小林一茶
Issa Kobayashi (1763-1828) - His Life and its Events
Hiroshige Utagawa - Kanbara (A village in the snow) 1833.c
From the series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō
Lonely childhood
Issa was born in Kashiwa-bara village of Shinano Province, present Nagano prefecture, as the first-born son of a middle-class farmer family. At the age of three his mother died, and his grandmother raised him with great care.
When he was seven his father remarried. Two years later his half brother was born, but Issa couldn't get along well with his new mother. Issa made this haiku later on remembering his lonely and difficult childhood:
Come to me
Hey, play with me
Orphaned sparrow!
One particular characteristic of his haiku poems is that they contain many pieces with the theme of weak beings such as sparrows, frogs, children, and his affection for them. As such, they are easy to understand and are relatable.
Early experiences as a famer
Kashiwa-bara village was positioned in the middle of the way which leads from northern Echigo Province (Nigata prefecture today), and was prospering as a post town. Sometimes Kabuki theater in the style of Edo (Tokyo) was held there, and some haiku poets stayed and organized haiku meetings.
Therefore it's probable that little Issa could feel the atmosphere of his cultural surroundings, and because of this he may have developed an interest in haiku. However, he had to help the farm work of his family in his childhood and couldn't study like he wanted to, as he would express one day in writing:
'During the day I had to collect vegetables, cut the grass, groom horses, and in all through the night I beat and soften straw, made straw sandals, under the moonlight below the window. I had no time to study.'
His experiences working on a farm in the heavy snowfall area would often reappear later in his haiku works.
A wanderer
In his 13th year his grandmother died. Even though he was the eldest son, his father thought that it would be better to send him to Edo rather than to have him remain with his mother without getting along. So next year he was put out to apprenticeship service, and for the next 14 years didn't come back home.
In the meantime he encountered haiku poetry and decided to make a living on it.
Here is a madman with no fixed home, wondering to the west, roaming to the east. In the morning he has breakfast in Kazusa*, in the evening he dwells in Musashi**, and he has no place to rest like white foam on the sea. Since foam is something fragile and disappears easily, he names himself monk Issa.'
In this way he described himself as a wanderer who easily disappeared like foam on tea. This is the meaning of his artist name 一茶 Issa ('One-Tea.')
Returning home
At 38, he lost his father after diligently nursing him. Right before his death, Issa's father made a dying wish that Issa and his brother should divide the property equally. But his step mother and half brother didn't wish to give the fortune that they had worked to build, to someone who was absent for a long time.
There was a long conflict between them and Issa regarding the division of the inherited property and because of this Issa was always treated coldly in his hometown.
My home town
Everything I come close to and touch
Is like a thorn of a rose.
When he was 49 years old Issa decided to stay in his hometown and then a year later finally could make peace with his half brother and receive his property.
Here he spent the rest of his life, getting married to three wives one after another. With the first wife he had three sons and one daughter, but all of them and their mother died leaving him alone. The marriage with the second wife didn't last long, and a year after his third marriage, his house caught fire and he was forced to live in a storehouse where he died, at the age of 64, leaving only one daughter of his own who survived him, in the womb of his devoted wife.
Still today, the descendant of Issa lives in Kashiwa-bara, Nagano prefecture.
*Kazusa Province (central Chiba prefecture today)
**Musashi Province (consists of present Saitama and Tokyo prefectures with some parts of Kanagawa).
References (In Japanese)
'Issa- Heroes of rice fields'/Sainenji temple archive
http://www.tanbo-kubota.co.jp/water/hero/issa.html
www.sainenji.net/live1607.htm
Issa's Haiku works
Original text, with modern japanese and English translation
1.
Hey lean frog
Hang on there because
Issa is here!
(season word: frog - spring)
やせ蛙まけるな一茶これにあり
Yase-gaeru, makeruna Issa, koreni ari
おい、やせ蛙
まけるなよ、ここに
一茶がいるぞ！
2.
Hey sparrow kid
Step aside, step aside
Here comes mister horse!
(season word: sparrow chick - spring)
雀の子そこのけそこのけお馬が通る
Suzume-no-ko, sokonoke sokonoke, ouma ga tooru
スズメの子、
どきなよ、どきなよ
お馬が通るよ！
3.
Come to me
Hey, play with me
Orphaned sparrow!
(season word: sparrow chick - spring)
我と来て遊べや親のない雀
Ware to kite, asobeya oyano, nai suzume
俺ときて
遊べよ
みなしごのズズメ
4.
My hometown
Everything I come close to and touch
Is like a thorn of a rose.
(season word: rose - summer)
古郷やよるも障るも茨の花
Hurusato ya, yoru mo sawaru mo, bara no hana
故郷にきても
みるものさわるものまるで
薔薇のとげのよう
5.
(having lost his child)
Fragile is life
Just like a dewdrop
I know that, but...
(season word: dew - autumn)
露の世は露の世ながらさりながら
Tsuyu no yo wa, tsuyu no yo nagara, sarinagara
この世はまるで
露のようにはかない
わかっている、しかし―
6.
In the silence
Reflections of the thunderhead
Reaches the bottom of the lake.
(season word: thunderhead - summer)
しづかさや湖水の底の雲の峰
Shizukasa ya, koksui no soko no, kumo no mine
あたりは静まりかえって、
湖の底までとどくかのように、
山のような夏の雲が写り込んでいる。
Text and translation by Yamatologos 2018 with the help of Forest Muran
