Shoichiro Iwakiri (1959) teaches French literature at the prestigious International Christian University in Tokyo. As an academic, he displays an almost obsessive interest in the work of Charles Baudelaire, but in his own poetry he would seem to be completely Japanese, with lyrical perceptions derived from the seasons, humanity and nature. His work is spiritually much closer to the ‘genuine’ haiku than the incessant stream of 5/7/5-syllable products of fanatical haiku poets.