oh japan

my heart hurts for you

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“The world of dew -

A world of dew it is indeed, 

And yet, and yet…”

— This haiku was written on the one-year anniversary of the death of Issa’s firstborn child, the boy Sentarô. It has a one-word prescript: “Grieving.” According to Buddhist teaching, life is as fleeting as a dewdrop and so one should not grow attached to the things of this world. Issa’s response: “and yet…”.[1] Kobayashi Issa, a Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū sect known for his haiku poems and journals. He is better known as simply Issa, a pen name meaning Cup-of-tea (lit. “one [cup of] tea”). He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki. Reflecting the popularity and interest in Issa as man and poet, Japanese books on Issa outnumber those on Buson, and almost equal in number those on Bashō.

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