Yosa Buson (1716 - 1783)
A "Haiku" poet and painter of the middle Edo period who was born in Settsu (now
Osaka city). Having been an excellent painter since his childhood, he became
successful in the field of "Bunjin-ga" (literati paintings, which were originally
paintings produced by literati as a hobby). This genre later became identified
with "Nanshu-ga" a style of painting established by the output of two major
Chinese landscape painting schools that was introduced into Japan in the mid-Edo
period. In the meantime, at the age of about 20 he set out for Edo (the old name of Tokyo) where he
studied "haikai" under Hayano Hajin in Nihonbashi..
He urged the revival of "Sho-fu" (The Authentic Style, i.e. the traditional
and elegant form of "haiku" composition) and established his own style that
celebrated sensuous and romantic nature. Although he is regarded as an emulator
of Matsuo Basho, his poetry is closely influenced by his experience as a painter.
He is also known as a founder of "Hai-ga", one of the Japanese pictorial art
forms consisting of paintings in watercolor or black and white featuring some
"haiku" verses or passages that were designed to create refined impressions
of the tastes of educated commoners of the period.
Buson's "hokku", are different from Basho's, they do not present a philosophy,
nor do they announce with emphatic gestures although his wording is impressively
refined in an unprecedented manner. It may be said of Yosa Buson that he had
such genius that in describing just one peaceful scene he can inspire us to
feel that eternity expands beyond the landscape's horizons. He authored the
books "Shin-hanatsumi" (New Florilegium) and "Tamamoshu".
The air shimmers.
Whitish flight
Of an unknown insect.Plough the furrows
the immobile cloud
disappearsA kite floats
At the place in the sky
Where yesterday it floated