No mere "child's poet," Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) is an aware and committed artist who celebrates, in a lifetime of haiku, the "Other Power" of Amida Buddha: a power that transforms the individual and universe or, more exactly, the individual/universe in their inseparableness. This is the first book-length English-language treatment of this remarkable Japanese poet in relation to his joyful, "priestly" mission.