Core Articles

Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶, born Kobayashi Nobuyuki, June 15, 1763, Kashiwabara, Shinano province [present-day Nagano prefecture], Japan; childhood name Kobayashi Yatarō; died January 5, 1828, Kashiwabara), Japanese haiku poet. Issa is revered in Japan and internationally as one of the greatest poets of the haikai tradition, ranked with Matsuo Bashō and Yosa Buson.

The Matsuyama Declaration, signed by six prominent haiku specialists from Japan, the U.S.A., and France, was made public at the Shimanamikaido ’99 International Haiku Convention in Matsuyama, Japan, on July 18, 1999. The document called for the recognition of haiku as world poetry and welcomed all poets around the world who possess “the haiku spirit” to join together in studies and activities; proposed the establishment of an International Haiku Research Center biennial international conferences, and a prestigious Masaoka Shiki Prize; and asserted the importance in world haiku of Matsuyama, the center of the haiku reform movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.