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Haiku (俳句, 
listen (help·info), haikai verse?) (plural: haiku) is a very short form of
Japanese poetry. It is typically characterised by three qualities:
- The essence of haiku is "cutting" (kiru).[1] This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji ("cutting word") between them,[2]
a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of
separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are
related.
- Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae), in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively.[3]
- A kigo (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a saijiki, an extensive but defined list of such words.
Modern Japanese haiku
(現代俳句 gendai-haiku?) are increasingly unlikely to follow the tradition of 17
on
(syllables) or to take nature as their subject, but the use of
juxtaposition continues to be honored in both traditional and modern
haiku.
[4]
There is a common, although relatively recent, perception that the
images juxtaposed must be directly observed everyday objects or
occurrences.
[5]
In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical
line while haiku in English often appear in three lines to parallel the
three phrases of Japanese haiku.
[6]
Previously called
hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer
Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.
Kiru and Kireji
The essence of haiku is "cutting" (
kiru).
[1] This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a
kireji ("cutting word") between them,
[2]
In Japanese haiku a
kireji, or cutting word, typically appears at the end of one of the verse's three phrases. A
kireji fills a role somewhat analogous to a
caesura in classical western poetry or to a
volta in
sonnets.
Depending on which cutting word is chosen, and its position within the
verse, it may briefly cut the stream of thought, suggesting a parallel
between the preceding and following phrases, or it may provide a
dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense of
closure.
[7]
The fundamental aesthetic quality of both hokku and haiku is that it
is internally sufficient, independent of context, and will bear
consideration as a complete work.
[citation needed] The
kireji lends the verse structural support,
[8] allowing it to stand as an independent poem.
[9][10] The use of
kireji distinguishes haiku and hokku from second and subsequent verses of
renku
which, although they may employ semantic and syntactic disjuncture,
even to the point of occasionally end-stopping a phrase with a
shōjoshi (少女詩 sentence ending particle), do not generally employ
kireji.
[citation needed]
In English, since
kireji have no direct equivalent, poets
sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis, or an implied
break to create a juxtaposition intended to prompt the reader to reflect
on the relationship between the two parts.
The
kireji in the
Bashō examples "old pond" and "the wind of Mt Fuji" are both "ya" (や). Neither the remaining Bashō example nor the Issa example contain a
kireji although they do both balance a fragment in the first five
on against a phrase in the remaining 12
on (it may not be apparent from the English translation of the Issa that the first five
on mean "Edo's rain").
Syllables or on in haiku
In comparison with English verse typically characterized by syllabic
meter, Japanese verse counts sound units known as "
on" or
morae. Traditional haiku consist of 17
on, in three phrases of five, seven and five
on respectively. Among contemporary poems
teikei (定型 fixed form) haiku continue to use the 5-7-5 pattern while
jiyuritsu (自由律 free form) haiku do not.
[citation needed] One of the
examples below illustrates that traditional haiku masters were not always constrained by the 5-7-5 pattern.
Although the word "
on" is sometimes translated as "syllable," one
on is counted for a short syllable, two for an
elongated vowel,
diphthong, or
doubled consonant,
and one for an "n" at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word "haibun,"
though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four
on in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n); and the word "
on" itself, which English-speakers would view as a single syllable, comprises two
on: the short vowel
o and the
moraic nasal n̩. This is illustrated by the
Issa haiku below, which contains 17
on but only 15 syllables. Conversely, some
sounds, such as "kyo" (きょ) may look like two syllables to English speakers but are in fact a single
on (as well as a single syllable) in Japanese.
The word
onji (音字; "sound symbol") is sometimes used in referring to Japanese sound units in English
[11] although this word is no longer current in Japanese.
[citation needed] In Japanese, each
on corresponds to a
kana character (or sometimes
digraph) and hence
ji (or "character") is also sometimes used as the count unit.
[citation needed]
In 1973, the
Haiku Society of America noted that the norm for writers of
haiku in English was to use 17 syllables, but they also noted a trend toward shorter haiku.
