The first complete bilingual translation of the Buson Kushu--a collection of haiku that is an essential volume of Asian literature

This book uses the haikai verse and paintings of the brilliant, innovative artist Yosa Buson (1716-1783) as a focal point from which to explore how Japanese writers competed for artistic authority in a time when popular responses to economic, technological, and social changes were creating the beginnings of a modern literature. The first part of the book discusses Buson's role in the Bash? Revival movement, situating his haikai in the context of the social networks that writers of his time both relied on and resisted. The second part explores Buson's "hokku," linked verse, and "haiga" (haikai painting). The book concludes with a discussion of Buson's reception in the modern period, and includes translations of his principal works.

"Haiku Master Buson is the only translation of the work of this important haiku poet in English. Buson (1716-1783), along with Basho and Issa, is recognized as one of the three Japanese masters of the haiku. In addition to a large selection of haiku, the book also includes a selection of Buson's prose and a critical introduction." -- Amazon.com

Haiku, Other Arts, and Literary Disciplines investigates the genesis and development of haiku in Japan and determines the relationships between haiku and other arts, such as essay writing, painting, and music, as well as the backgrounds of haiku, such as literary movements, philosophies, and religions that underlie haiku composition. By analyzing the poets who played major roles in the development of haiku and its related genres, these essays illustrate how Japanese haiku poets, and American writers such as Emerson and Whitman, were inspired by nature, especially its beautiful scenes and seasonal changes. Western poets had a demonstrated affinity for Japanese haiku which bled over into other art mediums, as these chapters discuss.

This abridged edition of Haruo Shirane's popular anthology, Early Modern Japanese Literature, retains the essential texts that have made the original volume such a valuable resource. The book introduces English-speaking readers to prose fiction genres, including dangibon, kibyoshi (satiric picture books), sharebon (books of wit and fashion), yomihon, kokkeibon (books of humor), gokan (bound books), and ninjobon (books of romance and sentiment). It also features poetic genres such as waka, haiku, senryu, and kyoka, and plays ranging from Chikamatsu's puppet plays to nineteenth-century kabuki. Readers will continue to benefit from the anthology's selection of significant essays, treatises, literary criticism, folk stories, and other noncanonical works, as well as the numerous prints that accompanied these works. They will also find Shirane's introductions and critical commentary, which guide the reader through the allusive and often elliptical nature of these incredible selections.

This beautifully illustrated book looks at three exemplary traditions in poetic painting, bringing new understanding of the relationship between the art and the societies that produced it.

This collection of thirty-nine haiku from Yosa Buson showcases the mastery, delicacy, and mystery of one of Japan's greatest and most deeply admired poets. With this publication, Pulitzer Prize winner Franz Wright offers readers a new avenue into one of poetry's essential voices.

Excellent...Anyone interested in Shiki should consult [this] by all means. -Burton Watson