Wednesday, December 06, 2006

HISTORY OF HAIKU
10 haikuists and their works

Chapter 4
Shiki Masaoka (1867 ~ 1902)

Shiki Masaoka appeared in the haiku world as the critic to Basho Matsuo. Shiki criticized Basho's famous haikus in his criticism "Basho Zatsudan" (Miscellanies about Basho). He didn't deny Basho's all works, but he reproached his hokkus for lack of poetic purity and for having explanatory prosaic elements.

On the other hand, he extolled Buson Yosa who had been unrecognized yet. He thought that Buson's haikus are technically refined and they transmit efficiently clear impressions to readers.
After the discovery of the Western philosophy, Shiki convinced that laconic descriptions of things were effective for literary and pictorial expression. He insisted on the importance of "shasei" (sketching). This idea led his haikus to the visual description and to the concise style.

The haiku innovation by Shiki created a great sensation in the whole of Japan and revived the languishing haiku world.

The tepid rain falls
On the bare thorn.


Thawed out pond.
A shrimp moves
Among old algae.

The cannon rolls its rumble.
Leaf buds of a tree.


How cool it is!
A small crab, in the rain,
Climbs on a pine.

Lotus leaves in the pond
Ride on water.
Rain in June.


Smoke whirls
After the passage of a train.
Young foliage.

The storm
During half-day
Has broken the stem of mallow.


We cannot see even the moon.
And rise big waves.

Above a hollow of rock
An ivy hangs.
One small temple.


The luffa flowered.
I am a soul
Choked with phlegm.

Shiki denied the value of haikai-renga and always used the word "haiku" instead of " haikai" or " hokku ". Today, haikai-renga is called "renku", but few specialists are interested in this poetic form.

Contribution by Ryu Yotsuya

Posted by iwan at 9:28 PM | | Comments

Sunday, December 03, 2006


HISTORY OF HAIKU
10 haikuists and their works

Chapter 3
Buson Yosa (1716 ~ 1783)

In the 18th century, haikai-renga became less popular and the haikuists put efforts into the creation of hokkus.

Buson, excellent painter and poet, succeeded in evoking clear images in his picturesque hokkus filled with light.

Buson's hokkus, different from Basho's, don't present philosophy, nor show emphatic gestures. His expressions are so refined that he has no equal in technique. He had genius and he could make feel the eternity beyond the landscape by describing only one peaceful scene.

His poems are descriptive, but their scenery is idealized rather than realistic. This means that he wanted to describe the essence of things, not their surfaces.

Buson's hokkus, which utilized linguistic function beauty completely, have charmed a lot of poets and had a big influence on the modern haiku.

However, they depend deeply on the function of Japanese and it is difficult to translate them into foreign languages.

The air shimmers
Whitish flight
Of an unknown insect.
Plowing the field
A immobile cloud has disappeared.
A kite floats
At the place in the sky
Where it floated yesterday.
Spring evening
To the half dying incense
I add it.
Short summer night
A dewdrop
On the back of a hairy caterpillar.
A mosquito buzzes
Every time flowers of honeysuckle fall.
Four or five men dance in a circle
Above them
The moon is about to drop.
The moon shines at the zenith
I pass poor quarters.
Being awake
He says he is already asleep
Autumn chilly night.
Waterfowls
One lantern comes out of the castle.

Contribution byRyu Yotsuya

Posted by iwan at 9:50 PM | | Comments


HISTORY OF HAIKU
10 haikuists and their works

Chapter 2
Basho Matsuo (1644 ~ 1694)

Basho Matsuo is known as the first great poet in the history of haikai (and haiku).
He too, wrote poems using jokes and plays upon words in his early stages, as they were in fashion, but began to attach importance to the role of thought in haikai (especially in hokku) from around 1680.

The thought of Tchouang-tseu, philosopher in the 4th century B.C., influenced greatly Basho, and he often quoted the texts of "The Book of master Tchouang" in his hokkus.

The thinker Tchouang-tseu denied the artificiality and the utilitarianism, seeing value of intellect low. He asserted that things seemingly useless had the real value, and that it was the right way of life not to go against the natural law.

To a leg of a heron
Adding a long shank
Of a pheasant.
Basho

This poem parodied the following text in "The Book of master Tchouang": "When you see a long object, you don't have to think that it is too long if being long is the property given by the nature. It is proved by the fact that a duckling, having short legs, will cry if you try to draw them out by force, and that a crane, having long legs, will protest you with tears if you try to cut them with a knife."

By playing on purpose in this haiku an act "jointing legs of birds by force" which Tchouang denied, he showed the absurdity of this act and emphasized the powerlessness of the human being's intelligence humorously.

Basho's haikus are dramatic, and they exaggerate humor or depression, ecstasy or confusion. These dramatic expressions have a paradoxical nature. The humor and the despair which he expressed are not implements to believe in the possibility of the human being and to glorify it. If anything, the literature of Basho has a character that the more he described men's deeds, the more human existence's smallness stood out in relief, and it makes us conscious of the greatness of nature's power.

The wind from Mt. Fuji
I put it on the fan.
Here, the souvenir from Edo.

*Edo: the old name of Tokyo..

Sleep on horseback,
The far moon in a continuing dream,
Steam of roasting tea.
Spring departs.
Birds cry
Fishes' eyes are filled with tears
Summer zashiki
Make move and enter
The mountain and the garden.

*zashiki: Japanese-style room covered with tatamis and open to the garden.

What luck!
The southern valley
Make snow fragrant.
A autumn wind
More white
Than the rocks in the rocky mountain.
From all directions
Winds bring petals of cherry
Into the grebe lake.
Even a wild boar
With all other things
Blew in this storm.
The crescent lights
The misty ground
Buckwheat flowers.
Bush clover in blossom waves
Without spilling
A drop of dew.

Note: Originally, Basho didn't write the poem "To a leg of a heron..." as a hokku, but as one of verses in a haikai-renga.This verse suggests the intention to laugh at himself: "What a stupid deed like drawing out a heron's leg it is to product one more series of haikai! Because it is produced so often."

Contribution by Ryu Yotsuya

Posted by iwan at 9:48 PM | | Comments


HISTORY OF HAIKU
10 haikuists and their works

Chapter 1
Before Basho

In Japan in the 15th century, a poetic form named "renga" blossomed.
Renga is a poem several poets create cooperatively. Members alternately add verses of 17 syllables (5, 7, and 5 syllables) and those of 14 syllables (7 and 7 syllables), until they complete a poem generally composed of 100 verses.

Renga was an dignified academic poem. Members were traditionally demanded to present their verses following the medieval aesthetics and quoting the classics.

In the 16th century, instead of renga, it was haikai - humorous poem - that became popular. Haikai (haikai-renga) is a poem made of verses of 17 and 14 syllables like renga, but it parodies renga introducing modern vulgar laughter. Haikai poets used plays on words and treated preferably things of daily life renga hadn't found interesting.

The first verse of renga and haikai is called "hokku". Haikai poets sometimes presented their hokkus as independent poems. These were the origin of haiku.

It was traditionally demanded to adopt a kigo (season word: word reffering to a season) in the first verse of renga and haikai. Therefore, they demand to introduce a kigo in a hokku (and in a haiku) too.

Contribution by Ryu Yotsuya

Posted by iwan at 9:44 PM | | Comments