He served the Todo family of the Tsu domain and was taught haikai by Kigin Kitamura. At about twenty-eight he went to Edo and became a haikai master. Building on the poetry of Japan before him, but taking everyday things as his material, he established a haikai manner of his own — the Shofu — and is called the saint of haiku. He loved travel and left many travel accounts. He died in 1694 at Osaka, on a journey towards Kyushu.