Haiku by Kobayashi Issa, loved for his poems about small creatures and everyday life, with furigana, translations, vocabulary and grammar.
25 haiku by Issa, each with its own short chapter:
- The haiku in Japanese with furigana, a romanized reading and an English translation.
- The seasonal word (季語, kigo) explained, plus other ways to translate the poem, from literal to free.
- A short commentary in Japanese, with furigana and its own vocabulary list.
- Vocabulary and grammar for every line, and a plain-English look at what the poem means.
- Audio of every haiku and every commentary. Scan the QR code on the page to listen.
What you get
- The paperback, 2026 Revised Edition: 124 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches.
- The eBook and audio, right away. PDF, ePub, MP3 audio and an Anki flashcard deck, ready to download as soon as you order. No waiting for the mail.
- The book in the Makoto+ Japanese Explorer app (iPhone, iPad and Android). It unlocks automatically for the email you order with, and the unlock code is printed in the back of the book too.
This book is part of our Japanese Culture collection. Prefer to go all digital? The Japanese Culture bundle has seven books: five haiku books (two of Bashō, plus Buson, Issa and Shiki), Japanese Sentences: Haiku and Karate Vocabulary as eBooks with audio.
Buy 3 Clay & Yumi paperbacks, get a 4th free. Mix any titles. The discount is applied automatically at checkout.
Ships from the US to anywhere in the world.
Learn Japanese through Haiku: Kobayashi Issa is a 124-page paperback (2026 Revised Edition) with 25 haiku by Issa, each in Japanese with furigana, a translation, the seasonal word, a Japanese commentary, line-by-line vocabulary and grammar, and native audio. The code printed in the back unlocks the book in the free Makoto+ Japanese Explorer app for iPhone, iPad and Android.
