3/07/2006

Shinko and Gendai Haiku

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Shinko Haiku : Young and New Haiku
shinkoo haiku 新興俳句

For Modern Haiku, Gendai Haiku, see below.
shinkoo haiku
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Explanation

Quote from Ryu Yotsuya
The young poets of Shinko Haiku refused the rule of kigo and attempted to modernize haiku, modeling the Western literature. Several of them had sympathy with the socialism or the dadaism.

The principal poets of Shinko Haiku are Sanki Saito (1900 ~ 1962),
Kakio Tomizawa, Hosaku Shinohara (1905 ~ 1936), Soshu Takaya (1910 ~), and Hakusen Watanabe (1913 ~ 1969).

Kakio Tomizawa, influenced by poems of the symbolists, tried to express the spleen of moderns. He introduced, in the Western way, the abstraction, the metaphor, and the analogy.   。。。

There are two kinds of blame put on Kakio. One is for his technique: "Haiku is the shortest poetry form in the world, therefore it can transmit only a little information. The essence of haiku, it is the allusion to vast space with a few words, not the expressionism. This is why the haikuists had care to make simple descriptions, leaving a place to the readers' imagination. The manner of Kakio to attract the readers by handling metaphors limits their freedom of imagination and weakens the haiku." This type of reproach comes mainly from the poets traditionalists.

But it seems to me that this kind of reproach consider only one aspect of Kakio's technique. Before Kakio, only simple descriptions were used. There was then a cultural base supporting this simplicity; many customs remained and the Japanese had in common value judgments and fixed firm aesthetic sense; thus, simple descriptions evoked the same pleasures to Japanese readers.

As the internationalization and the development of modernization accelerated, it became difficult to share the same values, even among Japanese. As for the haiku, it became necessary to reinforce the transmission by adopting such exaggerated expressions as metaphor and analogy. 。。。

The other reproach is for his view of the man.
The poets of Shinko Haiku rejected the Japanese conventional culture and they expressed the repulsion for this society where the birth, the relationship, and the authority of old men were respected than the quality of the individual. They dreamed of liberal values and accepted the idea of the Western individualism. They considered that the society and the individual were opposed and they thought that an author had to have a point of view of individualist turning against the former. 。。。

On the basis of this important criticism against Shinko Haiku, Koi Nagata, Seito Hirahata (1905 ~ 1997), and other poets founded the movement "Kongen Haiku" (haiku seeking the origin of the existence).

Kakio Tomizawa (1902 ~ 1962) 富澤赤黄男 とみざわ かきお
© Written by Ryu Yotsuya
http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/ehisto/ekakio.shtml

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General haïku reviews:
"Haïku Kenkyu", the first general haiku review was founded in 1934. It became the prime mover of the Shinko haiku movement, which criticized the Kyoshi system.

Haiku circles reviews:
Shinko haiku poets published haiku circle reviews, i. e., reviews with no master. " Kyoko haiku " (Kyoto University haiku, 1933-40) was the most remarkable example. Avant-garde haiku poets also founded similar reviews in the 50s and 60s.
http://www.tempslibres.org/tl/en/theo/mode21.html


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The Haiku Universe for the 21st Century.
Tokyo, Japan: Modern Haiku Association, 2008
Modern Haiku Association (Gendai Haiku Kyōkai)

1. Introduction (before Shiki) "... modern haiku was reformed anew in the Meiji era ... Before that, it was haikai in the Edo period ...
5-7-5 hokku, followed by 7-7 wakiku"

2. Dawn of Japanese Modern Haiku (1890 - 1900)
3. Development of Modern Haiku (1900 - 1920)
- The New Trend Haiku (Kawahigashi Hekigoto)
- Free Form Haiku (jiyuritsu)
- Objective Sketching in haiku (shasei) (Takahama Kyoshi)
- Early Days of 'Hototogisu' (more female poets)
- Haiku of Natural Beauty
(4 S's: Mizuhara Shuoshi, Takano Suju, Awano Seiho, and Yamaguchi Seishi)
4. Modernism -- Turning Point in Haiku:
- Shinko Haiku - New Style Haiku
- Non-seasonal Haiku (mu ki)
- Human Inquiry School
- Proletarian Haiku
- New Style Haiku
- Haiku Incidents (Japan-China War) 1946
5. Starting Over Again
6. Age of the Avant-garde (1950 - 1970)
- Socialism in Haiku
- Avant-garde Haiku Movement (1960's)
7. Haiku in the Late 20th Century
- After Avant-garde Haiku (1970- )
- The Popularization of Haiku (1980 - )
- Internationalization of Haiku (1980 - )
8. From the 20th Century to the Future

