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| From Lacock, England©Alan Summers 2014 |
More than one fold in the paper
Kire, kigo, and the vertical axis of meaning in haiku
by Alan Summers
Are kire and kigo the warp and weft of haiku? Are they
still the key ingredients in contemporary haiku?
At a time when haiku writers both inside and outside Japan
are reconsidering kigo as a worthy and pertinent device for haiku in the 21st
Century I wonder why it might be seen as cliché, or mistakenly relegated to an
amusing, if not a perfunctory weather report. Am I missing out on something if
I decide to include; exclude kigo; make attempts at kigo; or even make any
seasonal reference in my haiku?
I propose that a haiku is often defined, in a variety of
wording, as a short verse poem of around six seconds or less duration marked by
the presence of a kigo and kire. There are a growing number of exceptions
to the above description, mostly due, I believe, by influences from the West
during, and post-Shiki.
My main thrust is that there are the possibilities of kigo
as a tool or device as a choice, to be equally considered, as valid, as any
other technique of haiku. As a growing school of thought appears to be
developing the idea that kigo is obsolete, I’d like this once main defining
aspect of haiku, and pre-haiku aka hokku to be revisited.
But first I’d like to touch on kire, which is still
considered, perhaps, as a defining characteristic of haiku practice, with some
quotes from Ban’ya Natsuishi.
Kire – The first cut is
the deepest
[When haiku needs] to overcome its shortness, a vital
technique, kire (break) is used.
Contemporary haiku has teikei (fixed form) and jiyuritsu
(free form). Here is one of the shortest jiyuritsu haiku:
Coughing, even:
alone
Hosai Ozaki
せきをしてもひとり
— 尾崎放哉
Hosai Ozaki (1885-1926)
[This] jiyuritsu (free form) haiku consisting of
"Coughing, even" (six syllables in the original Japanese) and
"alone" (three syllables in the original), has kire (break), a shift
in the content and rhythm between the two phrases. In only nine syllables of
haiku, kire is the key that opens the reader's heart. [1]
Here we have an even shorter haiku:
陽へ病む
haiku by
Ōhashi Raboku at 4 Japanese characters. [2]
Not only is kire an important characteristic of haiku
composition, but I wonder if it is the very technique that effectively allows
the pre and non-haiku custom of seasonal greetings, that were such an integral
part of daily spoken and written Japanese, to truly make haiku itself come
alive?
In a forest of paper for the writer, the use of kire in a
haiku, the famous poem with its extreme distillation, is perhaps, a useful
method to incorporate: It makes the haiku poem both a miniature and expansive
poem at the same time. Kire is a potent method of vitalising a short verse into
a haiku: Looking at it in another way, an excellent poet is someone who can
skilfully fold the kire inside the haiku. [3]
Kire is both the catalyst and the glue to hold the other
characteristics of haiku, and it makes it possible for recent contemporary
haiku to express the leap in the poet's unique viewpoint and the shift in their
poetic form. [4]
I’ve slightly adapted Ban’ya’s English-language version of
the following haiku, but retained his use of a slash to indicate the kire:
Behind, a stillness /
my image cut from
a forest of
paper
Kan'ichi Abe (1928-2009)
In the space of stillness behind the poet, what his poetic intuition caught
was a forest of white thin paper. This leap in poetic intuition, from one
moment to the other, lies in the shift occurring between the phrases. [5]
Now I’d like to talk a little about kigo.
 |
| Lacock Village 3rd March 2014 crow twig carrying season©Alan Summers 2014 |
Kigo: A tide of longing
“season is the soul of
haiku”
William J. Higginson, The Haiku Seasons (p20) [6a]
"The Haiku Seasons presents the historical and modern Japanese usage of
seasonal themes in poetry. It shows, as nothing else in the literature has
done, the growing dialogue between poets in Japan and other countries…"
—Elizabeth Searle Lamb, retired editor, Frogpond, Haiku Society of America [6b]
Dono kisetsu ga suki desu ka.
どの季節が好きですか。
Which season do you like?
Kisetsu (season,
seasonal aspect): The seasons. The seasonal aspect of the vocabulary (kigo) and
subject matter (kidai) of traditional tanka, renga, and haiku; a deep feeling
for the passage of time, as known through the objects and events of the
seasonal cycle. [7]
Cloud kigo
a light rain patters across
your nightingale floors
Alan Summers [8]
"In search of the ultimate season word to associate with clouds, Alan
Summers observes how “rain writes its own story across floorboards that sing
like a bird. I like the idea of the cloud kigo.” David McMurray [9]
Do we as people, even if we are not Japanese, have an inbuilt awareness of
seasonal beauty and changes, even if we feel outside nature when living in
urban environments? Many, if not most of us, live inside our ever grey
concrete walls both at home and at work: Even when we go out for pleasure
activities in-between home and work we are tempted to exist between work and
home in yet more concrete enclaves. Are many of us, too many of us, walled out
and away from the existence of nature?
comfort television
I don't move the vase
for the orange asters
Karen Hoy [10]
Vertical axis is another topic for another article, but I’d
just like to touch on this often vital or vitalising by-product or device
utilising hidden and layered shorthand for other meanings, layering a haiku
with more than just a mere surface meaning, and imagistic pairing. Vertical
axis shows we are part of the world, be it natural history or social/cultural
history, with all its historic markers and literature.
