The most human of the great haiku masters. Where Basho achieves transcendence, Issa wallows in ordinary sorrow and finds it beautiful. His haiku about his dying infant daughter ("This world of dew / is only a world of dew / and yet... and yet...") is among the most emotionally devastating lines in all of world literature. Issa makes haiku personal in ways Basho never quite did.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.