Mizuhara Shuohshi was honored for his long achievements as a haiku poet. He brought a lyrical sensibility shaped by tanka into haiku and, through the journal Ashibi, helped broaden the expressive range of modern haiku.

A career that widened modern haiku by bringing lyricism and close observation together.

Katsuichiro Kamei was honored for his long achievements in criticism. His work crossed literature, religion, history, and intellectual history, reconsidering Japanese inner life, faith, and the meaning of the classics.

A critical career that moved between literature and intellectual history to ask what shaped the Japanese inner life.