what may have been a suicide attempt. The train managed to stop just inches from him, and he was brought by a newspaper reporter to the Sà Âtà  Zen temple Hà Âon-ji, where the head priest Mochizuki Gian welcomed him to the Zen fraternity. The Zen life seemed to work for Santà Âka: by the next year at the age of forty-two he was ordained in the Sà Âtà  sect.
In 1926, after a year spent as caretaker of Mitori Kannon-dà  temple in Kumamoto, Santà Âka set out on the first of many walking trips. He was away for three years. Part of this time was spent completing the eighty-eight temple pilgrimage circuit on Shikoku Island. He visited the gravesite of his deceased friend Ozaki Hà Âsai.
In 1929 he returned briefly to Kumamoto to visit Sakino and publish some more haiku in SÃ Âun. He also began a publication of his own, , named after his boardinghouse. Soon, however, he was back on the road.
During his trips, Santà Âka wore his priest's robe and a large bamboo hat known as a kasa to keep off the sun. He had one bowl, which he used both for alms-getting and for eating. To survive, he went from house to house to beg. Begging (takuhatsu) is an important part of practice for monks in Japan, but, considering that Santà Âka was not a member of a monastery while he journeyed, begging just for his own needs, he was often regarded with disdain and on a few occasions even questioned by the police. A day's earnings would go toward a room at a guesthouse, food, and sake. It is clear from his diaries that he had very mixed feelings about his lifestyle:
In 1932, Santà Âka settled down for a time at a cottage in Yamaguchi prefecture. He named it "Gochà «an" (å ¶ä¸Â庵) after a verse in the Lotus Sutra. While there, he published his first book of poems, . He lived on the contributions of friends and admirers, whatever he could grow in his garden, and money sent from his son Ken. In 1934 he set off again on a walking trip, but soon grew seriously ill and had to return home. He attempted suicide but lived. In 1936, he again began to walk, intent on following the trail of the famous haiku poet Bashà  (1644âÂÂ1694) as described in Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Interior). He returned to Gà Âchuan after eight months.
In 1938, Gochà «an became unfit for habitation, and after another walking trip, Santà Âka settled down at a small temple near Matsuyama City. On October 11, 1940, Santà Âka died in his sleep. He had published seven collections of poems and numerous editions of Sambaku. He was fifty-seven.
The following poem is a typical example of Santà Âka's work:
What, even my straw hat has started leaking
笠ãÂÂæ¼ÂãÂÂåºãÂÂãÂÂãÂÂ
kasa mo moridashita ka
This poem exhibits two major features of free verse haiku:
The poem does, however, hint at a natural phenomenonâÂÂrainâÂÂby referring to the straw hat and to the fact that it is leaking.
---Another interpretation / <br /> I'm traveling by myself wearing a straw hat.<br /> It began to rain, and my face began to get wet.<br /> There is no place to take shelter from the rain in an unpopular place.<br /> But I keep walking.<br /> ---
Below are further examples of free haiku poems by Santà Âka: