"A significant contribution to scholarship in medieval poetics."
--Thomas H. Rohlich in The Journal of Asian Studies

"The translation displays the rigor and lucidity that characterized Brower's work throughout his career. Carter's introductory essay maintains these high standards."
--Roselee Bundy in Monumenta Nipponica

"The importance, value, and quality of this book are apparent immediately. Brower and Carter have produced an excellent book that I found not only informative, but enjoyable to read. [It] will serve to push waka studies in new directions."
--Robert N. Huey in the Journal of Japanese Studies

"A welcome introduction to a major poet who has heretofore received surprisingly little critical attention. The translation maintains the high standard long associated with the name of Robert H. Brower; and the illuminating literary biography, copious background information, and meticulous annotation provided by Steven Carter are wholly admirable."
--Helen Craig McCullough, Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley

"This work of superior scholarship is also a monument to the continuity of scholarship. This is a well conceived and executed book."
--Edward Seidensticker, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University

Conversations with Shôtetsu represents the first attempt to translate and analyze the late medieval poetic miscellany titled Shôtetsu monogatari. Written by a disciple of Shôtetsu (1381-1459), whom many scholars regard as the last great poet of the courtly tradition, this work provides information about the practice of poetry during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Robert Brower's translation is of the complete Nihon koten bungaku taikei text, edited by Hisamatsu Sen'ichi. Steven D. Carter has annotated the translation and provided an introduction that details Shotetsu's life, his place in the poetic circles of his day, and the relationship of his work to the larger poetic tradition of medieval Japan.