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:''This is the article on the ancient Japanese form of poetry. For the [[BeOS]] open-source re-creation project, see [[Haiku (operating system)]]. For the town in Hawaii, see [[Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii]].''
:''This is the article on the ancient Japanese form of poetry. For the [[BeOS]] open-source re-creation project, see [[Haiku (operating system)]]. For the town in Hawaii, see [[Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii]].''


'''Haiku''' (俳句) is one of the most important modes of [[Japanese poetry]], a late [[19th century]] revision by [[Masaoka Shiki]] of the old ''hokku'', the opening verse of a linked verse form, ''haikai no renga''. A traditional hokku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 ''[[Mora (linguistics)|morae]]'', phonetic units which only loosely correspond to the [[syllable]]s of Western languages. It also contains a special ''season'' word—the ''[[kigo]]''—descriptive of the season in which the hokku was set. Hokku often combine different elements into a unified sensory impression, with a pause (the ''kireji'' or "cutting word") at the end of either the first five or second seven morae. Although rarely broken by [[Japan]]ese hokku [[poet]]s, these rules are often broken in the later, more "free-form" haiku movement, both in [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and in other languages.
'''Haikoodle''' (俳句) is one of the most unimportant modes of [[Japanese poetry]], an early [[21st century]] revision by [[Masaoka Shiki]] of the old ''hokku'', the opening verse of a linked verse form, ''haikai no renga''. A traditional hokku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 ''[[Mora (linguistics)|morae]]'', phonetic units which only loosely correspond to the [[syllable]]s of Western languages. It also contains a special ''season'' word—the ''[[kigo]]''—descriptive of the season in which the hokku was set. Hokku often combine different elements into a unified sensory impression, with a pause (the ''kireji'' or "cutting word") at the end of either the first five or second seven morae. Although rarely broken by [[Japan]]ese hokku [[poet]]s, these rules are often broken in the later, more "free-form" haiku movement, both in [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and in other languages.


==Hokku or haiku?==
==Hokku or haiku?==

Revision as of 18:41, 25 September 2005

This is the article on the ancient Japanese form of poetry. For the BeOS open-source re-creation project, see Haiku (operating system). For the town in Hawaii, see Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii.

Haikoodle (俳句) is one of the most unimportant modes of Japanese poetry, an early 21st century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the old hokku, the opening verse of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. A traditional hokku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 morae, phonetic units which only loosely correspond to the syllables of Western languages. It also contains a special season word—the kigo—descriptive of the season in which the hokku was set. Hokku often combine different elements into a unified sensory impression, with a pause (the kireji or "cutting word") at the end of either the first five or second seven morae. Although rarely broken by Japanese hokku poets, these rules are often broken in the later, more "free-form" haiku movement, both in Japanese and in other languages.

Hokku or haiku?

Because the term haiku was popularized by Shiki only at the end of the 19th century, scholars are unanimous that it is technically incorrect to label hokku by pre-Shiki poets "haiku", a common practice in the 20th century. Pre-Shiki hokku were always written, either actually or theoretically (even when printed individually), in the wider context of haikai. Scholars, to avoid confusion, are returning to the proper and original term, hokku, for the opening verses written by all pre-Shiki writers, though popular writings still often use the anachronistic "haiku." The present-day confusion caused by imprecise terminology in the public mind and in literature on the topic is exemplified by Haruo Shirane's Early Modern Japanese Literature (2002), in which he refers to Bashō's individual verse correctly as "hokku", then proceeds to discuss "composing haiku" while repeatedly using the term "hokku". In David Barnhill's 2005 anthology, he admits that "...the individual poems that Bashō created are, properly speaking, 'hokku'"; yet the title of his book is Bashō's Haiku (State University of New York Press); he confesses to using the latter word, however, "since haiku is the more familiar term." Until the scholarly transition back to the chronologically-correct term is complete, the confusion will continue.

