Haiku

Haiku (originally called hokku) is a form of non-rhyming poetry that evolved in seventeenth-century Japan, usually inspired by nature. It is a fun, playful way of composing a poem. Have you ever written a haiku?

(R.H.Blyth, Haiku, 1952)

Haiku Format and Structure

Haiku is a 3-line non-rhyming poem composed of 17 syllables. The first line must contain five syllables, the second line seven, and the third line five.

The usual rules of grammar and punctuation do not apply: the poet can choose whether or not to use punctuation or capital letters, and how to structure their sentences. Haikus also tend to be written in the present tense to add a sense of immediacy. Perhaps because of their brevity, not all haiku have titles.

The haiku originally served to describe the seasons, and the natural world is still the main focus for many haiku poets today.

Traditional haiku also contains a kigo or word that explains which season the haiku is set in.

Haiku Poets and Their Poems

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) further developed and refined the then-named hokku while living in Edo (modern Tokyo).

Who Was Basho?

(R.H.Blyth, Haiku, Hokuseido, 1951)

Basho was born Matsuo Kinsaku into a minor samurai family in the Iga Province, during the "sakoku" or "locked country" period (1633 - 1853).

After his father died in 1656, Basho was employed as a page to the local lord’s son Tōdō Yoshitada at Ueno Castle. During his time there developed an interest in literature. Basho’s earliest known poem was published in 1662.

Yoshitada was a keen poet and particularly liked to compose collaborative poetry (called haikai no renga, or renku). The opening verse of a renku was called a hokku. One poet would write the hokku, then the next verse would be written by another poet, and so on. In 1665, Basho collaborated with Yoshitada and friends on a hundred verse renku.

Yoshitada died in 1666 and Basho moved to Kyoto to study Chinese and Japanese poetry and Zen meditation.

Basho taught in Edo for a few years and wrote his poetry under the pen name of Tosei ("green peach"); his poetry sought to be fresh and eternal, and drew on the natural world, history, and literature.

Basho’s Travels

In late 1684, Basho began the first of his travels across Japan. Below is one of his haiku’s describing his life as a traveller:

(Basho, 1685, tr. R.H. Blyth 1952)

The first line ‘The year draws to its close’, establishes the passing of time (suggestive of change), while the second and third lines show how he has spent this time: instead of teaching, he has been travelling.

His first journey took him to Mount Fuji, Ueno and Kyoto, returning to Edo in 1685. Initially expecting the worst (bandits were rife), Basho was pleasantly surprised and grew more confident; he met many friends and embraced the change of seasons and landscape. He continued writing hokku along the way, observing great truths in everyday things.

In 1686, after his return to Edo, Basho composed one of his best-known haiku:

(Matsuo Basho, 'The Old Pond', 1686, tr. R.H.Blyth)

This became an overnight hit and poets from across Edo came to Basho’s home to join in writing a haikai no renga about frogs. Basho continued teaching poetry in Edo until 1687, when he began making trips. In 1689 - 1691 he made his longest journey of all, travelling with his disciple Sora to the north of Japan, to visit places near Kyoto.

Translation into English:

(Basho, 'Eternal Stillness', tr. Masako K.Hirago, 1987)¹

The last poem he wrote during his final illness is regarded as his farewell :

旅に病んで夢は枯野をかけ廻る tabi ni yande / yume wa kareno wo / kake meguru

(Basho, 1694, tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa, 2006)

(R.H.Blyth, Haiku, 1951)

Other poets continued to develop this new kind of poetry throughout the Edo Period and include Buson, Issa, and Shiki. Another poet who was considered Basho’s heir in the mastery of haiku was Chiyo Ni, who became a Buddhist nun.

Let’s look briefly at each of these poets and their poetry:

Chiyo Ni (1703 - 1775)

Chiyo Ni was born in Matto (now Hakusan) into a family of scroll mounters and started writing haiku when she was seven, gaining popularity across Japan by the time she was seventeen.

