The successful bidder for this item will receive a hardcover copy of Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death from Neko-Chan Trading Company.

Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann These death poems reflect important aspects of Japanese culture still largely unfamiliar to many Western readers. In Japan, the approach of death has occasionally been a time for poets to observe a centuries-old tradition of writing jisei, or the "death poem", often written in the very last moments of the poet's life. Hoffman explores the attitudes and customs surrounding death in historical and present-day Japan, and examines the development of writing jisei--from the poems of longing of the early nobility and the more "masculine" verses of the samurai to the satirical death poems of later centuries. 

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Details:

Hardcover.