Heart's Flower: The Life and Poetry of Shinkei

Rating:
Summary: Powerful study of an extremely important Japanese poet.
Review: This study is a model of lucidity and care. Ramirez-Christensen has gone beyond the Japanese language works that inform hers, and gives ample justification for her views of Bishop Shinkei, one of the key figures in medieval Japanese poetry. A disciple of Shotetsu, he wrote both tanka and renga, and was a teacher of Sogi in the latter. Through Sogi, he influenced Basho.

Those who love Basho will find Shinkei very much to their taste.

This work is key for a deep understanding of Japanese traditional poetics. Ramirez-Christensen is also one of our better academic translators; in her hands Shinkei's poems read as poems, not glosses.