{{short description|Japanese poet and painter}} {{family name hatnote|Yosa|lang=Japanese}} {{More citations needed|date=October 2011}} [[File:Yosa Buson uk.jpg|thumb|200px|Yosa Buson, drawing by Matsumura Goshun]] thumb|600px|Xiao He chases Han Xin by Yosa Buson (Nomura Art Museum) thumb|200px|Yosa Buson, Crows and Falcon {{nihongo|'''Yosa (no) Buson'''|与謝 蕪村||{{IPA|ja|joꜜ.sa {{pipe}} bɯꜜ.soɴ}}<ref>{{cite book|script-title=ja:新明解日本語アクセント辞典|edition=2nd|editor-last=Kindaichi|editor-first=Haruhiko|editor-link=Haruhiko Kindaichi|editor-last2=Akinaga|editor-first2=Kazue|publisher=Sanseidō|date=10 March 2025|lang=ja}}</ref>}} was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. He lived from 1716 – January 17, 1784.<ref>{{cite web |title=Buson (Japanese artist and poet) |website=Britannica Online Encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/86315/Buson |access-date=2013-02-17}}</ref> Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art,<ref>{{Cite book|last=都島区役所総務課|url=https://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/miyakojima/page/0000083259.html|title=蕪村と都島|publisher=都島の歴史に関する調査研究委員会|year=1996|location=Japan|pages=2|language=Japanese}}</ref> working with haibun prose, and experimenting with a mixed Chinese-Japanese style of poetry.<ref name="UHI Press-2013-2">{{Cite book |title=An Edo anthology : literature from Japan's mega-city, 1750-1850 |date=2013 |publisher=University of Hawai{{okina}}i Press |editor=Kenji Watanabe |editor2=Sumie Jones |isbn=978-0-8248-3776-1 |location=Honolulu |oclc=859157616}}</ref>

== Biography ==

=== Early life, training, and travels === Buson was born in the village of Kema in Settsu Province (present-day Kema, Miyakojima Ward, Osaka). His original family name was Taniguchi. Buson scarcely discussed his childhood, but it is commonly thought that he was the illegitimate son of the village head and a migrant worker from Yoza.<ref name="UHI Press-2013">{{Cite book |title=An Edo anthology : literature from Japan's mega-city, 1750-1850 |date=2013 |publisher=University of Hawai{{okina}}i Press |editor=Kenji Watanabe |editor2=Sumie Jones |isbn=978-0-8248-3776-1 |location=Honolulu |oclc=859157616}}</ref> According to the Taniguchi family in Yosano, Kyoto, Buson was the son of a servant woman named Gen, who had come to work in Osaka and had a child with her master. A grave of Gen survives in Yosano. There is an oral tradition that the young Buson had been cared for at the Seyaku-ji temple in Yosano, and later, when Buson returned to Tango Province, he gave the temple a folding screen painting as a gift.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 6, 2019 |title=与謝野蕪村／遅咲きの文人 丹後の寄り道 |pages=9–11 |work=The Nikkei, morning edition}}</ref>

Around the age of 20, Buson moved to Edo (present-day Tokyo). He learned poetry under the tutelage of the haikai master Hayano Hajin, who named the house he taught in Yahantei (Midnight Pavilion). After Hajin died, Buson moved to Shimōsa Province (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture). Following in the footsteps of his idol, Matsuo Bashō, Buson travelled through the wilds of northern Honshū that had been the inspiration for Bashō's famous travel diary, ''Oku no Hosomichi'' (''The Narrow Road to the Interior''). He published his notes from the trip in 1744, marking the first time he published under the name Buson.

After travelling through various parts of Japan, including Tango (the northern part of present-day Kyoto Prefecture) and Sanuki Province (present-day Kagawa Prefecture), Buson settled down in the city of Kyoto at the age of 42. Around this time, he began to write under the name of Yosa, which he took from his mother's birthplace (Yosa, Tango Province).<ref>Henry Trubner, Tsugio Mikami, Idemitsu Bijutsukan. ''Treasures of Asian art from the Idemitsu Collection''. Seattle Art Museum, 1981. {{ISBN|978-0-932216-06-9}} p174</ref>

Between 1754 and 1757, Buson worked on the collection of haiga-style picture scrolls, ''Buson yōkai emaki''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Zusetsu Yōkaiga no keifu |date=2009 |publisher=Kawade Shobō Shinsha |author=Hyōgo Kenritsu Rekishi Hakubutsukan |isbn=978-4-309-76125-1 |edition=Shohan |location=Tōkyō |oclc=319499848}}</ref>

Buson married at the age of 45 and had one daughter, Kuno. At the age of 51, he left his wife and children in Kyoto and went to Sanuki Province to work on many works.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shin 'chi|first=Fujita|title=別冊太陽 与謝蕪村 画俳ふたつの道の達人|publisher=平凡社|year=2012|isbn=978-4-582-92202-8|location=Japan|pages=170|language=Japanese}}</ref>

=== Later work and death === After returning to Kyoto again, he wrote and taught poetry at the ''Sumiya''. As models for his pupils, he singled out four of Bashō's disciples: Kikaku, Kyorai, Ransetsu, and Sodō.<ref>S Addiss, ''The Art of Haiku'' (2012) p. 192</ref> In 1770, he assumed the ''{{ill|haigō|jp|俳号|vertical-align=sup}}'' ({{lang|ja|俳号}}, haiku pen name) of Yahantei II ({{lang|ja|夜半亭}}二世, "Midnight Studio"), which had been the pen name of his teacher Hajin.

