"It is cool and refreshing
The water of ditch tempt me just
To the west of Paradise"
(Tansetsu) Utsumi
It had been said that this Haiku, composed by Tansetsu Utsumi, was his last Haiku, and this Haiku monument was built by his disciples after June 16th of 1871 (Meiji 7), when he died. He was born in the family of samurai in the feudal domain of Matsuyama in 1810 (Bunka 7).
He learned Haikai (the ancient Haiku) from Baisetsu Sakurai, and went up to Kyoto to become Baisetsu's pupil and he had his head shaved to devote himself to the art of Haikai at the age of 34.
He came back to Matsuyama late in his life and advertised the Haikai style of Baisetsu keeping good company with Kijyu Ohara, Keikyo Okudaira and others.
The Paradise to the west is on the direction of west. The water in the ditch in front of his house in Hokyo-cho (present 2 ban-cho), flowed from East to West.
