SOURCE: "The Poetry of Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933)," in A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature, Kodansha International, 1988, pp. 145-47.

In the following essay, Rimer examines several poems from Spring and Asura that demonstrate Miyazawa's style and personal vision.

Matsuo Basho made famous the north country of Japan in his haiku journal The Narrow Road to the Deep North, in which he characterized the particular poetry of that area, still remote and mysterious for so many Japanese. Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933), one of the greatest of the modern poets, has through his brilliant and idiosyncratic poetry become the modern gatekeeper to the elusive beauty of the north and to the traditions harbored there, which he evoked through the powerful expressiveness of a self-trained and highly original spirit. Like Basho, Miyazawa seemed throughout his life to be on a quest. A sense of freedom and urgency runs through much of what he...