The Bush Warbler’s Oracle

by Christopher Mosdell

This volume concludes the titanic trilogy of Mosdell’s cultural synergism that envelops the Japanese nation. It represents the final section of the classic “sho/chiku/bai” (pine/bamboo/plum) motif that embodies the attributes of “steadfastness, perseverance, and resilience”, providing an allegory for the weathering of intemperate times.

Included here are THE 44 HEADCOUNTS, the meditative imageries that hypothetically swirl in the cranial spheres of a selection of citizens in Kyoto; THE HEAVY DEW HAIKU: a series of unique “expanded” haiku, based on the Japanese poet ISSA’S pronouncement that “The world of dew is only a world of dew, and yet. . . “; THE THOUSAND DAY TRANCE, a vast narrative rant of one hundred pages mimicking the collection of poet’s eclectic manga; EIGHT NOH PLAYS (including anecdotal episodes of some of the country’s heroic figures, including Yukio Mishima, the diarist Sei Shonagon and the tea master Sen no Rikyu.) and lastly THE NAMES, The Mystic 500, derived from the celebrated tale of Nyogo no Shima––the Isle of Woman––recounted by the seventeenth century writer Ihara Saikaku.

“The startling multifaceted vision of what truly lies behind both the tradition and the modern”
––Eiichi Yoshimura

“A seductive work of vibrant beauty.”
–Uwe Schmidt (Atom TM)

Published by Edokko Editions, 2026