Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa: Revised Second Print Edition - Paperback

by David G. Lanoue (Author)

No mere "child's poet," Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) is an aware and committed artist who celebrates, in a lifetime of haiku, the "Other Power" of Amida Buddha: a power that transforms the individual and universe or, more exactly, the individual/universe in their inseparableness. This is the first book-length English-language treatment of this remarkable Japanese poet in relation to his joyful, "priestly" mission.

Author Biography

David G. Lanoue is a professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. He is a cofounder of the New Orleans Haiku Society, an associate member of the Haiku Foundation, and former president of the Haiku Society of America. His books include translations, criticism, and a series of "haiku novels." Some of his books have appeared in French, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Japanese editions. He maintains The Haiku of Kobayashi Issa website, for which he translated 10,000 of Issa's haiku.