Pure Land Haiku reviews
This is meticulous research illuminated by poetic instinct, spiritual insight and an intuitive, questioning haiku intelligence. Many oft-parrotted theories and supposed facts concerning Issa's life and poetics, as proposed by so-called 'heavyweights' of haiku criticism, are here incisively refuted ... Passionate students of haiku's authentic spirit will be filing their copies of this well-thumbed treasure between Shirane's Traces of Dreams and LaFleur's The Karma of Words. Superb.
—Keith J. Coleman, Presence vol. 25, January 2005
Reading Lanoue's Pure Land Haiku presents two primary benefits: First, by going deep into Pure Land Buddhism and its close relationship to Issa's haiku, the book reveals unsuspected depths and a more rounded richness in a poet too often dismissed as the author of poems appropriate for children. Second, this same process gives us a much greater appreciation for the breadth and diversity of haiku in Japan ...
—William J. Higginson, Frogpond 27:3 2004
A treasure chest for those who are interested in the mindset and haiku of this remarkable Japanese poet.
—Robert D. Wilson. Simply Haiku July/August 2004
Lanoue's book has a clear point of view of Issa as a follower of Pure Land Buddhism.
—Jon LaCure, Modern Haiku 35.1 Autumn 2004
Readers' Comments
It is doubtless and clearly the best book on Issa in English, and one of the best on haiku, as well.about the book Also by David G. Lanoue...
—John Martone
A wonderful guided tour of Issa's art, person and religion.
—Susumu Takiguchi
[Lanoue is] my kind of scholar—he uses his scholarship for anything rather than technicality, and his writing is warming—right to the cockles.
—H. F. Noyes
The book is wonderful; it is not only accurate on the poetry side, but also on the Buddhist side.
—Stanford M. Forrester
Kobayashi Issa Archive