Kobayashi Issa

Kobayashi Issa's pen name is commonly read as meaning one cup of tea. He was born Kobayashi Nobuyuki in 1763 in Shinano Province, now part of Nagano Prefecture.

Issa often wrote with sympathy for tiny, vulnerable creatures such as fleas, snails, sparrows, and flies. That tone fits his life story, which included poverty, family conflict, and repeated bereavement.

Issa is usually named among Japan's great haiku masters alongside Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, and Masaoka Shiki. His style is plainer and more emotionally direct than Basho's classical restraint.

His best-known prose-and-haiku work is Oraga Haru, often translated as The Year of My Life. It reflects on personal loss and everyday rural life in the early 19th century.