[12]
Some translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about 12 syllables in English approximate the duration of 17 Japanese
on.
[13]
Kigo
A haiku traditionally contains a
kigo, a word or phrase that symbolizes or implies the season of the poem and which is drawn from a
saijiki, an extensive but prescriptive list of such words.
Kigo are often in the form of
metonyms[citation needed] and can be difficult for those who lack Japanese cultural references to spot.
[citation needed] The
Bashō examples below
include "kawazu", "frog" implying spring, and "shigure", a rain shower
in late autumn or early winter. Kigo are not always included in
non-Japanese haiku or by modern writers of Japanese "free-form" haiku.
[citation needed]
Examples
The best-known Japanese haiku
[14] is
Bashō's "old pond":
- 古池や蛙飛び込む水の音
- ふるいけやかわずとびこむみずのおと (transliterated into 17 hiragana)
- furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto (transliterated into romaji)
This separates into
on as:
- fu-ru-i-ke ya (5)
- ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7)
- mi-zu-no-o-to (5)
Translated:
[15]
- old pond . . .
- a frog leaps in
- water's sound
Another haiku by Bashō:
- 初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也
- はつしぐれさるもこみのをほしげなり
- hatsu shigure saru mo komino wo hoshige nari[16]
This separates into
on as:
- ha-tsu shi-gu-re (5)
- sa-ru mo ko-mi-no wo (7)
- ho-shi-ge na-ri (5)
Translated:
- the first cold shower
- even the monkey seems to want
- a little coat of straw
This haiku by Bashō illustrates that he was not always constrained to a 5-7-5
on pattern. It contains 18
on in the pattern 6-7-5 ("ō" or "おう" is treated as two
on.)
- 富士の風や扇にのせて江戸土産
- ふじのかぜやおうぎにのせてえどみやげ
- fuji no kaze ya ōgi ni nosete Edo miyage[17]
This separates into "on" as:
- fu-ji no ka-ze ya (6)
- o-o-gi ni no-se-te (7)
- e-do mi-ya-ge (5)
Translated:
- the wind of Mt. Fuji
- I've brought on my fan!
- a gift from Edo
This haiku by
Issa[18] illustrates that 17 Japanese
on do not always equate to 17 English syllables ("nan" counts as two
on and "nonda" as three.)
- 江戸の雨何石呑んだ時鳥
- えどのあめなんごくのんだほととぎす
- edo no ame nan goku nonda hototogisu
This separates into "on" as,
- e-do no a-me (5)
- na-n go-ku no-n-da (7)
- ho-to-to-gi-su (5)
Translated:
- how many gallons
- of Edo's rain did you drink?
- cuckoo
Origin and development
From renga to renku to haiku
Main articles:
Renga and
Renku is the opening stanza of an orthodox collaborative linked poem, or
renga, and of its later derivative,
renku (or
haikai no renga). By the time of
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the hokku had begun to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in
haibun (a combination of prose and hokku), and
haiga (a combination of painting with hokku). In the late 19th century,
Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) renamed the standalone hokku to haiku.
[19]
The latter term is now generally applied retrospectively to all hokku
appearing independently of renku or renga, irrespective of when they
were written, and the use of the term hokku to describe a stand-alone
poem is considered obsolete.
[20]
Bashō
Main articles:
Matsuo Bashō and
Hokku
In the 17th century, two masters arose who elevated
haikai and gave it a new popularity. They were
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) and
Ueshima Onitsura (ja) (1661–1738).
Hokku is the first verse of the collaborative
haikai or
renku, but its position as the opening verse made it the most important, setting the tone for the whole composition. Even though
hokku had sometimes appeared individually, they were always understood in the context of
renku.
[21] The Bashō school promoted standalone
hokku by including many in their anthologies, thus giving birth to what is now called "haiku". Bashō also used his
hokku as torque points within his short prose sketches and longer travel diaries. This subgenre of
haikai is known as
haibun. His best-known work,
Oku no Hosomichi, or
Narrow Roads to the Interior, is counted as one of the classics of Japanese literature
[22] and has been translated into English extensively.