- source : www.modernhaiku.org


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戦争が廊下の奥に立つてゐた
sensô ga rôka no oku ni tatte ita
sensoo ga rooka no oku ni tatte ita

the war was standing at the end of the corridor
Hakusen Watanabe 渡辺白泉 Watanabe Hakusen (1939)

Discussion : THF Envoy 4


この句を読んで、私たちは、
戦争が、「廊下」という家の中のテリトリーの中にまで、
気付かないうちに忍び寄るものなのだということ、
そしてその戦争は、座っているのでもよこたわっているのでもなく、
「立っている」ものだということ。
そのまま、こちらに向かって歩き出してこられたら、
逃げられない距離に、それが立っていることの恐怖。

廊下の闇を見て、特に怖いドラマや映画をみたあとは
「ここに誰かがいたら怖いなあ」と思うけれど、
そのような感覚に、〈戦争〉をスライドさせて重ねることで
誰にもその恐怖が実感される。
もちろんミニマムなものであったとしても、
それは自らの命を脅かされるといった類の恐怖で、
戦争を実際には知らない世代の私にとっても、
この句を読むと、からだの芯があおざめるような感覚がある。
『渡邊白泉句集』より。

source : 渡辺白泉


Hakusen and some of his haiku friends who wrote poetry against the war were later strongly repressed, and the Haiku Incident followed.



At the end of the corridor was the man holding the mail/letter with his orders to join the war forces - a kind of suicide command.


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新興俳句 しんきょうはいく一九三一年(昭和六)、水原秋桜子・山口誓子の「ホトトギス」からの分離を契機として起った俳句運動。
「天の川」「旗艦」「土上」などの結社もこれに属する。発想・感覚の近代性を強調。
Japanese Haiku Glossary

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Modern Haiku - Gendai Haiku 現代俳句

Modern Haiku Society / Gendai Haiku Kyokai
Gendai Haiku Kyookai 現代俳句協会

現代俳句協会
President: Uda Kiyoko 宇多喜代子


www.gendai-haiku.com
Richard Gilbert



Modern Haiku Database / Gendai Haiku 現代俳句データベース
April 2007: Containing more than 12684 haiku.
現代俳句データベース-検索

In the Database of this group, we find about 150 haiku without a kigo. Quite a lot are by the honorable chairman, Kaneko Tohta. 金子兜太 .  (April 2007)
This database is constantly updated.
季語が「無季」の俳句


Modern Haiku Journal
Charles Trumbull, Editor




What Is Your Response to Gendai Haiku?
By Peter Yovu
The word gendai itself may be enough to send ripples through our haiku foundations, but it simply means “modern.” Just as 20th century Western poetry went through numerous trials and transformations, so did 20th century Japanese haiku. These changes, in each case, were both a response to the old (not necessarily a rejection of it) and a willingness to meet the provocations of a challenging new era, which many felt demanded a new poetry, a revitalized haiku.
Read the Discussion of the Haiku Foundation BLOG,
December 2009
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2009/12/08/7th-sailing/



Read an interesting article by Richard Gilbert
The Spirit of Freedom

#131

"俳句事件”/ Haiku Jiken



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New Style Haiku - Shintai Haiku 新体俳句


Some people are asking what on earth is Shintai haiku, or Vanguard haiku. The classification is just like the titles of a filing cabinet in order to avoid unnecessary polemics about what is and what is not haiku. There are now so many different varieties of haiku that defining haiku seems to me to be almost like fighting a losing and pointless battle. So much so that we had better say that “Haiku is haiku if the author says so.” All the rest is only one real and essential question: Is it then a good poem?

All haiku poems can conveniently be divided into three categories according to how traditional or radical they are. The most traditional end is grouped together under the Neo-classical with stringent kigo or 5-7-5 rules. The most radical (freest) end is classified as the Vanguard. Anything between these two falls into the Shintai (or new-style). The borderline cases can go either category depending on the perception of a haiku poet who creates or reads them.
And whichever category they may go, it does not matter.

Susumu Takiguchi,
source : World Haiku Reveiw, January 2011


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Experimental Haiku
Jikkensei Haiku 実験性俳句
Zenei Haiku 前衛俳句


A group effort during the time of Showa 30 (around 1960), which is not very popular any more. They were mostly concerned of picturing social situations of their time.
Kaneko Tohta and Tsubouchi Nenten were among them.

