These two handy pocket-size volumes are the first of four to be issued by the Red Moon Press, all dealing with the haiku poet Kaneko Tohta (b. 1919), and intended to introduce his work to a wider readership abroad. The other two, scheduled for later this year, will be translations of his haiku. This is not the first time Kaneko's work has been translated, but it is by far the most substantial introduction to it.
The compact burly figure of Kaneko has been for a number of years a familiar figure on television, and some of the footage from programs in which he appeared was incorporated into a DVD called "Ikimono" (Kinokuniya, 2009) in which he spoke about and read his work. "Ikimonofuei" consists of a translation of a lecture that he gave to the Modern Haiku Association in Japan in 2009, outlining his approach to haiku composition. It does not deal with small matters like syllables and images, but larger and more basic questions.
The word ikimono means "living things" and in the characteristically bold opening to his talk Kaneko sets himself firmly in opposition to the ideas of Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959), whose conservative practice had wide influence and a large following throughout the 20th century in Japan.