Because this article is intended to be both historically and chronologically accurate and objective, haikai is used for the poetic practice of pre-Shiki writers; hokku is used for individual pre-Shiki verses; and haiku is used for Shiki and post-Shiki verses (excluding those of the present-day hokku revival). This follows original usage and correct chronological order. The solution to the present terminology problem is to make the public aware that it exists and of why it exists, and to maintain scholarly standards of accuracy while recognizing past or present popular usage.

Two examples of hokku

Japanese hokku are traditionally printed in one vertical line, though in handwritten form they may be in two or three as well.

An example of classic hokku (by Bashō):

ふる池や蛙飛込水のおと　
Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
An old pond;
A frog jumps in—
The sound of water.

Another Bashō classic:

The first cold shower;
Even the monkey seems to want
A little coat of straw.

(At that time, Japanese rain-gear consisted of a large, round hat and a shaggy straw cloak.)

History and evolution

The exact origin of hokku is still subject to debate, but it is generally agreed that it originated as an abbreviated version of short classical waka poetry, which has a 5-7-5-7-7 structure. Near the beginning of the 12th century, verse sequences of 50 to 100 short waka appeared, with each verse related to that preceding it. Such a verse sequence was called renga (連歌), "linked verse". In the 1400s a rising middle class led to the development of a more free-form of linked verse called haikai no renga (俳諧の連歌), "playful linked verse". The first verse of such linked poem is known as hokku (発句), literally "opening verse", and haiku came into being when this opening verse was made an independent poem near the end of the 19th century.

The inventors of haikai are generally considered to be Yamazaki Sōkan (1465–1553 and Arakida Moritake (1473–1549). Later exponents of haikai no renga were Matsunaga Teitoku (1571–1653), who attempted to make haikai more complex, and Nishiyama Sōin (1605–1682), who founded the Danrin school to counter that complexity, but in doing so gave it a frivolity that led to its decline.

In the 1600s, two masters arose who elevated the level of haikai and gave it a new popularity. They were Onitsura (1661–1738) and Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694). The hokku was only the first verse of haikai, but its position as the opening verse made it the most important, setting the tone for the whole composition. Of the five-seven-five-seven-seven pattern of short waka, hokku used only the five-seven-five. Even though hokku sometimes appeared individually, they were understood to always be part of a wider verse or textual context, even if only theoretical. Onitsura and Bashō were thus writers of haikai of which hokku was only a part, though the most important part.

Bashō's first-known hokku was written when he was eighteen (scholars doubt the authenticity of a supposed earlier hokku written in honor of the Year of the Bird), but it showed little promise, and much of his early verse is little more than the kind of wordplay popular at the time. The verse generally considered his turning point and departure from the Danrin school however, came in 1680, when he wrote of a crow perched on a bare branch. Bashō made his living as a teacher of haikai, and wrote a number of travel journals incorporating hokku. He was strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism, and is said to have regretted, near the end of his life, devoting more time to haikai than to Buddhist practice.

Onitsura would be far more famous today as a writer contemporary with, but independent of, Bashō were it not that he, unlike Bashō, had no group of disciples to carry on his teachings. He wrote hokku of high quality and emphasized truth and sincerity in writing.

Bashō's school of haikai was carried on by his disciples Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Kyoroku, Shikō, Sampū, Etsujin, Yaha, Hokushi, Jōsō and Bonchō. It became the haikai standard throughout Japan. Branches founded by his disciples Kikaku (1661-1707) and Ransetsu (1654-1707) still existed in the latter half of the 19th century.

Grave of Yosa Buson

The next famous style of haikai to arise was that of Yosa Buson (1716–1783) and others such as Gyōdai, Chora, Rankō, Ryōta, Shōha, Taigi, and Kitō, called the Temmei style after the Temmei Era (1781–1789) in which it was created. Buson was better known in his day as a painter than as a writer of haikai, but today that is reversed. His affection for painting can be seen in the painterly style of his hokku, and in his attempt to deliberately arrange scenes in words. Hokku for Buson was not the serious matter it was for Bashō. The popularity and frequency of haikai gatherings in this period led to greater numbers of verses springing from the imagination rather than from actual experience.

