Tonna (a pen name often romanized as Ton'a) was a poet and lay-monk who lived from 1289 to 1372. Born as Nikaido Sadamune into a military family, he formally entered the conservative Buddhist Tendai sect when he came of age, and also pursued a long-held interest in poetry by becoming a disciple of Nijo Tameyo, head of the Nijo poetic house.
It is thus that Tonna has become known as an apologist for the most conservative poetic school of his period, a reputation that has resulted in a certain lack of attention being paid his life and work. Japanese commentators down the ages have preferred more exciting poets from earlier periods, and contemporary Western scholars have followed this lead.
Scholar Steven Carter seeks to remedy this through the first full-length study of the priest-poet to appear in English. In "Just Living," Carter offers a reasoned biography of Tonna, a translation of 134 of his poems, 16 examples of his linked verse, and selections from one of his prose narratives.