One of Japan's most gifted poets, Hosai Ozaki started out as an insurance salesman, but alcohol and despair finally led him to a small Buddhist temple on an island off Shikoku in southern Japan. There he spent his remaining days doing simple chores, subsisting on a diet of toasted rice and water, and writing about loneliness and poverty. Hosai's great gift was his ability to place himself at a slight distance from existence and observe with a razor-sharp awareness the everyday objects that inhabit our world: doorways, shadows, leaves, food containers, the fingers on a hand. The effect is magical and disturbing. Also here are Hosai's prose pieces from "On Entering a Temple House," which meditate on his past, on the workings of his mind, and on the sounds, smells, and views outside his temple window.
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Finding the essence of nature in its barest aspects is what gives Hosai's work its power... As each image sinks into one's mind it gathers a mystery about it that seems to hold the key to all of existence." -Cor van den Heuvel, Editor, The Haiku Anthology -- Review
"Very highly recommended." -Cicada -- Cicada
"Very highly recommended." -Cicada -- Cicada
Language Notes
Text: English
Original Language: Japanese
Original Language: Japanese
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Details of Simplicity.,
By cclinch@hotmail.com (Japan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Right Under the Big Sky, I Don't Wear a Hat (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature) (Paperback)
Whilst this is an account of lonliness, it certainly isn't one of despair. Ozaki's time spent alone gave him an extrordinary eye for detail and respect for the world around him. Pebbles are 'alive', flowers 'nod' to him. This book will calm and enchant by taking you to the nature of things with the gentlest of direction. It can make things come alive.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Swings: people have left and a crane walks up Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
papered doors, sutra recitation, temple house, big sky Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Shódo Island, Zen Monk Enshin New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Swings: people have left and a crane walks up Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
papered doors, sutra recitation, temple house, big sky Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Shódo Island, Zen Monk Enshin New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 7
books:
See all 7 books this book cites
7
books
cite this book:
See all 7 books citing this book
- The Haiku Anthology by Cor van den Heuvel in Front Matter
- One Hundred Frogs: From Renga to Haiku to English by Hiroaki Sato in Front Matter
- Essays in Idleness by Donald Keene on page 125
- Tales of the Spring Rain by Akinari Ueda on page 131
- From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Hiroaki Sato in Front Matter
See all 7 books this book cites
- Ravine and Other Stories (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature) by Yoshikichi Furui in Back Matter
- Ash by Holly Thompson in Back Matter
- Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature) by Kamo no Chomei in Back Matter
- Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature) by Matsuo Basho in Back Matter
- The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan by Suzanne Kamata in Back Matter
See all 7 books citing this book
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
