Early Life Issa was born as Kobayashi Nobuyuki on June 15, 1763 in Kashiwabara, Shinanao. He took the pen name Issa meaning “cup of tea” or “a single bubble in steeping tea.” At a young age he was forced to support himself by taking menial jobs before gaining entry into the Kasushika poetry school. When Issa was 14, he left home to study haiku in Edo under the poet Nirokuan Chikua. He spent years traveling and working until returning to Kashiwabara in the early 1810s. In Kashiwabara, his life was marked by sorrow. His first wife and three children died, he had an unsuccessful second marriage, as well as the burning down of his house, and a third marriage.
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http://edoflourishing.blogspot.com/2013/02/kobayashi-issa.html
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Issa’s haiku are as attentive to the small creatures of the world—mosquitoes, bats, cats—as they are tinged with sorrow and an awareness of the nuances of human behavior. Due to his sad life, he often had lots of empathy for other beings which was found endearing by the general public. Issa believed that “ works in simple, unadorned language captured the spiritual loneliness of the common man,” and “In his poetry everyday subjects are treated with ordinary language but take on a lyrical quality through his sharp critical eye and sympathetic tone.” Kobayashi Issa transferred his feelings into his work creating amazing poems.
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The wren Winter seclusion Don’t weep, insects Earns his living Listening, that evening, Lovers, stars themselves, Noiselessly. To the rain in the mountain. Must part. |