[2] Hekigotō and Kyoshi became the chief disciples of the modern haiku master Shiki Masaoka.

Kawahigashi succeeded Shiki as haiku editor of the magazine Hototogisu ("Cuckoo") in 1897 and the newspaper Nippon ("Japan") in 1902.

In 1917, Kawahigashi wrote: Any arbitrary attempt to mould a poem into the 5-7-5 syllable pattern would damage the freshness of impression and kill the vitality of language.

We sought to be direct in expression, since we valued our fresh impressions and wanted our language to be vital.

This soon led us to destroy the fixed verse form and to gain the utmost freedom of expression.