From the Preface: These volumes, the first of two, traces the history of haiku from its beginnings in renga to the uncertainties of present-day haiku. Haiku are not very amenable to a chronological treatment. Haiku are moments of vision, and the history of moments is hardly possible. If we were to choose verses which are typical of each poet, it would not be so difficult to make out some sort of development, but if it is the best verses which we select, there must a sameness throughout, a more or less constant level of excellence in which it is difficult to distinguish one writer from another. A compromise has been effected by choosing the best of as many writers as possible, thus illustrating the ups and downs of haiku history. The religious naturalism and profound simplicity of Basho, the versatility of Buson, the artfully artless art of Issa, the objective dryness yet pregnancy of Shiki, and the decadence of all later writers is thus not obscured. A fair number of not first-class verses being inevitably included, the reader, making a virtue of necessity, may actually learn more about the nature of haiku by considering the failures and near-hits rather than the successes.--page v.