Haiku Lessons 2

August 2013

WHCschools

Susumu Takiguchi, Instructor

LESSON 2-1: "cold"

In traditional Japanese kukai, typically the Shusai (master) selects something like 15 to 25 haiku poems and makes general comments and specific comments on 3 to 5 haiku. This lasts 10 to 15 minutes as kukai is usually tightly scheduled.

Though we follow this practice broadly, I will make comments on more haiku because this is a school, as opposed to a real kukai.

Generally speaking, there are many good and potentially good poems in Lesson 2 haiku, indicating a promising start of the School.

Some general observations: -

1) One of Kyoshi's famous remarks is sen wa seisaku (selection [of haiku] is creation in its own right). I enjoyed reading your comments on others' haiku as much as reading your own haiku. They reflect the commentator's personality as well as his/her haiku views. Some make brilliant readings. In the commenting of other people's haiku, honesty, sincerity and other qualities are as important as in writing your own;

2) [Two members] raised the point which I was going to mention before anything else. And that is, in the Japanese kukai, if the kigo is presented everybody must use that specific kigo or a few variations thereof which are in the saijiki (kigo dictionary). This was observed in Lesson 1, where snow was given as a set kigo. Kigo is either given on the day (seki-dai), or notified beforehand (ken-dai). This system is called dai-ei (haiku composition according to given kigo"). These Japanese terms are not important but are given partly to allow you to savour some feeling of the real kukai in Japan and partly because you may be tempted to experiment the Japanese-style kukai in your area. In this Lesson, the kigo cold is not given so strictly as in the case of Lesson 1 but in the way that anything which tells the cold of winter would be acceptable. I think probably some people have taken this too liberally;

3) The kigo which are related to cold include: kanki (cold air), tsumetashi (chilly), sokobie (chilly to the bone), kooru (freeze), sayu (crispy cold), kanpa (cold wave, cold spell), genkan (extreme cold), gento (atrocious winter).

WHCschools

Susumu Takiguchi, Instructor

LESSON 2-2: "cold" continued

(1) Borrowing Japanese kigo:

We have seen elsewhere that applying Japanese kigo to haiku written in regions of different climate would not work. This is one of the most obvious limitations of traditional Japanese haiku conventions used outside Japan. Again, we should start compiling our own kigo words which are suitable for each of our localities.

__ had to deal with this question by borrowing a Japanese kigo, kogarashi (withering wind). In the Edo Period, kogarashi was used either for autumn or winter, but it is now a kigo for early winter. It is the cold and strong north or west wind in October and November, which withers leaves and blows them off the trees. However, it seems that the emphasis is more on the strength of the wind than on its coldness. (This is another reason why I posed my question to __) There are colder winds.

kogarashi ya umi ni yuhi wo fuki-otosu (Natsume Soseki)

withering wind

blows the setting sun

down to the sea (ST version)

kogarashi ya hoshi fuki-kobosu umi no ue (Masaoka Shiki)

withering wind --

stars are blown scattered

over the sea (ST version)

kogarashi ya ishi fuki-tobasu Ohi-gawa (Hasegawa Reyoko)

winter gale --

blowing rocks away

at the Ohi-gawa River (ST version)

kogarashi ni Asama no kemuri fuki-chiru ka (Takahama Kyoshi)

withering wind --

would the smoke of Asama vocano

be blown everywhere (ST version)

Some other samples where the strength of kogarashi is not that apparent: -

kogarashi no hikkakari iru toge no ki (Hara Yutaka)

withering wind --

caught and hanging on

to the hilltop tree (ST version)

kogarashi ya me yori toridasu ishi no tsubu (Watanabe Hakusen)

winter gale --

I get out grit

from my eyes (ST version)

umi ni dete kogarashi kaeru tokoro nashi (Yamaguchi Seishi)

blowing into the sea

withering wind has now

no place to return (ST version)

*This haiku was written in October 1944 and the Kamikaze pilots were flying to the sea then.

kogarashi ya mezashi ni nokoru umi no iro (Akutagawa Ryunosuke)

withering wind --

faint on the dried sardines

the colour of the sea (ST version)

(2) "Fuga-no-makoto"

I will deal with just one more issue, which to my mind is probably the most important of all issues of haiku, fuga-no-makoto (poetic sincerity, honesty and truth).

This is the most important of all teachings of Basho. Sadly, it is also the one value which is either missing or neglected in many haiku poems written today. One cannot stress the importance of it too much, or repeat it too often. Criticism of haiku against this value is always, yes always, justified. The problem is that it is no easy task for us to get to the true understanding of what was or is meant by fuga-no-makoto. It is even more difficult for us to explore what Basho would have taught us by this value in the 21st century context, or how much we can search for the 21st century solution to the problems posed by this value.

Some members might have thought that __ has gone on and on and on for too long in his inquisition. However, what he has really been doing was posing this most important of all questions, fuga-no-makoto. __ is a seeker of answers to fundamental issues of contemporary haiku, practised both in Japan and outside Japan, and is in a very rare position as a Westerner living in Japan and having access to the first-line materials but looking at them both through the Japanese eyes and Western background, giving the feedback to the Western haijin. In a way, we should be thankful to __ for being out there, trying to make sense of the different perceptions of the Western and the Japanese haijin. Every time strange things pop out of his lips ... we should be thankful. If he says anything and everything which conforms to the Western, Zen-inspired haiku moment minimalist conventions, I for one would politely and quietly write him off as a golden boy apple polisher. Bridging the appalling communication gap between Japan and the rest of the world in haiku is one of the main aims of WHC. So, every time __ opens his mouth and says strange things we should consider them so carefully as to be able to think that they are not strange. I know __ well enough to be convinced that there is no question about his poetic integrity, i.e. he was completely truthful in his ... haiku. That is not the issue. The issue is an advanced and higher stages over and above that truthful stance, i.e. truthful in what way and in terms of what. We will raise this question in WHCacademia.

There is this fundamentally difficult question: be true to the facts but facts are not automatically and/or empirically the same thing as truth; be true to your imagination but imaginations are by definition not facts but that does not mean that imaginations are not truths. Basho used both facts and imaginations. Not only there is nothing wrong with human imaginations but they are one of our best additions to whatever has been designed for nature. Fuga-no-makoto is the key. The Westerners are no less qualified to try to search for the true meaning of this aesthetic canon, particularly in the WHC context, i.e. the world-wide relevance.

This article first appeared in Issue 1 of the World Haiku Review, May 2001.