Japanese Death Poems

This collection explores Japan's centuries-old tradition of jisei, or death poems, typically written in the final moments of a poet's life. The volume presents hundreds of translated Japanese death poems with accompanying commentaries describing the circumstances of each poet's death. It examines how attitudes toward death evolved through Japanese history, from early nobility's longing verses to samurai's martial poetry to later satirical works. The book includes perspectives on Zen Buddhist philosophy regarding death, Chinese death poems by Zen monks, and 320 haiku in both English translation and romanized Japanese.