Kobayashi Issa
(1762–1826)

Kobayashi Issa, probably the favorite haiku poet of the Japanese, led a life marked by hardship and personal loss. Banished from his rural home as a teenager, Issa lived most of his life in urban poverty. All of his children died in infancy, and the young wives who bore them died before Issa. Through all his adversity, Issa seemed to draw strength from small creatures like insects, sparrows, and rats—creatures whose lives are fleeting and that appear overwhelmed by the elements.

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