EcoSangha Perspectives: Issa Kobayashi’s Haiku Poems and the Spirit of Mottainai

Issa Kobayashi (1763-1828) is generally regarded as one of the three greatest haiku poets of old Japan and the only one of the three who is distinctly Jodo Shinshu.  

In fact, Kobayashi was ordained as a Jodo Shinshu priest although he did not serve in a temple. For him, haiku poetry was his temple, pilgrimages were his spiritual practice and Jodo Shinshu flavored his inspiration.

My particular interest in this article is how Kobayashi’s haiku conveys a Jodo Shinshu spirit of mottainai although, as far as I know, the expression does not appear in his poems. However, Nembutsu, Amida Buddha and other Shinshu words appear often, as in:

“Growing old

Even while moon viewing

Taking refuge (namo) in Amida.

toshiyori ya tsuki o miru ni mo namo amida”

Of the three great haiku poets, Kobayashi is definitely the most loved for his many warm qualities, including humor, humility and kindness toward people and animals of all kinds. Kobayashi always saw his own life in that of other creatures and their life in his. That fellow-feeling is expressed in the following haiku that every Japanese child knows even today:

“Don’t kill that fly!

See how in fear it’s ringing

Its hands and feet!

yare utsu nah ae ga te o suri ashi o suru”

A great feudal lord (daimyo) had come to visit the shack that served as Kobayashi’s home and a fly landed near the daimyo. He was about to kill it with a blow of his hand when Kobayashi stopped him.

In Kobayashi’s day, people and homes were infested with flies, fleas, lice, mosquitos, etc. to an extent people today in the “developed” world would find intolerable. Think of the child sent home from school for lice and the furor it creates! Kobayashi had his limits. While on the one hand, he devoted many poems of kindness and sympathy to fleas, etc., he could only take so much, as we see in the following poems:

“The mouth

That cracked the flea

Uttered ‘Namo Amida Butsu.’

nomi kanda kuchi de namo amida butsu kana”

Over the years, how often I have washed invading ants down the drain while saying the Nembutsu. Of course, I’ve probably said a few less kind words before that! The following haiku follows in the same vein: 

“Troublesome flea 

By my hand

Become a Buddha!

abare nomi waga te kakatte joubutsu seyo”

“Become a Buddha” in popular Japanese culture means to die. While Kobayashi regrets killing the flea, he’s reached the limit of his not-so-boundless compassion. Still, he wishes the best for the flea in its next life. I include one more Jodo Shinshu inspired haiku before looking more deeply into them:

“In winter seclusion

While cooking a chicken

Saying the Nembutsu

fuyugomori tori ryori ni mo nembutsu kana”

Unlike religious traditions that believe animals were put here by a god to serve human needs, for instance, being eaten, Buddhists have no such belief and take full responsibility for living at the expense of other forms of life. With the kind of fellow-feeling for other creatures that Kobayashi had, we bow our heads and say “Itadakimasu” (“I humbly partake of this food.”) before eating.

There is a brand of frozen dinners that proclaims on the package, “Love what you eat” with a picture of a cow or whatever meat is in the ingredients (They have recently removed the picture but not the proclamation.). When I first saw this packaging, I wondered if the company realized the implications of what they were saying, “Love what you eat.”  It seems contradictory yet it brings us back to Kobayashi’s chicken and mottainai.

Kobayashi loved creatures of all kinds. With the cooked chicken, he loved what he ate. We could also say, “He ate what he loved.” My challenge as a Buddhist is to turn the food that sustains me into enlightened action, otherwise, my selfishly depriving another creature of life is, I believe, mottainai; I have wasted their life. Since I am a foolish being filled with blind passions, I say “Itadakimasu.” That vegetarians also live at the expense of other forms of life is the theme of my next Wheel of Dharma article.  

Returning to Kobayashi’s love and fellow-feeling for other creatures, I conclude my article with the following haiku:

“I’m about to turn over in bed

Look out

Katydid!

negaeri o suru zo soko noke kirigirisu”

Note: There are many books on Issa Kobayashi, both for adults and children. I particularly want to praise the translations and commentary of Professor David G. Lanoue, who has written several wonderful studies emphasizing Kobayashi’s Jodo Shinshu Buddhist orientation.  

Two of his books are “Pure Land Haiku: the Art of Priest Issa” (Buddhist Books International, Revised Second Print Edition, 2016 Copyright David G. Lanoue) and “Issa and the Meaning of Animals: A Buddhist Poet’s Perspective,” copyright 2014 by David G. Lanoue. Professor Lanoue maintains an extensive website: HaikuGuy.com and has served as President of the Haiku Society of America. The translations of Kobayashi’s haiku in this article are my own based on my limited knowledge of Japanese and comparing various translations of the same haiku poem.