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THOU SHALT KNOW THAT HAIKU IS EMBEDDED IN THE ETERNALLY TURNING UNIVERSE
KIGO/SEASONAL REFERENCE
On any crisp winter's night, here in rainy England, the stars are at their best for viewing. I gaze astonished (as always), in silent witness as the big wheel turns, ever onwards, in the same place.
Japan Times
"Seasons play an important role in Japanese culture, which has long celebrated the appreciation of ephemeral beauty as a reflection of life itself."
The point of seasonal reference (kigo) in traditional Japanese haiku (and its, often sad, Japanned mimics in the West), is not simply to relate the seer to nature as it endlessly cycles, but also to tie in local cultural/economic responses (and their memories) to the ever changing natural scenes also depicted by haiku ('hai', amusing, 'ku', small poem).
If we wish to include older cultural traditions (following the Japanese idea), then we needs must acknowledge that, on the pie-chart of the year, the seasons begin half-way between the last solstice and the next equinox. [see chart below] However, in modern times the equinoxes and solstices often mark the start of the seasons! [check seasonal timing here] Thus, we have TWO sets of seasonal segmentation to deal with. Essentially, the ancient and the modern. Good news for the haijin (haiku poet). A broad palette indeed. Of course, where you live in the world will need personal attention. Although this is a general discussion there is a bias towards Northern Europe (where the author lives).
So, for example, if we have a haiku which mentions an Easter egg we know we have a Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ; celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. A marker of springtime renewal. This correlates with pagan folk custom. The older folk memories (pagan, non-Christian,) of Eastertime dig deeper into the Northern European fertility rituals of spring. Eostra (from which 'Easter' is derived), was a goddess of fecundity (oestrus). All of this gives us a feeling of seasonal ambiance which pervades our haiku about an Easter egg (itself a representation of fertility).
From a natural history perspective, if we write a haiku about leaves falling from trees, we know that this is autumn (the fall). But, If we have leaves falling, on windy days as birds are nesting, we know that it is early spring and the litter from last year is still making way for new growth.
windy April day
a last autumn leaf, finally
lets go
Thus it goes. . . .
When we write a haiku we are somewhere on this wondrous wheel of time. What we write about needs to indicate where, on this astonishing carousel, we are. That seasonal reference is called a KIGO in Japan. Without a kigo we are lost in space and our little poem is NOT a haiku. Or, an incomplete haiku - which is no haiku at all. What are these poor orphan things? These gypsy fragments? Let's be nice and call them senryu for the time being. We'll get into that distinction, a little more, later in this series.
My own position is that the universe is alive and we call this, as best we can reach out; 'God'. However, I also consider Zen (for want of a better word), to be trans-religious. When we do haiku, God is NOT required to appreciate reality stripped of sequential time (eternity) and its theories. In fact, God is best left out of it. The direct perception of the Isness of Being. This is enough. Our various personality types, with their various mindsets, can re-emerge from a small burst of brief enlightenment, a samadhi, a 'eureka!', an 'ah ha!' moment and report back (at the foot of the mountain,) according to their lights. This is the dance of reflections on water. This is haiku. All part of the astonishing mystery of existence.
HOWEVER . . .
'Kigo is the heart beat and essence of haiku. The Japanese cultural memory is one entwined with Zen Buddhism, Daoism, Shinto, and the ancient shamanic animism handed down by the indigenous Ainu, the original inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago.' Robert D Wilson
Mythic consciousness, Robert, Japanese mythic consciousness meets western scientific realism - two wings.This is why we say: "In the floating post-Christendom world, only seasonal reference is typically possible, not search engine kigo. We lost that for this."
haiku passwords—
are you a search engine
little seedling kigo?
jp
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Calendar clock for the northern hemisphere: Useful for considering seasonal references which may vary according to a winter solstice start for the four seasons (N to E segment as winter, E to S for spring, etc.), or a Nov 1st start (places dark solstice at center of pie chart's northern quadrant, which (in this method) ends winter on Jan 31st, followed by spring from 1st Feb, and so on). The former seasonal divisions (beginning with solstices and equinoxes) are more realistic to conditions on the ground, but the latter (solstices and equinoxes at seasonal mid-points) are more symbolically satisfying and ancient in use. — jp
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18-10-11