Which haiku poet was also a famous painter?

Yosa Buson was the haiku poet who was also a famous painter. He is one of the three great haikai masters of the Edo period, alongside Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, but Buson is distinctive for achieving major recognition in both poetry and visual art.

Born in 1716 near Osaka, Buson trained in poetry and painting and travelled widely across Japan. His paintings were strongly influenced by the literati, or bunjin-ga, tradition, which valued expressive brushwork, Chinese-style landscapes, calligraphy, and cultivated learning. Painting was also his main source of income.

Buson helped develop haiga, an art form combining a haiku with an accompanying image. His poetry is often praised for its vivid visual details, while his paintings frequently suggest the same quiet observation found in his verse. Masaoka Shiki later admired Buson as a “painter in words.”

Bashō also made paintings, so he is a possible source of confusion. However, Buson is the canonical answer when the question highlights a major haiku poet who was notably a professional and celebrated painter.