Haiku

: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.

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 (??), "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 (?????), "playful linked verse". The first verse of such linked poem is known as hokku (??), literally "opening verse", and haiku came into being when this opening verse was made an independent poem near the end of the 19th century.

Related Topics:
Waka - Poetry - 12th century - 1400s - Middle class

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The inventors of haikai are generally considered to be Yamazaki S?kan (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 S?in (1605–1682), who founded the Danrin school to counter that complexity, but in doing so gave it a frivolity that led to its decline.

Related Topics:
Yamazaki S?kan - 1465 - 1553 - Arakida Moritake - 1473 - 1549 - Matsunaga Teitoku - 1571 - 1653 - 1605 - 1682

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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 Bash? (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 Bash? were thus writers of haikai of which hokku was only a part, though the most important part.

Related Topics:
1600s - Onitsura - 1661 - 1738 - Matsuo Bash? - 1644 - 1694

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Bash?'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. Bash? 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.

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

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Bash?'s school of haikai was carried on by his disciples Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Kyoroku, Shik?, Samp?, Etsujin, Yaha, Hokushi, J?s? and Bonch?. 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.

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The next famous style of haikai to arise was that of Yosa Buson (1716–1783) and others such as Gy?dai, Chora, Rank?, Ry?ta, Sh?ha, Taigi, and Kit?, 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 Bash?. 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.

Related Topics:
Yosa Buson - 1716 - 1783 - Temmei Era - 1781 - 1789

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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.

Related Topics:
Kobayashi Issa - 1763 - 1827 - Poverty - Pure Land - Buddhism

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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".

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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 Bash?. 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.

Related Topics:
Masaoka Shiki - 1867 - 1902 - Intellectual - Painting - Essay - Newspaper

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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.

Related Topics:
Writer - Agnostic - Language

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