Yosa Buson Overview

Taniguchi Buson, or Yosa Buson, was an influential painter and poet during the Edo period. Born in a suburb of Osaka, Japan, Buson was an orphan who eventually moved to Edo to study painting and haiku poetry in the tradition of... [more]

Taniguchi Buson, or Yosa Buson, was an influential painter and poet during the Edo period. Born in a suburb of Osaka, Japan, Buson was an orphan who eventually moved to Edo to study painting and haiku poetry in the tradition of Basho. He first gained notice for his visual art -- like much traditional haiku poetry, his paintings use nature and its mysterious spiritual resources as its inspiration. In 1771 he painted a famous set of ten screens with his great contemporary Ike no Taiga, which cemented his reputation. However, Buson showed even more artistic complexity as a haiku master. Buson's painting informed his poetry, lending it an objective point of view and clear, visually detailed imagery. Unlike the work of Basho, Buson's haiku does not meditate on philosophical, humane issues. Instead, Buson idolized the perfect (if impersonal) beauty of nature. His descriptive poetry is more stylized than realistic, more consciously composed than technically transparent. It uses idealized landscapes to embody the essences of objects. In fact, he pared down language to such essences that translation is often difficult. Buson started a poets' group in the late 1760s; in 1776 the organization built a Bashoan (Basho house) for gatherings. Despite his poetic brilliance, Buson was remembered primarily for his painting until modern Japanese writers Masaoka Shiki and Hagiwara Sakutaro revived his reputation as a poet. [show less]