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This World is as Fleeting as Dew: Kobayashi Icha Haiku 300

(japan) Kobayashi Icha

31K01

Kobayashi Ichicha was the last haiku master in the Edo period, and together with Matsuo Basho and Shibumura, they are known as the three major haiku masters in Japanese classical haiku. Icha left his hometown and went to Edo to make a living in his early years. After wandering for half his life, he returned to his hometown and started a family. However, his children all passed away before him, and Icha spent his later years lonely and embarrassed, with only nature and all things and haiku to express his feelings. Yicha's haiku style is unique. He imitates his predecessors while developing unique variations. While inheriting the aesthetics of tranquility and secludedness, he also adds a humorous personal mark. He hates the world and rebels against the strong, but such radical emotions are completely diluted when he writes, leaving only the open-mindedness of being content with poverty, willing to taste the bitterness of life, endless compassion for weak lives, and lamenting the impermanence of the world. Icha composed more than 20,000 haiku in his lifetime. This book selects more than 300 sentences from them, arranges them chronologically, and attaches the original text, pronunciation and brief notes to aid appreciation.