Ahead of World Poetry Day on 21 March, we take a look at the life of Japanese poet Issa, who named himself after a cup of tea.
Born Kobayashi Nobuyuki in 1763, the poet Issa (一茶; One Cup of Tea) wrote more than 20,000 haiku in his lifetime and is considered one of the greats of the form. While his poems are often considered light-hearted and humorous, Issa had a rather sad upbringing. His mother died when he was three years old and he was largely brought up by his grandmother until she passed when he was 14. In the meantime his father, a farmer, remarried but Issa did not get along with his stepmother and he was subsequently sent to Tokyo to find a job.
In the intervening decade, not much is known about Issa’s life. He reportedly undertook some apprenticeships before dedicating himself to poetry in his mid-twenties as a student of Nirokuan Chikua. He then took to the road, using travel as inspiration for his work.
Upon his father’s death in 1801, he returned to his hometown to fight for his inheritance; it took him several years to secure half the property from his stepmother and half-brother, after which he started his own family. Unfortunately his family life as an adult was also tragic. His first wife Kiku bore four children, all of whom died in infancy before Kiku herself passed. Perhaps his most famous poem, written in grief at the passing of his first child and revised while mourning the death of his second, is:
露の世は露の世ながらさりながら
Often translated in English as:
this dewdrop world
is a dewdrop world
yes… and yet…
(Issa’s third wife gave birth to a daughter who lived to adulthood; unfortunately Issa died a few months before she was born.)
Unsurprisingly, some of the main themes of Issa’s work are about transience, fed by his Buddhism, but he also wrote poems with nature themes – many of which focused on ‘lowly’ animals including insects and snails – showing a deep compassion for the weak and overlooked.
Being Japanese, he also had a relationship with his namesake, tea. Enjoy this selection of ‘chai-ku’ from the dewdrop poet with a cup of gyokuro (玉露; jade dew).
(Translations by David G Lanoue)
新茶の香真昼の眠気転じたり
new tea aroma –
my midday sleepiness
shattered
あさぢふや茶好になりて朝寒き
among tufted grasses
becoming a tea lover…
morning cold
手前茶の口切にさへゆふべ哉
all the tea at hand
I unseal…
evening time
茶けぶりも仏の陰よちる木の葉
tea smoke too
in the Buddha’s shadow…
falling leaves
折ふしは鹿も立添茶つみ哉
now and then deer
move in close…
tea pickers
References:
This article originally appeared in AUSTCS enews 19 March 2024.