Issa's Haiku Biography

by Geoffrey Eggleston

Kobayashi Issa is one of the most famous Japanese poets to have ever written haiku. He began studying at a very young age the work of Matsuo Basho and his work is clearly influenced by his studies. His haiku reflect his life at the time of their writing. He used it as a device to channel his feelings and his intellectual ideas. As a Buddhist, he also incorporated many Buddhist themes into his haiku. Issa used his haiku as a biography, chronicling his life through his poetry, like a diary. Through this approach to haiku, Issa accomplishes the difficult task of connecting with his audience. Much of his haiku is narrative, pulling the reader into the story of Issa's life. Issa used an uncomplicated approach to writing haiku. He liked to use layers and write haiku that could lead to many places, but he always made his layers obvious. His haiku is incredibly accessible. One need not be a seasoned veteran of haiku to understand and appreciate the poetry of Kobayashi Issa.

little snail
inch by inch, climb
Mount Fuji!

Issa, Haiku Guy, 115

This translation is one of, if not the most popular poems that Issa ever wrote and it is a supreme example of the accessibility and open-ended nature of Issa's haiku. In Haiku Guy by David G. Lanoue, Lanoue explains how open to interpretation this haiku truly is. He provides example after example of how differently this haiku can be interpreted. He discusses that the snail could be representative of Issa, the reader, Buddha, or even just a snail. The snail's journey can be Issa's journey as an author as he climbs the mountain that is haiku. Lanoue also muses that the snail is the reader trying to understand the haiku itself (Lanoue 116). The snail is only a fraction of the haiku however.

Fuji must represent something as well. Fuji could literally be Mt. Fuji. Fuji could be a metaphor for the "mountains" that we climb in our day to day lives. Fuji could even be a fuji apple. Imagine a half-eaten apple lying on the ground amidst other debris. The snail is "climbing" it because it is the easiest path, but the snail is still struggling. Perhaps Issa is commenting on how something so insignificant to a human, such as a rotting apple core on the ground, can be a nearly insurmountable obstacle to a snail. Issa's haiku is so open-ended that translators often translate his poetry in very different ways, leading to even more conclusions as to what his haiku could be saying. Often, difference in translations can result in completely different interpretations from the reader.

Issa's open nature of haiku is why his poems are still enjoyed today. Many contemporary artists attempt to achieve this same effect. This haiku by John Wills from The Haiku Anthology edited by Cor Van Den Heuvel is an interesting haiku to compare with Issa's "little snail" in that it complements Issa's poem and also in that it is incredibly open ended:

the sun lights up a distant ridge         another

Wills, The Haiku Anthology, 298

Both of these haiku reference mountains. I matched them together because the haiku written by Wills can act as a continuation of the snail's journey. The sun is revealing another mountain for the snail to cross. Looking at Wills' poem specifically, the reader is left with a fairly vague and open-ended image. Perhaps the sun has just risen and the rest of the landscape is revealed by the light. The use of the word "another" is interesting because it is without any specific emotion. Is he happy that there is another ridge beyond where he is because it gives him a goal? Or is he upset that he has to climb yet another mountain? Perhaps "another" is in reference to another sunrise lighting up the same ridge every day. Wills' was clearly influenced in one way or another by Issa's idea that haiku should be accessible and open to interpretation.

Issa did not immediately write haiku that were as accessible as his famous poems. When Issa began writing haiku, most of his poems were strictly autobiographical. He spoke mostly about his childhood and his feelings of being alone, without a mother. His early haiku drew mostly on his emotional experiences and memories.

Come and play with me,
Motherless, fatherless,
Little sparrow.

Issa, Wind in my Hand, 12

This haiku, translated by Hanoku Fukuda, clearly illustrates Issa's feelings of mourning and of loss after his mother's death. He feels alone. As Hanako Fukuda states in his book Wind in my Hand, "None of the children wanted to play with him." (Fukuda 11) In this poem, Issa, then known as Yataro, is begging for someone to play with him. He turns to animals because humans have been cruel to him. He is recognizing that the sparrow is experiencing a similar situation and so he finds this common ground. However, this poem also goes beyond the autobiographical. It could also be interpreted that he is offering comfort to the sparrow. Maybe the sparrow is not actually a sparrow, but a metaphor for a child. The sparrow could even be representing himself. This haiku can also take on a slightly different meaning when translated by another author. This version translated by David Lanoue takes a much more hopeful approach:

coming to play
with me . . .
orphan sparrow

Issa, Haiku of Kobayashi Issa

Here, the translator has chosen to use the phrase "coming to play" rather "come and play." This version is much more hopeful in that the sparrow is coming to Issa rather than Issa asking it to come to him. This version is also much more succinct in its word choice. The decision to use "orphan" rather than "motherless, fatherless" achieves the same effect, but more directly. The use of ellipses also further emphasizes the feeling of loneliness in the poem. In this case, the sparrow has it worse than Issa. The sparrow is a true orphan, while Issa still has family. Issa is taking pity on the sparrow because he recognizes that the sparrow's life his harder than his. Regardless of which translation is correct, however, the emotions remain relatively unchanged.

