Cicada
"Very highly recommended." -Cicada


Review
"Finding the essence of nature in its barest aspects is what gives Hosai's work its power... As each image sinks into one's mind it gathers a mystery about it that seems to hold the key to all of existence." -Cor van den Heuvel, Editor, The Haiku Anthology


Book Description
One of Japan's most gifted poets, Hosai Ozaki started out as an insurance salesman, but alcohol and despair finally led him to a small Buddhist temple on an island off Shikoku in southern Japan. There he spent his remaining days doing simple chores, subsisting on a diet of toasted rice and water, and writing about loneliness and poverty. Hosai's great gift was his ability to place himself at a slight distance from existence and observe with a razor-sharp awareness the everyday objects that inhabit our world: doorways, shadows, leaves, food containers, the fingers on a hand. The effect is magical and disturbing. Also here are Hosai's prose pieces from "On Entering a Temple House," which meditate on his past, on the workings of his mind, and on the sounds, smells, and views outside his temple window.


Language Notes
Text: English
Original Language: Japanese


From the Publisher
Stone Bridge Press is a leading English-language publisher of Japanese literature in translation. Our ROCK SPRING COLLECTION OF JAPANESE LITERATURE features absorbing and important translations of classical and contemporary Japanese fiction and poetry. We believe that literature is a window into culture and society, and an expression of what is most peculiarly, and universally, human


About the Author
Hosai Ozaki (1885-1926) is one of Japan's most gifted poets. His free-form writing helped extend the haiku beyond its traditional language, rhythms, and seasonal imagery. Hiroaki Sato is also translator of Basho's Narrow Road.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

One of Japan's most gifted poets, Hosai Ozaki started out as an insurance salesman, but alcohol and despair finally led him to a small Buddhist temple on an island off Shikoku in southern Japan. There he spent his remaining days doing simple chores, subsisting on a diet of toasted rice and water, and writing about loneliness and poverty. Hosai's great gift was his ability to place himself at a slight distance from existence and observe with a razor-sharp awareness the everyday objects that inhabit our world: doorways, shadows, leaves, food containers, the fingers on a hand. The effect is magical and disturbing. Also here are Hosai's prose pieces from "On Entering a Temple House," which meditate on his past, on the workings of his mind, and on the sounds, smells, and views outside his temple window.

Author Biography: Hosai Ozaki (1885-1926) is one of Japan's most gifted poets. His free-form writing helped extend the haiku beyond its traditional language, rhythms, and seasonal imagery.; Hiroaki Sato is also translator of Basho's Narrow Road.