Haiku Lessons, Introduction, Lesson 1

August 2013

WHCschools

Susumu Takiguchi, Instructor

SELF-INTRODUCTION

I was born in Japan on 13 May 1944, studied at Waseda University, Tokyo and University of Oxford. My great uncle, Kataoka (surname) Naoo, was a close student of Takahama Kyoshi (1874 - 1959) who was the creator of the Hototogisu (traditional Japanese haiku) School, which has dominated modern Japanese haiku community over the past hundred odd years. The School with its numerous branches still represents the majority of the dedicated haiku poets in Japan, running into millions in number, although its dominant position has been eroded by the emergence of many other schools, especially gendai haiku, or modern haiku schools.

Such was the influential position Kyoshi occupied and such was the strong force my great uncle represented in my family, I was brought up in an environment imbued with artistic and literary activities, especially those of haiku. My parents were both ardent practitioners of haiku, guided by Naoo, and as a child I also dabbled in haiku, and have enjoyed this genre ever since – i.e. for about half a century (quite a long time!). Before I was a teenager, I started to read avidly and widely modern Japanese literature, starting from late Edo period, then early Meiji to Taisho and Showa. I also became much interested in studying classic Japanese literature. The study of modern period led me to the world of such literary figures as Natsume Soseki, a close friend of Masaoka Shiki and Kyoshi, Naito Meisetsu, Mori Ogai and Nagai Kafu, to name but a few of the influential figures of the time. Apart from novels and other forms of poetry, these people provided my basic knowledge and experience of haiku since they were all renowned for the excellence of their own haiku.

In 1971, I came to Britain to study at Oxford, which has become my second home. Haiku continued to be one of my hobbies. However, it became part of my professional activity when I started to teach Japanese culture at different academic institutions in Britain, especially when I became Lecturer of Japanese Language and Civilisation at the University of Aston in Birmingham. My research interest was poetics of Basho's last years. This experience as a Basho scholar became the basis of my subsequent intellectual curiosity about leading haiku poets. Before this time, I had been engaged in the dissemination of haiku but it was really when I was teaching at Aston that I started to take haiku more seriously and joined the Hototogisu School formally. I became a member of the Japan Classical Haiku Association and of various organisations under the Hototogisu School, including the Tamamo, Kacho-Fuei, Kacho and Harukyo.

Though traditional Japanese haiku is my basis, I have come to know many haiku poets of other schools as well when I started to be involved in the international haiku movement (I know over 300 haijin in Japan alone, and a larger number in the rest of the world). In 1997, a feeling and inspiration came to me and I started to develop an idea of organising a haiku movement on a world-wide scale. This resulted in the formation of the World Haiku Club (WHC) in 1998 and the five-year project, the World Haiku Festival 2000, which the Club is running now. The Festival started with the "Prologue of WHF2000" with various haiku-related activities and events in 1998 and 1999. Then, the real Festival was officially inaugurated on 1 January 2000, together with the launch of the WHC website and mailing lists, including the haikuforum. The highlight of the WHF2000 was its six-day London - Oxford Conference which took place from 25 to 30 August 2000 and was a resounding success. From the Conference, a unique friendship was born among the participants around a newly-formed friendship organisation called WHCLOG.

I enjoy writing essays and giving lectures on haiku as well as composing them. They resulted in my books:

Kyoshi - A Haiku Master - Father of Modern Japanese Haiku, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 1997.

The Twaddle of An Oxonian - Haiku Poems & Essays, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 2000, a Commemorative Publication of the World Haiku Festival 2000.

As I said before, my haiku is based on traditional Japanese haiku but I have also been exploring what I call Shintai-haiku (or new-style haiku) which is a form of vers libre.

"Traditional Japanese School": Briefing on How It Will Be Run

Of course, strictly speaking, this school is not possible without using the Japanese language. So, it can only be traditional Japanese school adapted to English. It will not follow the Japanese practice in a rigid way either. It will be a Japanese school modified for the purpose of WHCschools.

In instructing, I will be acting merely as ichijitsu-no-cho (with experience only one day longer), or primus inter pares and not as a qualified teacher or a master, of which I am neither.

ESSENCE OF THE SCHOOL

Broadly, the School is based on the teachings of Takahama Kyoshi (1874 - 1959) who, during his long career as a modern haiku master, established the Hototogisu School, completing the modernisation and reform of haiku, which his own mentor, Masaoka Shiki (1867 - 1902) had to abandon because of the severe illness and subsequent death at the age of 35.

