Happy Birthday, Issa

Today is the birthday of Kobayashi Issa, a master of haiku. He was born in Kashiwa- bara, Japan, in 1763.



One of his most well-known:

little snail
inch by inch, climb
Mount Fuji!

This is the one Issa wrote and illustrated, above:

niwa no chō
ko ga haeba tobi
haeba tobu

garden butterfly
as the baby crawls, it flies―
crawls close, flutters on

And a few more:

evening's fall colors--
the rainbow in the valley
fades away

the woodpecker returns
to the pine...
now I'm old

a cold moon
facing the cold
mountain temple

(more, and image from contemporary haiga)