Asters are reminiscent of the October 1918 Aster Revolution
in Hungary led by socialist Count Mihály Károlyi, who founded the short-lived
Hungarian Democratic Republic. An aspect of people wanting and needing
freedom. Asters are also commonly Autumn/Fall flowering plants.
Season words, and the Japanese kigo system, are not only
derived from observations of nature, they can allude to a country’s historical,
cultural and literary past. After all none of us live in isolation, no man is
an island [11] from our environment, be it literary, or social, or through some
aspect of nature.
Japanese kigo are a strong allusion device (there are
others) and I worry that kigo is mistakenly seen as cliché and/or as a weather
report thrown into the mix so that half the haiku is done already, when in
actual fact they can contain cultural and emotional tones of extreme intensity
within Japan; and surely at least a warmth of layered memories outside Japan?
Haiku of course has a long list of devices to consider for
inclusion, despite its brevity, and all are worth considering. Shirane suggests
several devices that can be used to increase depth in haiku. “Shirane's
dismissal of the seasonal reference is convenient for the thesis of his paper,
but does not seem to consider what is most distinctive in the haiku tradition:
the kigo or seasonal references that characterize them. It is puzzling that the
most obvious possibility for allusion is dismissed out-of-hand” Lee Gurga. [12]
I feel that non-Japanese haiku can achieve an aspect of
kisetsu with seasonal words and phrases. It’s an experiment worth
considering, as any prolific writer of haiku does, after all, need to consider
variety in their work, if they are thinking about bringing out a
collection. Dialogue is always healthy, and what better dialogue than to
attempt to not only write haiku with kigo, but go back to basics as to why kigo
(plural and singular spelling) were so
effective in Japan? Kigo was a technique independent of poetry, but
proved so successful that it became a highly respected tool within haiku
composition.
As poetry can often be strengthened with a sense of place,
as well as time, then perhaps the kigo tradition of Japan should be looked at
again for inclusion into haiku?
kicking
through the leaves
sound of its season
Alan Summers [13]
 |
| Autumn Leaves©Alan Summers 2013-2014 |
Each traditional Japanese haiku often expresses kisetsu and
the kigo, a word or a phrase that points to a particular season, which can
engineer a series of personal associations in the mind of certain
readers. With the age of the internet and information gleaned within
seconds from a smartphone, tablet, iPad, or a laptop computer, no man need ever
be an island [13], and we all share nature, be it a view of the sky, drifting
clouds, experiencing rain, noticing the sun during the daylight, and the moon
at night, as well as early evening, and occasionally as a day moon.
People will at least, on occasion, try to make sense of the
world, and now even Smartphone apps have recognised this. Apps are now
available that help make sense of the stars, and it was a wonder, and wanting
to understand the stars, that surely made us develop spoken and written
language. A poet has a wish to communicate, and now we can again point to
the stars, but not just with our index fingers, if we choose, or with our
modern quill pens, but with these smartphone apps (BBC News - Smartphone apps
that make sense of the stars, and New York Times: Watching Out for Falling
Stars, With a Smartphone in Hand).
One of my many aims for a new project is to show that the
practice of consideration of incorporating kigo into haiku can still be
relevant in the 21st Century. The Kigo Lab Project does not seek to attempt to
instil a kigo culture within international English-language haiku writing group
of poets: it simply wishes to engage in the possibilities that an attempt at
kigo may prove to be yet a potent device in an author’s armoury.
One of its many purposes is that an author can consider including kigo in their
variety of styles, whether for a collection-in-progress, or for competitions
run by various organisations that prefer a seasonal aspect in haiku.
Its aims lie in the experiment of certain well-known words
and phrases in the English language which have potential into being utilised,
even eventually, however long-term, into evolving as a direct parallel to
kigo. This is very much a long-term project, but if never started, then
how indeed can it ever succeed? And if it fails, then a collection of
potent words and phrases using and storing the power of the seasons and our
world’s life cycle are accessible for inclusion into at least some haiku
compositions. In fact David Cobb has already started with English Seasonal
Images: An Almanac of Haiku Season Words Pertinent to England. [14]
early dark
the cathedral visible
only as windows
Karen Hoy [15]
Early dark suggests the winter months, where in some world regions,
we may be aware of shortening days, but often it’s winter where the jolt from
day to night is most noticed. The allusion to stained glass windows is
inferred, and there is a long history of stained glass windows being the poor
man’s bible.