No new popular style followed Buson. A very individualistic approach to haikai appeared, however, in the writer Kobayashi Issa (1763–1827) whose miserable childhood, poverty, sad life, and devotion to the Pure Land sect of Buddhism are clearly present in his hokku.

After Issa, haikai entered a period of decline in which it reverted to frivolity and uninspired mediocrity. The writers of this period in the 19th century are known by the deprecatory term tsukinami, meaning "monthly," after the monthly or twice-monthly haikai gatherings of the end of the 18th century. But in regard to this period of haikai, it came to mean "trite" and "hackneyed".

This was the situation until the appearance of Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), a reformer and revisionist who marks the end of hokku in a wider context. Shiki, a prolific writer even though chronically ill during a significant part of his life, not only disliked the tsukinami writers, but also criticized Bashō. Like the Japanese intellectual world in general at that time, Shiki was strongly impressed 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 reformed hokku as a kind of nature sketch in words, an approach called shasei, literally "sketching from life". He popularized his views by verse columns and essays in newspapers, spreading them widely.

All hokku writers up to the time of Shiki wrote it in the context of haikai but Shiki completely separated his new style of verse from a wider context. Being agnostic, he also initiated its separation from the influence of Buddhism with which it had always been tinged. And finally, he discarded the term "hokku" and called his revised verse form "haiku". Shiki thus became the first haiku poet. His revisionism brought an end to haikai and hokku as well as to surviving haikai schools, and he became the father of all the innovation and change that has since characterized haiku in Japanese and other languages.

Modern haiku

Shiki's innovationist approach to haiku was carried on in Japan by his most prominent students, Hekigodō and Kyoshi. Hekigodō was the more radical of the two, while Kyoshi (1874–1959) wrote more conservative verse sometimes recalling the older hokku. Both conservative and innovationist haiku continue to be written in Japan today, where haiku is still a very popular form of verse.

Though there were attempts outside Japan to imitate the old hokku in the early 1900s, there was no genuine understanding of its principles. Early works on the topic in European languages, such as that of Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) had some influence on poets of the time, but made little wider impact.

The first significant work in relation to modern haiku was The Bamboo Broom (1934), by Harold Gould Henderson (1889–1974). Though Henderson wrote a later revised volume, An Introduction to Haiku (1958), his work did not make an impact approaching that of his contemporary and acquaintance Blyth, perhaps because Henderson chose to translate hokku and haiku into an English rhyme foreign to the Japanese originals, which never used rhyme.

It was thus not until 1949, with the publication of the first volume of Haiku, the four-volume work by Reginald Horace Blyth (paradoxically dealing almost entirely with hokku, though including Shiki), that the verse form was properly introduced to the West.

R. H. Blyth (1898–1964) was an Englishman and teacher of English who took up residence first in Japanese-occupied Korea, then in Japan. He produced a series of works on Zen, on hokku and haiku, and on other forms of Japanese and Asian literature. Those most relevant here are his Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics (Hokuseido, 1942); his four-volume Haiku series (Hokuseido, 1949–1952); and his two-volume History of Haiku (Hokuseido, 1964). Today he is best known as the major interpreter of hokku and haiku to the West.

Present-day attitudes to Blyth's work vary. Writers of hokku and conservative haiku tend to respect him highly; writers of more experimental haiku often deprecate what they view as his conservatism and his strong emphasis on Zen and spirituality. Though Blyth did not foresee the appearance of original haiku in languages other than Japanese when he first began writing on the topic, and though he founded no school of verse, his works paradoxically stimulated the writing of haiku in English. At the end of the second volume of his History of Haiku (1964), Blyth remarked that "The latest development in the history of haiku is one which nobody foresaw,--the writing of haiku outside Japan, not in the Japanese language." He followed that comment with several original verses in English by the American James W. Hackett, with whom Blyth corresponded.

