Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶 Kobayashi Issa) (June 15, 1763 - January 5, 1828) was a Japanese writer of haikai known for his hokku verses. He was born with the name Kobayashi Nobuyuki (and also known as Yataro) in Kashiwabara, Shinano province (present-day Shinanomachi, Nagano prefecture). Leaving behind a troubled family, wherein his farmer father was widowed and remarried unhappily, he studied haikai under Mizoguchi Sogan and Norokuan Chikua at the Katsushika poetry school in present-day Tokyo. He eventually gained patronage from Seibi Natsume. June 15 is the 166th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (167th in leap years), with 199 days remaining. ... 1763 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Shinano (信濃国; -no kuni) is an old province of Japan that is now present day Nagano prefecture. ... Categories: Host cities of the Winter Olympic Games | Cities in Nagano Prefecture | Japan geography stubs ... Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Kokyo Imperial Palace. ...

Despite a multitude of personal trials, his poetry reflected a subjective and childlike simplicity, making liberal use of local dialects and conversational phrases:

Quiet;

In the depths of the lake,

A peak of cloud.

我と来て Ware to kite

遊べや親の Asobe ya oya no

ない雀 nai suzume

Come with me and play,

Parentless sparrow.

Under the pen name of Issa, Kobayashi wrote over 20,000 confessional and observational poems that still console generations of readers today. Though his hokku were very popular, he suffered great monetary instability. His most famous works are Chichi No Shuen Nikki (1801, tr. The Diary at My Father's Death), and Oragaharu (1819, tr. The Year of My Life)

According to the Western Calendar, Issa died on January 5, 1828 in his native village of Kashiwabara, Shinano Province (present-day Nagano Prefecture). According to the old Japanese calendar, he died on the 19th day of Eleventh Month, Tenth Year of the Bunsei Era. Since the Tenth Year of Bunsei roughly corresponds with 1827, many sources list this as his year of death. Shinano (信濃国; -no kuni) is an old province of Japan that is now present day Nagano prefecture. ... Categories: Host cities of the Winter Olympic Games | Cities in Nagano Prefecture | Japan geography stubs ...

Trivia

One of Issa's hokku is in J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey [1]. Cover of Salingers daughters memoir. ... Franny and Zooey is a 1961 novel by J. D. Salinger, best known for The Catcher in the Rye. ...

O snail
Climb Mount Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!

Resources

• Sam Hammill (translated by), The Spring of My Life and Selected Haiku: Kobayashi Issa, Shambhalla Publications © 1997 ISBN 1-57062-144-6 pbk [180 pp., 160 haiku plus 'The Spring of My Life, an autobiographical sketch of linked prose and haiku]
• David G. Lanoue, Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa, Buddhist Books International © 2004 ISBN 0-914910-53-1
• Lewis Mackensie (translated and introduced by), The Autumn Wind: A Selection of the Poems of Issa, Kodansha International © 1984 ISBN 0-87011-657-6 [137 pp. 250 haiku]

External links

• Haiku of Kobayashi Issa a searchable online archive of 5000+ haiku by David G. Lanoue, author of 'Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa'. This web site is temporarily down as of November, 2005 as a consequence of Hurricane Katrina. The Issa archive could be accessed at David Lanoue's site, although search function is not available.