Another "poor man's Bible" is the cathedral,
especially one of older days in Europe. Most of the "poor" were
illiterate. So were quite a number of the rich, but they could hire people to
read for them. The poor learned their Scripture in large part from the stained
glass, statuary, and other art in the cathedrals. Similarly, the windows
themselves were sometimes called "poor man's Bibles" for the same
reason. [16]
Among the most innovative English designers [of stained
glass art] were the Pre-Raphaelites: William Morris (1834–1898); and Edward
Burne-Jones (1833–1898), whose work heralded Art Nouveau.
Easter Sunday
baby bumps
among the beer bellies
Karen Hoy [17]
Easter itself has a slew of cultural and religious
connections too complex for the point of this particular essay except to say
briefly that Easter Sunday is seen as a resurrection day i.e. a resurrection
Sunday, notably that of Jesus Christ. Fertility, and the using of wine or
beer, are closely associated with pre-Christian religions, and some later
religions, and there is the wetting the baby’s head saying, taking its name
from the Christian baptismal rite, and to do with new arrivals, as Jesus was
once, with the visit of the Three Wise Men.
Yellow-rattle meadow -
a two-spot ladybird turns
my hand around
Alan Summers [18]
My connection with nature is strong, and never stronger than
when I do my field trips, either with guides, or on my own. Yellow-rattle
meadows literally reek of Summer although they start in March and not cut down
until late July.
Yellow Rattle or Rhinanthus minor is a fascinating plant
often used to reduce grass in meadows to help other plants, and a valuable and
attractive wild flower in its own right and typical of traditional English hay
meadows.
Old Man’s Beard a cyclist wobbles the length of
it
[one line haiku]
Old Man’s Beard – Clematis vitalba also known as
‘traveller’s joy’ is extremely abundant in the South West of England where I
live. It is the UK's only native Clematis. Commonly known as 'Old Man's Beard',
and can be seen scrambling through hedgerows and trees along the roadside, and
is especially obvious in the winter months.
http://www.countrysketches.co.uk/nature_notes/old_mans_beard.htm
Folklore and Facts
Traveller's joy was associated with the Devil because it
does his work for him by trailing into other plants to choke them. It is also
connected with the Virgin Mary, and God, because of its white feathery look.
Flower Fairies of the Winter
Cicely Mary Barker (28 June 1895 – 16 February 1973)
illustrator:
the in-between season
I follow the Mogami River
by riceboat
Alan Summers
[21]
Maki Nishida, a colleague based in Japan, informed me about
the Samurai legends of Suma Temple during my stay in 2002 at Osaka and Kobe,
before following in the footsteps of Basho with other haiku poets. She
included the tale that if you heard the tsukutsukubôshi cicadas in September
there would be an in-between season. As I was in the grounds of Sumadera
in September, and heard them, that legend became a personal fact for me.
Toshugu shrine pines
I try to stay as still–
mist and dew
Alan Summers [22]
Dew is an autumn kigo. Although it’s Toshugu that is
mentioned, I’m reminded of when Issa visited Mt. Haruna, and of his haiku that
mention dew in regards to this brief transient life of our’s, and of the loss
of his son
These haiku are just a few of the possibilities of using
kigo or some variation of seasonal reference in haiku to showcase rich cultural
associations, some of which may be lost to time, some that can act as a current
ongoing eco-stamp in our changing weather patterns, and be worthy of archive
for that fact alone, plus the bonus of being a joyous type of poetry at times,
and at other times, a useful form of eco-critical writing.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Technique used
in Modern Japanese Haiku: Vocabulary and Structure by Ban'ya Natsuishi:
Japanese/English JAPANESE HAIKU 2001 (Modern Haiku Association, Tokyo, Japan,
December 2000, ISBN 4-89709-336-8)
[2] Japanese poet
Ōhashi Raboku (1890-1933) holds the record for the world's shortest poem. With
just four Japanese letters, this haiku: hi e yamu means "Sick with the
sun" (translation: Donald Keene). or oft-quoted as
“I am sick with the sun.”—Keene’s tr., in which “I am” expresses ideas included
in the original, but not its words). Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature
in the Modern Era—Poetry, Drama, Criticism.
(Note that there is another volume with the same title, only differing at the
end, where “Fiction” replaces “Poetry, Drama, Criticism”; that other volume is
over 1300 pages long, and is not for sale here.)New York: Henry Holt, 1984.
Paperback, 6×9.25″ (15.5×23.5 mm), 685+xiv pp.
