Better than sex? Masaoka Shiki's haiku on food
Vincent, James K.
Stalker, N.K.
This chapter analyzes the food passions of Meiji-era poet and
inventor of the modern haiku Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902).
Bedridden for his final five years, he continued to obsessively
consume and write about choice morsels he demanded from
his family and disciples although his body was no longer
capable of digesting them. The chapter illustrates the
deceptive simplicity in Masaoka’s poetry and prose on food,
and how his use of descriptive minimalism, lists, and
personification worked to impart the “essences” of food and
the (homo)social relationships evoked by eating. It suggests
that Masaoka employed minimalism because language was
insufficient to wholly convey one individual's sensual
experience to another
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