Buson died at the age of 68 and was buried at Konpuku-ji temple in Kyoto.

The cause of death was previously diagnosed as severe diarrhea, but recent investigations indicate that it was myocardial infarction.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sugiura|first=Morikuni|title=江戸期文化人の死因|publisher=思文閣出版|year=2008|isbn=978-4-7842-1422-8|location=Japan|language=Japanese}}</ref>

His work is kept in many museums worldwide, including the Seattle Art Museum,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Works – Yosa Buson – Artists – eMuseum|url=http://art.seattleartmuseum.org/people/2617/yosa-buson;jsessionid=C541D1B97EDD5E63C6C44852D22313A7/objects|access-date=2021-01-07|website=art.seattleartmuseum.org}}</ref> the Metropolitan Museum of Art,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/671023?searchField=All&amp;sortBy=Relevance&amp;ft=Yosa+Buson&amp;offset=0&amp;rpp=20&amp;pos=1 |title=Travels through Mountains and Fields |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref> the University of Michigan Museum of Art,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Exchange: Crows Flying Through Rain|url=https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/38853/view|access-date=2021-01-07|website=exchange.umma.umich.edu|archive-date=2023-02-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230216145612/https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/38853/view|url-status=dead}}</ref> the Harvard Art Museums,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Harvard|title=From the Harvard Art Museums' collections Crossing a Mountain Stream by a Bridge|url=https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/20492|access-date=2021-01-07|website=harvardartmuseums.org|language=en|archive-date=2021-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113024544/https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/20492|url-status=dead}}</ref> the Worcester Art Museum,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Travelers on Horseback on a Mountain in Spring {{!}} Worcester Art Museum|url=https://www.worcesterart.org/collection/Japanese/1961.7.html|access-date=2021-01-07|website=www.worcesterart.org}}</ref> the Kimbell Art Museum,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Landscape with a Solitary Traveler {{!}} Kimbell Art Museum|url=https://www.kimbellart.org/collection/ap-198118|access-date=2021-01-07|website=www.kimbellart.org|language=en}}</ref> and the British Museum.<ref>{{Cite web|title=hanging scroll; painting {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1913-0501-0-426|access-date=2021-01-07|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>

==Sample poems== :{{lang|ja|隅々に残る寒さや梅の花}} :''Sumizumi ni nokoru samusa ya ume no hana''

:In nooks and corners :Cold remains: :Flowers of the plum :(translated by RH Blyth)<ref>Blyth, R.H., (translator). ''Haiku: Spring. Volume 2 of Haiku'', Hokuseido Press, 1981, {{ISBN|978-0-89346-159-1}} p572</ref>

=== Peony Petals === Peony petals

fall, two or three

on each other<ref name="UHI Press-2013" />

'''Other Hokku'''

the morning glory—

in each flower, the color

of a deep pool<ref name="Ueda-1998">{{Cite book |editor-last=Ueda |editor-first=Makoto |title=The path of flowering thorn : the life and poetry of Yosa Buson |date=1998 |isbn=0-8047-3042-3 |location=Stanford, California |publisher=Stanford University Press |oclc=38112454}}</ref>

spring drizzle

barely enough to moisten

seashells on the beach<ref name="Ueda-1998" />

== Reception == Buson believed that poems should be natural, without strict rules or guidelines. His training in Yahantei had promoted a light-hearted approach that stressed individual style, rather than replicating the work of a master. Because of Buson's lack of interest in the modern trends of his time in terms of poetry, his works were considered by some to be outdated.

Buson's paintings, on the other hand, were more widely accepted in his time. Painting was the main source of his income, so he could not afford to approach it as he did poetry.<ref name="UHI Press-2013-2" />

==English editions== * The King of Hell's Mouth. Calambac Publishing House, Germany 2017, ISBN 978-3-943117-94-3.

==See also== *Buson yōkai emaki, ''emakimono'' by Buson

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category}} {{Wikiquote}} *[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/153737 Bridge of dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art], a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Yosa Buson (see index)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yosa, Buson}} Category:1716 births Category:1783 deaths Category:Writers of the Edo period Category:18th-century Japanese painters Category:People from Miyakojima, Osaka Category:Writers from Osaka Category:18th-century Japanese poets Category:Japanese haiku poets Category:Artists from Osaka Prefecture