Poet and short story writer Sanki Saito was born Keichoku Saito on May 15 1990 in Tsuyamo, Japan. In 1928, in the midst of an economic downslide and a rise of anti-Japanese sentiment in Singapore, where he was living at the time, Saito immigrated back to Japan, where he returned to practicing dentistry at a hospital in Kanda, Tokyo. Saito began writing haiku, adopting the pen name 'Sanki,' meaning 'three demons.' He became known for his outspoken, frequently sardonic haiku. Saito became a contributor to Kyodai Haiku magazine and in the mid 1930s quit dentistry to focus more on his writing. In 1940, he published his first collection, Flags, but that same year Saito was imprisoned during a government crack-down on artists thought to be perverting traditional forms or ways of thinking.