Taneda Santoka's poetry attracted limited notice during his lifetime (1882-1940), but there has been an upsurge of interest in him, both in Japan and abroad. Including 245 poems and selected diary excerpts, "For All My Walking" makes Santoka's work available to English speaking readers and students of haiku and Zen Buddhism. In April 1926, Santoka set off on the first of many walking trips, journeys in which he tramped literally thousands of miles through the Japanese countryside. Such journeys were often part of the religious training of Buddhist monks, particularly those of the Zen school. Although Santoka wrote conventional-style haiku in his youth, the vast majority of his works, and those for which he is most admired, are in free-verse form. He also left a number of diaries in which he frequently recorded the circumstances that led to the composition of a particular poem or group of poems.

Author Biography

Burton Watson's translations include The Selected Poems of Du Fu, The Lotus Sutra, The Vimalakirti Sutra, Ryokan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, Saigyo: Poems of a Mountain Home, and The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, all published by Columbia.