Concepts A
Ezra Pound & Imagism
Pound: Influential American poet who is responsible for making the first attempts to write haiku-like poetry in English.
Imagism: Literary movement influenced by Japanese aesthetics which promoted simplicity in language, clear images, and realism.
Yosa Buson
> One of the four haiku masters and responsible for the establishment of modern haiku aesthetics.
> His main poetic principles were "return to Bashō" and "separate from the ordinary".
Samurai & Chōnin
> Samurai: sat at the top of the social hierarchy during the Edo period. Well educated but completely dependent on their masters. Progressively impoverished during this time.
> Chōnin: sat at the bottom of the social hierarchy during the Edo period. Uneducated but economically free, and able to acquire (and produce) culture and education. Progressively wealthy and influential during this time.
身にしむや亡き妻の櫛を閨に踏む
The piercing chill I feel;
My dead wife’s comb, in our bedroom,
under my heel…
Buson
朝顔や起こした者は花を見ず
Morning glories—
the person who wakes others
doesn’t get to se the flowers
Chiyojo
[...] Haikai as Bashō had known it had been largely imaginary, and had been a communal activity, the product of group composition or exchange. Shiki condemned traditional haikai on both counts.
Shirane
Kobayashi Issa
> One of the four Haiku masters, whose poetry is highly self-referential, humanistic, and humorous.
> Some of his themes: animals, poverty, disease.
Masaoka Shiki
> One of the four Haiku masters. Responsible for establishing Haiku as an independent poetic form.
> Influenced by Western views on literature.
> Founder of Hototogisu and leader of the "Nihon School" of Haiku.
Senryū
> Haiku-like verses without a kigo or a kireji that could stand and be published on their own.
> Focused on every-day situations and exposed social conflicts and faults in common sense.
説教にけがれた耳を時鳥
To ears
defiled by sermons—
a cuckoo.
Shiki
役人の子はにぎにぎをよく覚え
The official’s little son—
how fast he’s learned
to open and close his fist!
Anonymous
The coming of the Meiji Restoration and Japan’s new positive attitude toward importing Western culture soon affected all literature, and haiku was no exception. Beginning in the 1890s, the mannerism of the nineteenth-century haiku came under heavy attack, as a group of young poets refused to compose the seventeen-syllable verse on trite topics using a restricted vocabulary.
Ueda
The Meiji Restoration
1867-1868. Period of reevaluation and quick Westernization of Japanese culture, infrastructure, and government. Shiki and the establishment of Haiku as a modern, individual poetic form takes place during this time.
Chiyojo
> Contemporary of Buson. Most popular female Haiku writer of all time.
> Published in over 100 books of Haiku poetry.
> Considerable political connections and influence.
> Nowadays considered a little plain and derivative.
Hototogisu
Most important haiku (and poetry) magazine in Japan, published uninterruptedly since the Meiji period until today. Founded by Shiki and his followers from the Nihon school.
水着選ぶいつしか彼の眼となって
Choosing a swimsuit—
when did his eyes
replace mine?
Mayuzumi
身にしむや亡き妻の櫛を閨に踏む
Out from the hollow
of Great Buddha’s nose—
comes a swallow.
Issa
Edo had a large samurai population: roughly one-half of the people who lived in Edo belonged to the warrior class. The other half consisted of artisans and merchants --or chōnin (townspeople as they were collectively called-- who were at the lower end of the social scale. Given the crowded condition of the city, tension had to grow between the samurai and the chōnin.
Ueda