Most of Issa's early haiku drew on his emotions. He also expressed his loneliness beautifully and very interestingly in another one of his earlier written poems from 1788 (translated by David Lanoue).

solitude—
whichever way I turn . . .
violets!

Issa, Haiku of Kobayashi Issa

At first thought, this haiku seems to be about a lonely person finding relief in being surrounded by flowers. While this is a perfectly logical conclusion to arrive at, further analysis reveals a complete lack of relief. The image that comes to my mind is a man standing alone in a field of flowers. While the violets are beautiful, there is no one to share the beauty of them with. The only thing around him is flowers. Every way he turns, he can only see flowers. The violets' presence becomes maddening. "Whichever way I turn . . ." No matter where he looks, he is alone.

As Issa matured as a person, so did his haiku. He began to appreciate beyond the pure emotion of his childhood. He began to use nature more and more to draw parallels to his feelings rather than state them outright. In this haiku (translated by Fukuda and then by Lanoue) Issa uses observations of nature and compares them to his feelings.

The wind of autumn.
How it blows over, over
A motherless child.

Issa, Wind in my Hand, 23

Issa is also using repetition to achieve a "windier" feeling in this poem. The use of the word "over" twice emphasizes that the wind is not stopping. Perhaps it is gusting, periodically battering him. The wind is acting as a reminder of his emptiness/lack of a mother, emphasizing his sadness. The wind could also be interpreted as not a real wind, but rather a thought that is constantly on his mind, replaying over and over. The blowing of the wind draws a parallel to the oppressiveness of such a terrible weight to have on one's shoulders as a child. Perhaps the wind is blowing "over, over" without stopping. His already established feeing of loneliness during this period could cause him to think that he is so alone that even the wind is ignoring him and simply blowing right past him.

As Issa grew older and more mature as a poet, he shifted his focus from his feelings from his childhood to his observations of the world. Many of his haiku focus on problems that he saw in the world. Many of his poems had political themes, such as this haiku translated by David G. Lanoue:

a great lord
drenching wet, passes
my cozy brazier

Issa, Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa, 53

Not only does this haiku take a much more cheerful approach to life (something that many of his poems lacked until this point), it also comments on his feelings toward the "great lord" that he encountered. Issa seems to be amused by the soaking wet figure of authority passing by his fire. His lack of respect for the warlord is also apparent, as the haiku takes a sort of mocking approach. It is also interesting that he lets the Lord pass by his fire, rather than inviting him to warm up. This establishes his feelings toward the political system in general. As a Priest, he had very little interest, if any at all, in power and who was in charge.

Issa also used haiku to state his disagreement with the corruption in the political system by commenting on a war lord once again in this poem:

neck and neck
with the mighty lord . . .
chrysanthemum

Issa, Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa, 52

Issa is stating that being a warlord is no more meaningful than being a flower. He is also saying that the warlord has no power of the chrysanthemum and therefore has no power of Issa. At this political point in his life, Issa wrote many haiku very similar to these two. Issa was "uniterested and unimpressed with worldly power" (Lanoue 54). These haiku reflect an outward period of Issa's life, in which he paid very close attention to what was happening in the world around him. At this point in his life (about midway through his career as an author), he was much more interested in social commentary than he was in emotional appeal. This is a major shift from poems such as "solitude-" and his other poems that draw on his childhood difficulties.

As Issa grew older, his poems changed once again, as seen in this haiku that he wrote in 1827, the last year of his life:

bonfires for the dead—
soon they'll burn
for us

Issa, Haiku of Kobayashi Issa

In this haiku, Issa has returned to his more introspective roots, but he seems to be less focused on himself and more on his family. He is probably talking to his wife in this poem, saying that they are getting old and that soon the fires that they watch will be the fires they are in. He may have written this poem as his health was declining, as indicated by his use of the word "soon." The main difference between this haiku and his earliest haiku is that rather than focusing on his emotions, this haiku seems devoid of most emotions other than love. He is not sad about his soon-to-be death. He seems to be accepting it through this poem. This is also not very open to interpretation unlike most of his other work. This haiku is quite specific, as are many of his later haiku.

The work of Kobayashi Issa is some of the most important haiku in history. His evolving style of haiku made a lasting impact on the haiku community, and many authors use the same techniques that he used to create successful haiku. Issa used his haiku as a sort of chronological diary of his life. Starting in his childhood and eventually moving past his old age and looking into the future. His diary created a posthumous existence for himself.

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Works Cited

Fukuda, Hanako, and Lydia Cooley. Wind in My Hand. San Carlos, CA: Golden Gate Junior, 1970. Print.

Issa, Kobayashi. Haiku of Kobayashi Issa. Trans. David G. Lanoue. David G. Lanoue, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2012.

Lanoue, David G. Haiku Guy: A Novel. Winchester, VA: Red Moon, 2000. Print.

Lanoue, David G. Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa. Reno, NV: Buddhist International, 2004. Print.

Van Den Heuvel, Cor. The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English. New York, NY [u.a.: Simon & Schuster, 1991. Print.