Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa

Description

This book sketches the life and poetry of Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), a Japanese poet popularly known as one of the Three Pillars of Haiku. While Basho with his mystic asceticism and Buson with his romantic aestheticism immeasurably enriched the haiku tradition, it was Issa who, with his bold individualism and all-embracing humanism, helped to modernize the form to a degree matched by no other poet. Based on the most recent scholarship, the book attempts to identify the sources of his originality in terms of his long checkered life. It traces his growth and maturity by examining his motherless childhood, struggling youth in Edo, wanderings in western Japan, restless existence as a haiku master, return home to Kashiwabara, three brief marriages, and last years as an old poet. Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Maps Preface Chapter One With an Orphaned Little Sparrow: 1763–1791 Chapter Two A Wanderer in the Western Provinces: 1791–1798 Chapter Three Of Sewers and Moonlight: 1798–1807 Chapter Four Flowers of the Thorn: 1807–1812 Chapter Five Through a Hole in the Shoji Screen: 1812–1816 Chapter Six The World of Dew: 1817–1820 Chapter Seven Snow in the Front Yard: 1820–1824 Chapter Eight Fearful of the Time to Come: 1824–1828 Appendix “A Stag”: a Kasen Written by Issa and His Students Selected Bibliography Index of Issa’s Hokku in English Index of Issa’s Hokku in Japanese General Index BRILL’S JAPANESE STUDIES LIBRARY