[3] Technique used
in Modern Japanese Haiku: Vocabulary and Structure by Ban'ya Natsuishi:
Japanese/English JAPANESE HAIKU 2001 (Modern Haiku Association, Tokyo, Japan,
December 2000, ISBN 4-89709-336-8)
[4] ibid
[5] ibid
[7] William J.
Higginson with Penny Harter, The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach
Haiku, published by Kodansha International. Copyright (C) 1989 by William J.
Higginson.
[8] Asahi Shimbun
(Japan, 2013)
[9] Part
correspondence, part quote from Asahi Shimbun.
David McMurray writes a haiku column
for the Asahi Newspaper (Asahi Shimbun, Japan). He is Professor of
Intercultural Studies at The International University of Kagoshima (Japan)
where he lectures on international haiku. David McMurray judges haiku contests organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Asahi Culture Center, Matsuyama City, and Seinan Jo Gakuin University.
[10]
Multiverses 1.1 (2012)
[11] No Man Is an
Island from "Meditation XVII," by the English poet John Donne.
[12] Toward an
Aesthetic for English-Language Haiku by Lee Gurga, Global Haiku Festival,
Decatur, IL, April, 2000 re Haruo Shirane's Traces of Dreams (Stanford
University Press (1998))
[13] Publications
credits: Azami #38 (Japan, 1996); Television credit: BBC 1 - Regional arts feature, November 2003; Anthology Credit: Haiku Friends Vol. 3 ed. Masaharu Hirata (Japan, 2009)
[14] English
Seasonal Images: An Almanac of Haiku Season Words Pertinent to England, by
David Cobb. 2004. 120 pages. Modern Haiku Volume 36.1 Spring 2005, review by
Charles Trumbull.
[15] Another
Country, Haiku Poetry from Wales Edited by Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones and Lynne
Rees (Gomer Press ISBN: 9781848513068)
[17] Multiverses 1.1
(2012)
[18] Hermitage:
A Haiku Journal (editor Ion Codrescu 2005)
[19] Publications credit: a handful of stones (1st February 2011)
Anthology credit: A Blackbird Sings, a small stone anthology ISBN 978-0-9571584-2-9 ed. Fiona Robyn & Kaspalita Thompson (Woodsmoke Press 2012)
[20] Exhibition Credits: Floating World Japanese Festival (Joint exhibition with Trevor Haddrell, Bristol Floating Harbour, September 2003); East meets West (The Art Gym - Hengrove Community Arts College linocuts with Trevor Haddrell, November 2003); The Haiku Experience (Alan Summers & Karen Hoy, Totterdown Art Trail, Bristol, November 2003). Publication Credits: Presence No.13 (2001); tinywords (2004); See Haiku Here haiga (Japan, 2011); haijinx volume IV, issue 1 (2011); Seven By Twenty (Twitter magazine, 2010); Blogging Along Tobacco Road: Alan Summers - Three Questions (2010); Derbyshire Library Service Poem a Month (June 2011); THF Per Diem series Haiku of the Senses (March 2012); Multiverses 1.1 (2012); tempslibres - free times (French language Analysis of the Haiku structure feature 2013-03-1); Under the Basho Vol 1.1 Autumn 2013 Anthology credits: Haiku Friends vol. 1 ed. Masaharu Hirata (Osaka, Japan, 2003); City: Bristol Today in Poems and Pictures, Paralaia (2004) TV, newspaper, magazine and other media credits: BBC 1 - Regional arts feature (November 2003); Seven magazine feature: “Three lines of simple beauty” (2006); Bristol Evening Post article (2002); BroadcastLab, ArtsWork Bath Spa University (Haiku poet-in-residence 2006 - 2007); THFhaiku app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (2011)
[21] There is
a small gap between Summer and Autumn if the tsukutsukubôshi cicadas at
Sumadera are heard to ‘sing’ (which I did)] Publications credits: World Haiku Review Japan Article Vending machines
and cicadas (2003); Travelogue on World Haiku Festival 2002 (Akita
International Haiku Network, Part 1, 2010); Haiku Collection Credit: The In-Between Season (With
Words Haiku Pamphlet Series 2012)
[22] World Haiku Review
Japan Article - Vending machines and cicadas (March 2003); Hermitage (2005);
Travelogue on World Haiku Festival 2002 Part 1 (Akita International Haiku
Network 2010); Anthology Credit: We Are All Japan (Karakia Press 2012) Haiku Collection: The In-Between Season (With Words Haiku Pamphlet Series 2012).
More than one fold in the paper©Alan Summers
2012-2020
If you are interested in pursuing haiku, whether as a first-timer, or someone familiar with haiku but want to push yourself just a bit further, we run regular group and one-to-one sessions:
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