Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)
Favorite haiku: 
little snail
slowly, slowly
climbs Mount Fuji
- Issa
Come! With each other
let's play little sparrow
without any mother!
- Kobayashi Issa
Haiku about snails
Haiku about butterflies
all the day teasing
the horse's ear
little butterfly
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
The fawn
Shakes off the butterfly,
And sleeps again.
-Kobayashi Issa, Trad. R.H. Blyth
riding piggy-back
a butterfly too is a pilgrim...
Zenko Temple
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Haiku about dragonflies
"have you come" was published in The Bulletin (October 2014)
have you come
to save us haiku poets?
red dragonfly
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
the distant mountains
are reflected in the eye
of the dragonfly
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Haiku about cats
spring rain -
a child gives a dance lesson
to the cat
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
ten kitten
ten
different colors
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Haiku about flies and insects
while I'm away
enjoy your lovemaking
hut's flies
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
swatting a fly
on Buddha's holy
head
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Even with insects-
some can sing,
some can't
- Kobayashi Issa (The Essential Haiu, Tr. Robet Hass, 1994)
green insect
and brown insect...
a duet
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
"It's cold!" was published in The Bulletin (September 2014)
"It's cold!"
the insects' complaining
has begun
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
a katydid
in the scarecrow's gut
singing
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
pointing
at the fart bug...
laughing Buddha
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
on the tip
of Buddha's nose...
a fart bug
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Haiku about birds
the mountain crow
laughs at the branch
I grafted
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
"first snowfall" was published in The Bulletin (December 2014)
first snowfall -
in a splendid mood
Sir Crow
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
the year's first snow
all trampled
by the crows
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
spring begins -
sparrows at my gate
with healthy faces
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
a talented one
posed on one foot...
rice field geese
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Haiku about frogs
stone still
for the smelling horse...
a frog
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
a masterly climb
to the top of the peony...
frog
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
morning cold -
the toad's eyes to
open wide
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
If a thief comes, change into frogs -- cooling melons (Kobayashi Issa)
a confusing mix
of rain and snow...
sping equinox
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Haiku about flowers
just being alive
I
and the poppy
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
watered by
the village dog...
chrysanthemum
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue, haikuguy.com/issa)
dangling in
the yellow roses
the bull's balls
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Haiku about winter
mushrooms congregate
on the tree stump...
winter rain
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
sitting room -
a crow drops
a snowball
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
the last snow pile -
even the sparrows
make fun of it
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
the nightingale follows
his mother...
first winter rain
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
"I will have nothing more to do
With this sordid worlds,"
ANd the dew rolls away.
- Kobayashi Issa (Haiku, R.H. Blyth, Hokuseido Press, 1984, p. 970)
Various haiku
If you jump flea
jump
on the lotus
- Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)
Biography
Issa lived a tough life. When his father died, his stepmother kicked him out of the house and he wandered for many years.
Kobayashi Issa loved writing haiku about animals and small creatures such as fleas, flies, and mice, which makes him one of the favorite Japanese haiku poets, especially for children.
I love illustrating Issa's haiku. Each small creature becomes a character in Old Pond Comics: the fly, the butterfly, the goose, the snail who climbed Mount Fuji and proves you are never too small to live a big adventure.
Enjoy these comics inspired by Issa's haiku.
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