Bashō was deified by both the imperial government and
Shinto
religious headquarters one hundred years after his death because he
raised the haikai genre from a playful game of wit to sublime poetry. He
continues to be revered as a saint of poetry in Japan, and is the one
name from classical Japanese literature that is familiar throughout the
world.
[23]
Buson
The next famous style of haikai to arise was that of
Yosa Buson (1716–1783) and others such as Kitō, called the Tenmei style after the
Tenmei Era (1781–1789) in which it was created.
Buson is recognized as one of the greatest masters of
haiga
(an art form where painting is combined with haiku or haikai prose).
His affection for painting can be seen in the painterly style of his
haiku.
[24]
Issa
Main article:
Kobayashi Issa
No new popular style followed Buson. However, a very individualistic,
and at the same time humanistic, approach to writing haiku was
demonstrated by the poet
Kobayashi Issa (1763–1827), whose miserable childhood, poverty, sad life, and devotion to the
Pure Land sect of
Buddhism are evident in his poetry. Issa made the genre immediately accessible to wider audiences.
Shiki
Main article:
Masaoka Shiki
(1867–1902) was a reformer and modernizer. A prolific writer, even
though chronically ill during a significant part of his life, Shiki
disliked the 'stereotype' haikai writers of the 19th century who were
known by the deprecatory term
tsukinami, meaning 'monthly', after the monthly or twice-monthly
haikai gatherings of the end of the 18th century (in regard to this period of
haikai, it came to mean 'trite' and 'hackneyed'). Shiki also criticized Bashō.
[citation needed] Like the Japanese
intellectual
world in general at that time, Shiki was strongly influenced by Western
culture. He favored the painterly style of Buson and particularly the
European concept of
plein-air painting, which he adapted to create a style of haiku as a kind of nature sketch in words, an approach called
shasei (写生), literally 'sketching from life'. He popularized his views by verse columns and
essays in
newspapers.
Hokku up to the time of Shiki, even when appearing independently, were written in the context of renku.
[21] Shiki formally separated his new style of verse from the context of collaborative poetry. Being
agnostic,
[25] he also separated it from the influence of Buddhism. Further, he discarded the term "hokku" and proposed the term
haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase "
haikai no ku" meaning a verse of
haikai,
[26] although the term predates Shiki by some two centuries, when it was used to mean
any verse of haikai.
[citation needed]
Since then, "haiku" has been the term usually applied in both Japanese
and English to all independent haiku, irrespective of their date of
composition. Shiki's revisionism dealt a severe blow to renku and
surviving haikai schools. The term "hokku" is now used chiefly in its
original sense of the opening verse of a renku, and rarely to
distinguish haiku written before Shiki's time.
[citation needed]
Haibun
Haibun is a combination of prose and haiku, often autobiographical or written in the form of a
travel journal.
Haiga
Haiga is a style of Japanese painting based on the aesthetics of
haikai, and usually including a haiku. Today, haiga artists combine haiku with paintings, photographs and other art.
Kuhi
The carving of famous haiku on natural stone to make poem monuments known as
kuhi (句碑) has been a popular practice for many centuries. The city of
Matsuyama has more than two hundred
kuhi.
Haiku movement in the West
The earliest westerner known to have written haiku was the Dutchman
Hendrik Doeff (1764–1837), who was the Dutch commissioner in the
Dejima trading post in Nagasaki, during the first years of the 19th century.
[27] One of his haiku:
[28]
-
inazuma no
kaina wo karan
kusamakura |
lend me your arms,
fast as thunderbolts,
for a pillow on my journey. |
Although there were further attempts outside Japan to imitate the
"hokku" in the early 20th century, there was little understanding of its
principles.
