The great haiku master Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) had many students. Of these many hundreds of followers, ten in particular were considered special to him and it was these men who carried on Basho's methods of teaching haiku into the early part of the eighteenth century. They were known as The Ten Philosophers, a name derived from the 'ten pupils' of the Chinese sage Confucius. Their names are as follows: Etsujin, Hokushi, Joso, Kikaku, Kyorai, Kyoroku, Ransetsu, Shiko, Sanpu and Yaha. This group is named in honour of these haiku poets.