Post by Elle Rush on Mar 25, 2004 13:58:40 GMT -5
Haiku
In a recent lecture given at the Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington, D.C. University of Maryland professor Dr. Eleanor Kerkham discussed haiku, which she called the only Japanese literary form which has been so widely influential. Dr. Kerkham spoke as part of the "Japan Faces West" lecture series, which looks at Japan's initial contacts with the West during the Meiji era and the cross-cultural influences that took place because of Ws interaction. Tracing the development of haiku from its earliest days until the present, she called it "the only poetic form which has gained such universal acceptance.
Kerkham began her lecture by comparing haiku as a phenomenon equivalent in world literature only to the near universal adoption of the modern western realistic novel. She continued: The great difference is that with the novel it is often the best professional writers who have chosen to invest their creative energies in that particular genre, and with haiku it is occasionally more often ordinary individuals, writers and teachers worldwide who are drawn to it. They have been attracted to the haiku as an accessible and flexible poetic form which can serve many different artistic, educational, even social and psychological purposes. Indeed haiku versions, adaptations or imitations of it are being composed in virtually every major western country as well as several African, Asian, South American, and Middle Eastern nations.
In Japan, short poems have a long history. The earliest Japanese poetry such as that of the Manyoshu, written in 759 A.D., includes stirring narrative, dramatic and short lyrical poems which scholars believe were originally written as part of the pre-Buddhist or early Shinto ceremonial rituals. This anthology includes anonymous songs and prayers designed to celebrate and pacify the gods, prayers for safe voyages, formal eulogies on the death of an Emperor or Empress and courting, marriage, planting and harvesting rituals.
The 5 syllableÑ7 syllableÑ5 syllable haiku has evolved and been reinvented many times over the centuries. One such form is the 31 syllable waka composed of five 5-7-5-7-7 syllable phrases. Developed as the early imperial court of the late eighth century consolidated cultural, social and political forms, the waka took its place as one of the important regularized poetic forms of the period. Within imperial circles, minor officials and scribes gained recognition as poem-providers and word specialists due to their ability to compose waka.
Nevertheless, early Japanese poetry went beyond official usage. In the 14th century, an intellectual game developed where one person would write the first half of a waka-like poem, and another would complete it, adding the two 7-syllable stanzas. As many as four people took part in composing such poetry in what developed as a serious poetic form, with many complicated rules to ensure that the elegant court-poetry diction and aesthetic ideals were maintained.
However, in large social gatherings where Japanese rice wine, or sake, was often served, participants became inebriated and started writing haikai, comic linked verse, which ignored many of the rules and allowed any subject matter at all, from the truly crude and erotic to pure slapstick, daffy comedy.
According to Dr. Kerkham, it was this lower-level poetic form which Matsunaga Teitoku, haikai master, tried to clean up and popularize and teach to his student Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). Basho's haiku, written while travelling around Japan, made him one of Japan's most celebrated poets.
By the time of his death, Basho had more than 2,000 students. Today as interest in haiku continues to grow outside of Japan, Basho's fame is becoming increasingly international. Other poets such as Buson, Issa, Ryokan, and Masaoka Shiki, the father of modern haiku, also gained fame as major haiku poets helping to make it a poetic form popular in all corners of the world.
Indeed, haiku poetry has become quite well-known in the United States. Dr. Kerkham discussed the haiku transplanted to America by Japanese and Japanese American poets such as Los Angeles haiku poet Mieko Yoshikami. The works of these modern American haiku artists, though of a very modern sensibility in both Japanese and American settings, still preserve the compelling characteristics of the classic haiku: a greeting to the world and one's friends, an innocent humor and an open acceptance of both the sad and happy flow of life.
From Japan Now (January 1996)
In a recent lecture given at the Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington, D.C. University of Maryland professor Dr. Eleanor Kerkham discussed haiku, which she called the only Japanese literary form which has been so widely influential. Dr. Kerkham spoke as part of the "Japan Faces West" lecture series, which looks at Japan's initial contacts with the West during the Meiji era and the cross-cultural influences that took place because of Ws interaction. Tracing the development of haiku from its earliest days until the present, she called it "the only poetic form which has gained such universal acceptance.
Kerkham began her lecture by comparing haiku as a phenomenon equivalent in world literature only to the near universal adoption of the modern western realistic novel. She continued: The great difference is that with the novel it is often the best professional writers who have chosen to invest their creative energies in that particular genre, and with haiku it is occasionally more often ordinary individuals, writers and teachers worldwide who are drawn to it. They have been attracted to the haiku as an accessible and flexible poetic form which can serve many different artistic, educational, even social and psychological purposes. Indeed haiku versions, adaptations or imitations of it are being composed in virtually every major western country as well as several African, Asian, South American, and Middle Eastern nations.
In Japan, short poems have a long history. The earliest Japanese poetry such as that of the Manyoshu, written in 759 A.D., includes stirring narrative, dramatic and short lyrical poems which scholars believe were originally written as part of the pre-Buddhist or early Shinto ceremonial rituals. This anthology includes anonymous songs and prayers designed to celebrate and pacify the gods, prayers for safe voyages, formal eulogies on the death of an Emperor or Empress and courting, marriage, planting and harvesting rituals.
The 5 syllableÑ7 syllableÑ5 syllable haiku has evolved and been reinvented many times over the centuries. One such form is the 31 syllable waka composed of five 5-7-5-7-7 syllable phrases. Developed as the early imperial court of the late eighth century consolidated cultural, social and political forms, the waka took its place as one of the important regularized poetic forms of the period. Within imperial circles, minor officials and scribes gained recognition as poem-providers and word specialists due to their ability to compose waka.
Nevertheless, early Japanese poetry went beyond official usage. In the 14th century, an intellectual game developed where one person would write the first half of a waka-like poem, and another would complete it, adding the two 7-syllable stanzas. As many as four people took part in composing such poetry in what developed as a serious poetic form, with many complicated rules to ensure that the elegant court-poetry diction and aesthetic ideals were maintained.
However, in large social gatherings where Japanese rice wine, or sake, was often served, participants became inebriated and started writing haikai, comic linked verse, which ignored many of the rules and allowed any subject matter at all, from the truly crude and erotic to pure slapstick, daffy comedy.
According to Dr. Kerkham, it was this lower-level poetic form which Matsunaga Teitoku, haikai master, tried to clean up and popularize and teach to his student Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). Basho's haiku, written while travelling around Japan, made him one of Japan's most celebrated poets.
By the time of his death, Basho had more than 2,000 students. Today as interest in haiku continues to grow outside of Japan, Basho's fame is becoming increasingly international. Other poets such as Buson, Issa, Ryokan, and Masaoka Shiki, the father of modern haiku, also gained fame as major haiku poets helping to make it a poetic form popular in all corners of the world.
Indeed, haiku poetry has become quite well-known in the United States. Dr. Kerkham discussed the haiku transplanted to America by Japanese and Japanese American poets such as Los Angeles haiku poet Mieko Yoshikami. The works of these modern American haiku artists, though of a very modern sensibility in both Japanese and American settings, still preserve the compelling characteristics of the classic haiku: a greeting to the world and one's friends, an innocent humor and an open acceptance of both the sad and happy flow of life.
From Japan Now (January 1996)