Juxtaposing haiku and prints on the theme of flowers and trees through the four seasons, this book recreates a mediative walk through a garden over the course of a year. Haiku by poets such as Basho and Buson are included, as well as reproductions of prints by Kitagawa Utamaro, and Hanabusa Itcho.

Filled with lush illustrations, this counting book reveals both the pleasure and the tranquility of the Japanese garden, while introducing haiku poetry, with eleven poems that are simple and easy to follow. Follow along as the young girl explores the beauty of the garden, and discover the fun of haiku.

Juxtaposing haikus and prints on the theme of the most beautiful landscapes of Japan, this volume looks at its mountains and forests, rivers and streams, beaches and rugged seascapes. Over 120 haiku by such well-known and beloved poets as Basho, Issa and Buson are included, as well as both full colour and black and white reproductions of prints by such masters as Korin, Sekka and Ike no Taiga. In his introduciton, Stephen Addiss writes of the unique Japanese attitude towards nature and the manner in which they incorporate this sensibility into poetry, and briefly reviews the various styles of the art presented.

The garden as a poem. Not simply a beautiful design to be appreciated by looking, but a living poem that can actually be read. That is the way gardens were thought of in Japan during the Heian period (794-1185). In that ancient society, a detailed understanding of poetry was an essential part of life for people in the literate classes. Poetic anthologies were learned by heart and all manner of communications either included poems or were interwoven with references to poetry. A central aspect of Heian-period poetry was that it employed images of nature as symbols of human emotions. A lonely pine tree on a windswept, rocky seashore evoked the bitter sadness of someone waiting for their lover. A scene of cut reeds, fallen and scattered this way and that, was a standard epithet to express unsettled, scattered emotions.When gardens were built, many of those same elements of nature - pines and reeds and so many more - were also incorporated into the designs. When gardens were viewed, they were understood not simply as objects of visual beauty, but as being filled with allegorical meanings drawn from poetry. These visual cues triggered in the minds of people in the garden the memory of poems they knew, and acted as catalysts in the creation of new ones. The word for poem, uta, was the same as that for song, and poems at that time were often sung or chanted, rather than spoken. In this way, the poetic elements were like songs in the garden.The author, Marc Peter Keane, is well-known both as a garden designer and writer. Having lived 18 years in Kyoto, Japan, he brings ample first hand knowledge to the subject. Songs in the Garden not only describes the nature of gardens in Japan 1000 years ago, but also suggests a new paradigm for understanding what gardens can mean to us today.

The haiku of acclaimed novelist Richard Wright, written at the end of his...

Lovers of Japanese meditation gardens, tea ceremonies, exquisite rice papers and finely bound collections of haiku will be charmed by the handmade look and feel of this beautiful volume. Each exquisite verse and original woodcut expresses a thought— based on elements of the garden—for making life more beautiful.

In the sixteenth century, Zen monks in Japan developed the haiku, an unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines. Now, in One Hundred Great Books in Haiku, David Bader has applied this ancient poetic form to the classics. From Homer to Milton to Dostyevsky, the great books are finally within reach of even the shortest attention spans!