The School is symbolised by yuki-teikei (adherence to kigo=season words and 5-7-5 phoneme form), kacho-fuei (versification of birds and flowers=nature), kyakkan-shasei (objective sketching from life). It represents the narrowest (or strictest) definition of haiku and its more faithful followers maintain that it is the purest haiku and the only haiku and reject all other schools. [For details, refer to Higginson's books, or my own: (1) Kyoshi - A Haiku Master - Father of Modern Japanese Haiku, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 1997, pp. 122. (2) The Twaddle of An Oxonian - Haiku Poems & Essays, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 2000, a Commemorative Publication of the World Haiku Festival 2000, pp. 158]

It is a good practice to start one's learning of haiku with the Hototogisu School with all its strict rules and conventions, in the same way as art students start off with disciplined drawings and study of old masters, or aspiring musicians to begin with Bach or earlier music. Only after having learnt the basics of haiku along the traditional lines can one depart for freer and wider areas of haiku creation.

Having said that, there are inevitably limitations in the approach of the Hototogisu School in terms of poetic expression, especially in terms of the subject matter. Therefore, my school tries to give allowance to them and takes a little bit more flexible and liberal stance. In the English version, things will have to be even more flexible.

In order to overcome such limitations, I have been developing what I coined to be Shintai-haiku (or new-style haiku).

ACTUAL LESSONS

(a) Japanese kukai style: following the standard Japanese kukai system, adapted to suit the needs of this School;

(b) Free teaching style: I pick up works from among the haiku submitted and use them as teaching materials;

(c) Any other styles which may or may not come up as useful as we go along.

WHCschools

Susumu Takiguchi, Instructor

LESSON 1: Japanese Kukai Style

1 Kigo: snow;

2 Form: 3 lines or variations thereof, 5-7-5 or shorter, either by syllables or by other counters;

3 Rhythm, stress, sound, flow etc. are more important than the syllable count;

4 Submission up to 3 haiku poems per person.

As I write this sen-pyo (selection comments), it has started to snow again here in the Oxfordshire countryside, England. What an appropriate timing!

flurries of snow

falling silently down,

calming me down

Japanese kukai typically last about an hour. The size ranges from a small kukai of half a dozen people to a gigantic one of, say, 500 participants. Often, they are combined with ginko (haiku walk, or journey) during which there would be kukai which could be one session or many sessions depending. Ginko could be just a small stroll in a public part, or a bit bigger one such as a two-week trip to Australia or the Lake District in Britain.

Participants select their favourites anonymously ranging from 3 to 10 haiku and these are read out loudly by yomibito (haiku reader) as authors have to reply loudly if their poems are read out in order to reveal their identity. These are tense and thrilling moments.

After this, the shusai (master, or leader, or editor) of the kukai will read out his/her selections, normally 15 of them (some choose as many as 25), and give general comments as well as comments on each haiku. Usually, the shusai gives tokusen (special merit) to the best haiku.

Even based on traditional Japanese school, haiku in English cannot be but different. I accept three lines as they reflect the three segments in a Japanese haiku and also lines are an essential feature of Western poems (verse => Latin versus=line, furrow, row and vertere=to turn (page, line) However, some haiku are better in two lines or four lines in terms of rhythm, flow, contents and "look". One liners are slightly a different proposition and need more time to develop.

My idea is let each haiku determine the length, choice of words, rhythm etc. etc.

Now, our own kukai. On the whole, I am pleasantly surprised that the standard and quality of the submitted works are higher from the viewpoint of this School than those of general postings to the haikuforum.

Setsu-getsu-ka is a phrase which is used to describe the symbol of Japanese aesthetics closely related to nature. Setsu is snow, getsu moon and ka cherry blossom.

Snow has been liked by the Japanese for centuries so much so that there are numerous nouns and phrases to express all kinds of snow under different conditions, hence many kigo relating to snow. The lack of variety in your description of snow is one of the things which struck me as different. Snow is snow and that's that, is just about all.

Traditional Japanese School, with its restrictions such as kigo, teikei (5-7-5), kireji and lots of other conventions including limiting the subject matter, tends to encourage convergence, conformity and standardisation, which in turn often lead to stereo-typed and hackneyed haiku without newness, originality and innovation. Little wonder that Basho stressed the importance of fueki-ryuko (unchanging poetical values and newness).

From this, two things stem: -

(1) Acceptance of certain haiku which are written and appreciated within these limitations (such as the beauty of snow on the Mr. Fuji);

(2) Exceptional haiku which fall into these limitations and yet showing newness, originality and innovation (surprisingly these are possible);

It is wrong to dismiss (1) as worthless. It is all a question of expectation. If one expects more than (1) can offer, of course one feels dissatisfied and frustrated and judges these haiku under (1) by saying, So what? or These are incapable of answering important issues of society or human affairs. However, if one's expectations are conservative, haiku is still a pleasant pastime. If we want more from haiku, then we must expand the strait-jacket without destroying traditional values unduly (more on this in other lessons)

So, let us look at our own haiku then. In so doing, for obvious reasons we would wish to aim at (2) but it is a very difficult target indeed. Out of 54 works submitted, I have chosen seven.

Kukai results and commentaries may be viewed in the online message archives and files of WHCschools

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

Continue with :

Lesson 2

Lesson 3