Vincent, James K.Stalker, N.K.2021-10-212021-10-212018Vincent, J. (2018-07-05). Better Than Sex?: Masaoka Shiki’s Poems on Food. In Devouring Japan: Global Perspectives on Japanese Culinary Identity. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 Aug. 2021, from https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190240400.001.0001/oso-9780190240400-chapter-13.https://hdl.handle.net/2144/43194This 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 anotherp. 220 - 241en-US© Oxford University Press, 2018. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.Masaoka, ShikiModern haikuChoice morselPoetryProseSimplicityDescriptive minimalismSensual experienceBook chapter10.1093/oso/9780190240400.003.0013177222