Ikuya Kato (born 1929) is a modern haiku poet of the "free verse" school. Haiku itself is probably the shortest form of literature there is. Its classical structure is a cluster of 17 syllables, 5-7-5, constructed around a seasonal image. Free verse haiku seems to dispense with all rules and conventions except one — extreme brevity.
Kato, translator Isao Ito informs us, is "one of the comparatively few artists who have secured the continuity of the long-held tradition of Japan and its beauty."
Why just a few? "It is because the occupation army of the Allies tried to sweep away Japanese tradition with the only exception of the continuation of the emperor system, as one part of the occupation policy, after Japan lost in the Second World War in August, 1945."