Japanese Forms

Haibun – What you need to know!

What is a haibun, who developed it, and what writing devices are typical of the form? How does it reflect Japanese artistic or cultural values?

1. The Japanese art of haibun was developed in Japan in the late 17th century by Matsuo Munefusa (Basho).

2. It focuses on objective reporting of the everyday

moment 3. The insights of that moment into a theme

developed in a concluding poem. 4. Details are recorded and generalities drawn, but the

nature of the writing style is to condense rather than

expand, to intimate rather than explain. 5. Moreover, the Japanese concept of the essentialness of nature is incorporated into the observation of even the most mechanical scenes.

Lecture Notes: In the medieval Japanese society, great value was placed on nature and its relationship to human interaction because their religion, Shintoism, recognized that all created things had a spirit. More than mere omens, the simplest natural phenomena were considered messages from the spirit realm, and even the samurai warrior or shogun warlord was expected to appreciate the beauty in nature and glean wisdom from it. For this reason, art of this period developed around the concentration on natural scenery. In poetry, the focus was on a single image in nature which held transcendental wisdom or inspired an intuitive or emotional response.

In the late 17th century, poet Matsuo Munefusa, called Basho, retreated to his hut, composing simple poetry reflecting his meditations. The resulting poetry and accompanying prose elevated the simple three-line stanza known now as haiku to an art form. Basho's focus on simplistic yet elegant language became a standard for Japanese poetic forms, establishing the formula of the incorporation of a seasonal word, kigo, and the observation of a connection between two juxtaposed images, sometimes demanding an intuitive leap, kireji, to connect the first image to the second. As Basho traveled, he maintained this simplistic elegance in his prose journals, usually using the present tense, which he would punctuate with a concluding haiku or tanka. The resultant combination of prose and poetry was named haibun.

Please visit the following website for further reading:

http://raysweb.net/haiku/

Instructions: 1. Click on the Haibun Definition link to read about this form of poetry

Please visit the following website for further reading: http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/

Please visit the following website for further reading:

http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/

Task: Collect at least three haibun poems for your portfolio. These will serve as a model and inspiration for your own poetry. You will keep these in your shoe box until you are ready to make your book.

What is haiku?

Haiku is a Japanese poetry form. A haiku uses just a few words to capture a moment and create a picture in the reader's mind. It is like a tiny window into a scene much larger than itself. Traditionally, haiku is written in three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line.

The following are typical of haiku: • • • • A focus on nature.

A "season word" such as "snow" which tells the reader what time of year it is.

A division somewhere in the poem, which focuses first on one thing, than on another. The relationship between these two parts is sometimes surprising.

Instead of saying how a scene makes him or her feel, the poet shows the details that caused that emotion. If the sight of an empty winter sky made the poet feel lonely, describing that sky can give the same feeling to the reader.

“In Kyoto ...”

By Basho 1644–1694

In Kyoto, hearing the cuckoo, I long for Kyoto.

A Dent in a Bucket by Gary Snyder Hammering a dent out of a bucket a woodpecker answers from the woods

All the time I pray to Buddha by Kobayashi Issa

All the time I pray to Buddha I keep on killing mosquitoes.

Please visit the following website:

http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku/

Task: Collect at least three haiku poems for your portfolio. These will serve as a model and inspiration for your own poetry. You will keep these in your shoe box until you are ready to make your book.