Identifying Anxiety With Issa

is this rain

only falling on me?

a common bird

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

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Kobayashi Yataro’s life has been marked by suffering. He suffered as a child, growing up without a mother and fighting with his family. He was forced from his home at 14 years old to wander Japan to make a living. As an adult, he lost his wife, three children, and ultimately his house. His second and third attempts at marriage failed too. Alone and aged by many lifetimes of suffering, Kobayashi took the pen name Issa, meaning “a cup of tea.” He became attentive to the small things in life and identified with them — he even adopted the most fleeting item in the universe as his moniker: a singular cup of tea. An item that is certainly to be forgotten not an hour after it is poured.

is this rain

only falling on me?

So often we forget that life — with its horrors — is endured by everyone on this earth. Issa asks the burning question on everybody’s mind: “Does this only happen to me?”

a common bird

Issa, who endured pain and suffering throughout his life, is telling us that he is like a common bird. That we are all common birds. There are no special qualities about a person that make them more susceptible to suffering in their life. Life is the rain that showers over us all — and we common birds are never alone in our suffering, even if it feels that way.

At the end of the day, paying attention to the little things will never fail to do us good — the rain, the birds, and that one cup of tea.

When that sudden rain comes, where do you go? Who do you seek shelter with?