[citation needed] Early Western scholars such as
Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) and
William George Aston were mostly dismissive of hokku's poetic value. One of the first advocates of English-language hokku was the Japanese poet
Yone Noguchi. In "A Proposal to American Poets," published in the
Reader
magazine in February 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the hokku
and some of his own English efforts, ending with the exhortation, "Pray,
you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets!" At about the same time the
poet
Sadakichi Hartmann was publishing original English-language hokku, as well as other Japanese forms in both English and French.
In France, haiku was introduced by
Paul-Louis Couchoud around 1906. Couchoud's articles were read by early
Imagist theoretician
F. S. Flint, who passed on Couchoud's (somewhat idiosyncratic) ideas to other members of the proto-Imagist
Poets' Club such as
Ezra Pound.
Amy Lowell
made a trip to London to meet Pound and find out about haiku. She
returned to the United States where she worked to interest others in
this "new" form. Haiku subsequently had a considerable influence on
Imagists in the 1910s, notably Pound's "
In a Station of the Metro" of 1913, but, notwithstanding several efforts by
Yone Noguchi to explain "the hokku spirit," there was as yet little understanding of the form and its history.
[citation needed]
Blyth
R.H. Blyth was an
Englishman who lived in Japan. He produced a series of works on
Zen, haiku,
senryū, and on other forms of
Japanese and Asian literature. In 1949, with the publication in Japan of the first volume of
Haiku,
the four-volume work by Blyth, haiku were introduced to the post-war
English-speaking world. This four-volume series (1949–52) described
haiku from the pre-modern period up to and including
Shiki. Blyth's
History of Haiku
(1964) in two volumes is regarded as a classical study of haiku. Today
Blyth is best known as a major interpreter of haiku to English speakers.
His works have stimulated the writing of haiku in English.
Yasuda
Main article:
Kenneth Yasuda
The Japanese-American scholar and translator
Kenneth Yasuda published
The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature, History, and Possibilities in English, with Selected Examples
in 1957. The book includes both translations from Japanese and original
poems of his own in English, which had previously appeared in his book
titled
A Pepper-Pod: Classic Japanese Poems together with Original Haiku.
In these books Yasuda presented a critical theory about haiku, to which
he added comments on haiku poetry by early 20th-century poets and
critics. His translations apply a 5–7–5 syllable count in English, with
the first and third lines end-rhymed. Yasuda considered that haiku
translated into English should utilize all of the poetic resources of
the language.
[citation needed]
Yasuda's theory also includes the concept of a "haiku moment" based in
personal experience, and provides the motive for writing a haiku. His
notion of the haiku moment has resonated with haiku writers in North
America, even though the notion is not widely promoted in Japanese
haiku.
Henderson
In 1958,
An Introduction to Haiku: An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Bashô to Shiki by
Harold G. Henderson was published by Doubleday Anchor Books. This book was a revision of Henderson's earlier book titled
The Bamboo Broom (Houghton Mifflin, 1934). After World War II, Henderson and Blyth worked for the
American Occupation in Japan and for the
Imperial Household, respectively, and their shared appreciation of haiku helped form a bond between the two.
Henderson translated every hokku and haiku into a
rhymed tercet
(a-b-a), whereas the Japanese originals never used rhyme. Unlike
Yasuda, however, he recognized that 17 syllables in English are
generally longer than the 17
on of a traditional Japanese haiku.
Because the normal modes of English poetry depend on accentual meter
rather than on syllabics, Henderson chose to emphasize the order of
events and images in the originals.
[citation needed] Nevertheless, many of Henderson's translations were in the five-seven-five pattern.
English-language haiku
The first haiku written in English was by
Ezra Pound,
published in 1913. Since then, the haiku has become a fairly popular
form among English-speaking poets. English haiku can follow the
traditional Japanese rules, but are frequently less strict, particularly
concerning the number of syllables and subject matter.
The loosening of traditional standards has resulted in the term
"haiku" being applied, perhaps wrongly, to brief English-language poems
such as "mathemaku" and other kinds of pseudohaiku. Some sources claim
that this is justified by the blurring of definitional boundaries in
Japan.
[29]
