This impressive new scholarly translation and commentary on the key work of J do Shinsh 's 8th lineage successor to founder Shinran is an extremely valuable contribution by one of the leading academics in the field. Professor Kemmyo Taira Sato is Director of the Three Wheels Shin Buddhist Temple in London, and Visiting Professor at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. Featuring a detailed chronology of Rennyo's life, an exhaustive bibliography of primary and secondary sources, a glossary, five appendices and a detailed index.

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) is widely acknowledged as the greatest of all the Japanese haiku poets. In the original Japanese, the two defining features of the haiku form are its 5-7-5 sound unit format (the syllable being the corresponding unit in English) and its rhythm. This selection of three hundred of Basho's finest haiku represents the first successful strict translation into English haiku of what was actually written, some 350 years ago, by a genius of the form. The renditions are beautiful; the crucial cadences are retained.