Haiku Japanese

The fascinating and quirky biography of a disheveled poet, skillfully interwoven with his original works.

Zen monk Santoka Taneda (1882–1940) is one of Japan's most beloved modern poets, famous for his "free-verse" haiku, the dominant style today.

With a history stretching back nearly 1500 years, Japan's literature encompasses a vast range of forms and genres. Since the eighth century, poetry and the non-philosophical lyric voice have occupied a central position in Japanese literary expression. The art of narrative blossomed in the eleventh century with one of the world's great literary masterpieces, Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and later in the work of the great modern novelists Natsume Sôseki, Tanizaki Jun'ichirô, Kawabata Yasunari, Kôbo Abe and Ôe Kenzaburô.