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Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶 , Kobayashi Issa ? ) (June 15, 1763 - January 5, 1828) was a Japanese poet, and Buddhist priest, known for his haiku poems and his journals. He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki. He was born Kobayashi Yataro (小林弥太郎) into a peasant family of Kashiwabara, Shinano Province (present-day Shinanomachi, Nagano prefecture). His mother died when he was three, and he was taken care by his grandmother. His father remarried when he was eight. His half-brother was born two years later. His grandmother died when he was 14. He was sent to Edo (present-day Tokyo) to eke out a living by his father one year later. Nothing of the next ten years of his life is known for certain. His name was associated with Kobayashi Chikua (小林竹阿) of the Nirokuan (二六庵) haiku school, but their relationship is not clear. He returned to his native village at the age of 29. During the following years, he wandered through Japan, fought over his inheritance with his stepmother (his father died in 1801), and married thrice late in his life, as well as producing a huge body of work. According to the Western Calendar, Issa died on January 5, 1828 in his native village. According to the old Japanese calendar, he died on the 19th day of Eleventh Month, Tenth Year of the Bunsei era. Since the Tenth Year of Bunsei roughly corresponds with 1827, many sources list this as his year of death. He wrote over 20,000 confessional and observational poems, which have won him readers up to the present day. Though his works were popular, he suffered great monetary instability. Despite a multitude of personal trials, his poetry reflects a childlike simplicity, making liberal use of local dialects and conversational phrases. His works include Oraga Haru (おらが春 "My Spring") and Shichiban Nikki (七番日記 "Number Seven Journal"). One of Issa's haiku, as translated by R.H. Blyth, appears in J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey :
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