Kobayashi Issa 🌐

Issa endured a harsh childhood following his mother's early death and spent decades living in poverty in Edo while studying poetry and Pure Land Buddhism. Returning to his home village in Shinano late in life, he married but suffered the tragic deaths of his beloved wife and all five of their young children.

Despite heartbreaking loss, Issa composed over twenty thousand haiku infused with tender affection for small creatures—sparrows, snails, flies, and frogs. His prose-and-haiku masterpiece 'The Spring of My Life' (Oraga Haru) captures human grief and Buddhist acceptance with extraordinary sincerity.