She studied under two of Basho’s disciples and was widely regarded as Basho’s heir, both for her poetry and her simple way of living. Although she studied Basho, she also developed her own style which, while focused on nature, aims for a union between nature and humanity.

(Chiyo Ni, 'Morning Glory', tr. Donegan and Ishibashi, 1996)

In this poem, Chiyo-ni is going to fetch water from the well. Entranced by the morning-glory flower growing across the well’s bucket, she avoids disturbing it and asks water of her neighbours instead.

Buson (1716 – 1784)

Both a poet and a painter, Buson carried on the haiku tradition into the late eighteenth century.

After studying poetry and painting in Edo, he followed in the footsteps of his idol Basho by travelling across Japan, following the route described by Basho in his ‘Narrow Road to the Interior’. Buson published his notes from his own journey.

He is considered one of the great haiku masters, with his style considered more sensuous and painterly than Basho.

(Buson, tr. R.H. Blyth)

In this haiku, Buson observes the arrival of spring - there are still chilly draughts (in nooks and corners of the house) - while plums begin to blossom. The first two lines are taken up with establishing the season and its climate (a chilly spring), leaving the third to symbolise the changes brought about (the plum blossoming).

Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828)

Born Kobayashi Nobuyuki into a farming family, Issa grew up in unhappy circumstances and spent much of his life struggling to regain his inheritance. He travelled through Japan, wrote a diary (The Last Days of Issa’s Father) and produced over 20,000 haiku, many of which were dedicated to plants and insects. Much of his work tended to be humorous as well as sorrowful, couched in intense language filled with a vitality which set him apart from the Basho tradition.

(Issa, tr. R.H.Blyth)

The poet is on a journey, and the intense heat as he goes up the mountain makes him feel that he, the mountain, and the heat have all become one and the same.

Shiki and the Meaning of Haiku

Masaoka Shiki (1867 – 1902)

Shiki was a poet, author, and literary critic during the Meiji period in Japan. He was born Tsunenori to a samurai family and his father died when Shiki was five. His mother’s father was a Confucian scholar who taught the boy to read Mencius. Shiki studied in Tokyo, where he became obsessed with the art of haiku, even though it was waning in popularity in modern Meiji society.

After reaching Tokyo, Shiki wrote and published a serialised volume of haiku. This was followed by more serialised work. Shiki concentrated on the 5-7-5 formula and coined the term "haiku". He had suffered from tuberculosis for much of his life and in 1888 or 1889 he began coughing up blood. The disease spread to his spine and he became bedridden, dying in 1902. During his short life, Shiki had restored the haiku and established it as a literary genre in its own right.

(Shiki, tr. R.H. Blyth)

Shiki composed this while staying at a sixteenth-century mansion. In this poem, he invites the phantoms of two celebrated warriors to join him in the cool air of the night. According to the translator, Blyth, this is an example of how the spirit world is perceived to be much closer to humans in Japanese culture than in Western.

The Haiku in Western Literature

Shiki’s work helped introduce the haiku to poets from across the globe, although the haiku continued to remain a little outside Western consciousness until after World War II, when R.H Blyth produced his 4-volume Haiku (1949-52). In 1958, An Introduction to Haiku by Harold G. Henderson was also published, followed by Blyth’s History of Haiku in 1964 (the same year the Haiku Society of America was founded), and a trend was set.

While some continue to adhere to the classical haiku structure and themes, others have chosen to break with tradition, changing structure and adopting material unrelated to nature, such as the urban landscape, technology, the internet, and social media.

John Wills (1921- 1993) is considered one of the great nature poets who influenced the American haiku. While adhering to the traditional theme of nature, he also experimented with its form, as seen below in his one-line haiku (of 10 syllables as opposed to the classical 17):

(John Wills, 'Up a Distant Ridge', 1980)

As Sono Uchida, President of the Haiku International Association said:

(Bruce Ross, Haiku Moment, An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku, 1993)

1. Masako K. Hiraga, "Stillness: A Linguistic Journey to Bashō's Haiku about the Cicada," Poetics Today, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1987.