Yosa Buson
Couchoud obtained a scholarship from the banker Albert Kahn. This grant allowed Couchoud to visit Japan (Sept. 1903 - May 1904), a country which became a passion. During a trip on French canals by barge (1905), Couchoud and his two friends, sculptor Albert Poncin and painter André Faure, composed haiku in French. They published their work anonymously in a limited edition (30 copies) of "Au fil de l'eau" ("Along the waterways"), a collection of free-verse tercets which was well received. It still is considered one of the most successful adaptations of haiku in French. Couchoud also studied and translated Japanese Haijin (Yosa Buson in particular) in "Les Épigrammes lyriques du Japon" ("Lyrical Epigrams of Japan", 1906).