Precisely who qualifies as the first American haiku poet depends on one's definition of haiku. Individualistic "haiku-like" verses by the innovative Buddhist poet and artist Paul Reps (1895-1990) appeared in print as early as 1939 (More Power to You - Poems Everyone Can Make, Preview Publications, Montrose CA.). Other Westerners inspired by Blyth's translations attempted original haiku in English, though again generally failing to understand the principles behind the verse form, which in Blyth is predominantly the more challenging hokku rather than the later and more free-form haiku. The resulting verses, including those of the Beat period, were often little more than the brevity of the haiku form combined with current ideas of poetic content, or uninformed attempts at "Zen" poetry. Nonetheless these experimental verses expanded the popularity of haiku in English, which while never making much of an impact on the literary world, has nonetheless proved very popular as a system of introducing students to poetry in elementary schools and as a hobby for numerous amateur writers who continue the innovation and experimentation that is the legacy of Shiki's reforms.

Today haiku is written in many languages, but the number of writers is still concentrated primarily in Japan and secondarily in English-speaking countries.

Contemporary haiku

While traditional hokku focused on nature and the place of humans in nature, modern haiku poets often consider any subject matter suitable, whether related to nature, an urban setting, or even a technological context. Where the old hokku avoided some topics such as romance, sex, and overt violence, contemporary haiku often deals specifically with such themes.

The old hokku required a long period of learning and maturing, but the new haiku is an "instant" form of brief verse that can be written by anyone from child to professional. Though conservative writers of modern haiku still keep closer to the old standards of hokku (some even using the traditional kigo or season word), the majority of present-day writers have dropped virtually all of the traditional standards, emphasizing personal freedom and pursuing ongoing experimentation, exploration and innovation in both form and subject matter.

In addition to the spread of haiku of one kind or another, the late 20th century also witnessed the surprising revival in English of the old hokku tradition, providing a continuation in spirit of pre-Shiki verse through adaptation to the English language and a wider geographic context.

Because of the great number of different views and practices today, it is impossible to characterize any current single style or format or subject matter as definitive "haiku." The term has broadened greatly in modern usage to cover any short verse descended in spirit from the reforms of Shiki. Nonetheless, some of the more common practices are:

  1. Use of three lines written in five-seven-five English syllables;
  2. Use of three (or fewer) lines of no more than 17 syllables in total;
  3. Use of metrical feet rather than syllables. A haiku then becomes three lines of 2, 3, and 2 metrical feet, with a break or pause after the second or fifth;
  4. Use of the "one deep breath" rule: the reader should be able to read the haiku aloud without taking a second breath.

Internet and television

Both haiku and hokku writers and verses are now found online. A search will lead to many forums where both new and experienced poets learn, share, discuss, and freely criticize.

In early 1998, Salon magazine published the results of a haiku contest on the topic of computer error messages. The winning haiku, written by David Dixon, was:

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

Like much of contemporary haiku, this does not follow the guidelines of hokku or early haiku. Instead it takes the creative and often witty approach characterizing humorous haiku today. There are online computerized systems for generating random haiku; there are "Spamku," (verses devoted to the processed, canned meat) as well as many other clever variations on the brevity of the haiku form. Witty haiku, often satirizing the form itself, have appeared in popular TV programs such as Beavis and Butthead and South Park.

In 1995, the scifaiku (science fiction haiku) form was invented by Tom Brinck.

Famous poets and writers

Edo period (Hokku: 1603–1867)

Meiji period and later (Haiku: 1868–1912)

Non-Japanese

Although none of the following poets except Hackett is known primarily for haiku, all have some haiku in print. Richard Wright, known for his novel "Native Son", wrote thousands of haiku in the eighteen months before his death. Although few were published during his lifetime, in 1998 a book was published with the 817 haiku that he preferred.

See also

External links: Haiku

External links: Hokku

Haiku journals

Pseudo-haiku

References

  • Blyth, R.H. A History of Haiku Volume One:From the Beginnings up to Issa. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1963. ISBN 0893460664
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