Dew on the Grass―The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa

Issa (1763-1827), known as one of the Three Pillars of Haiku, is credited with modernizing the form to a degree matched by no other poet, explains Ueda (Japanese, Stanford U.); but modern scholars seem reluctant to grant him the same literary stature as Basho and Buson at the same time that a number of modern Japanese poets and novelists find him a valuable source of inspiration. In what he calls a modest study of the poet's life and work, Ueda follows the traditional format of a critical biography. He knows of no other biography of Issa in English that takes into account the latest Japanese scholarship. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Makoto Ueda, Ph.D. (1962) in Comparative Literature, University of Washington, is Professor Emeritus of Japanese at Stanford University. His many publication include Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women (2003) and The Path of Flowering Thorn: The Life and Poetry of Yosa Buso (1998).