Kobayashi Issa

Kobayashi Issa 小林 一茶
Issa's portrait drawn by Muramatsu Shunpo 1772-1858 (Issa Memorial Hall, Shinano, Nagano, Japan)
Born	Kobayashi Nobuyuki (小林 信之) (1763-06-15)June 15, 1763 Near Shinano-machi, Shinano Province, Japan
Died	January 5, 1828(1828-01-05) (aged 64) Shinano-machi, Shinano Province, Japan
Pen name	Issa (一茶)
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Japanese

Kobayashi Issa (小林 一茶, June 15, 1763 – January 5, 1828)^[1] was a Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū. He is known for his haiku poems and journals. He is better known as simply Issa (一茶), a pen name meaning Cup-of-tea^[2] (lit. "one [cup of] tea"). He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki — "the Great Four."^[3]

Reflecting the popularity and interest in Issa as man and poet, Japanese books on Issa outnumber those on Buson and almost equal in number those on Bashō.^[4]