... 八木三日女: Yagi Mikajo, Some Japanese Samples
http://gendaihaiku.com/mikajo/index.html


sakura chiru anata mo kaba ni narinasai

falling cherry blossoms -
you also must become
a hippopotamus


Tsubouchi Nenten


WKD : Tsubouchi Nenten (1944 - )

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Worldwide use

Poland

Młodzi poeci zachęceni przez to wydarzenie, zapoczątkowali bardziej radykalne i nowatorskie działania, tzw. Shinko Haiku ( haiku nowej generacji). Shuoshi utrzymywał, że haiku pozbawione kigo, czyli bezsezonowe haiku nie posiadają żadnej wartości, toteż szukał podmiotu swych utworów w obcowaniu z przyrodą i życiu codziennym w harmonii z nią. Natomiast młodzi poeci Shinko nie zgadzając się zasadą sezonowości haiku (kigo), próbowali uwspółcześniać je na styl Zachodu. Kilku z nich solidaryzowało się nawet z socjalizmem i dadaizmem.

Głównymi przedstawicielami tego nurtu byli: Sanki Saito (1900-1962), Kakio Tomizawa, Hosaku Shinohara (1905-1936), Soshu Takaya (1910-), oraz Hakusen Watanabe (1913-1969).

Jako krytyczną odpowiedź na postawę twórców Shinko Haiku, poeci, na czele z Koi Nagata , oraz Seito Hirahata (1905-1997) rozpoczęli nowy kierunek, tzw. ”Kongen Haiku". Dotyczyło ono odwiecznych zagadnień związanych ze źródłami ludzkiego bytu.
http://1lo.sanok.pl/~iz/haiku/Kakio.htm


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Germany
Haiku seit 1930

In den 1930er Jahren griff eine Gruppe junger Haikudichter das schon in der Edo-Zeit entstandene muki-Haiku, das Haiku ohne Jahreszeitenwort, wieder auf. Das Shinko-Haiku (der neue Haiku-Stil) wurde populär, beeinflußt von westeuropäischer Dichtung und Essays, dem ›esprit nouveau‹ aus Frankreich und der ›Neuen Sachlichkeit‹ aus Deutschland.

Aspekte moderner deutschsprachiger Haiku
© Mario Fitterer



VerSuch ... das projekt gendai haiku

VerSuch ... das projekt gendai haiku ist ein deutschsprachiges blog von dietmar tauchner und ralf bröker. das ziel: den stand und die entwicklung des modernen haiku in deutscher sprache zu zeigen.

dabei wissen wir: der begriff "gendai" ist durchaus kritisch zu sehen. denn vielleicht kann das gendai haiku nur aus japan kommen. aber solange das nicht belegt ist, leihen wir uns den begriff für dieses projekt.

started 2013 - Ralf Bröker
source : gendai-haiku.blogspot.de


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France

Shinko Haiku (Jeune et nouveau haïku)
http://pages.infinit.net/haiku/japon.htm

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Spain

Shinko Haiku ( nuevo y joven haiku )

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NEW RISING HAIKU
The Evolution of Modern Japanese Haiku and
the Haiku Persecution Incident

Itô Yûki, Kumamoto University

source : Simply Haiku 2007


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Avantgarde Haiku ぜんえい/ 前衛俳句 zen-ei haiku
vanguard haiku
zenei haiku
Reference


social haiku 社会性俳句 shakaisei haiku



ume saite niwachuu ni aozame ga kite iru

plums are blossoming -
everywhere in my garden
blue sharks have come


Kaneko Tohta (Kaneko Toota) 1919-
and "Avantgarde Haiku"


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NHK 2008 「俳句ナンダこりゃコレクション」
What, this is supposed to be haiku ?

A panel of 6 artists, not all haiku poets, was discussing the following poems, trying to make sense out of some rather than pure nonsense, trying to find some facts behind the poems ...
lead by Kaneko Tohta sensei.




  足のうら洗へば白くなる  
ashi no ura araeba shiroku naru

when you wash
the soles of your feet
they become white


尾崎放哉 Ozaki Hoosai (1885 - 1926)
Ozaki Hōsai 尾崎 放哉


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  青蛙おのれペンキぬりたてか  
aogaeru onore MO penki nuritate

green tree frog -
are you also

freshly painted ?

芥川龍之介 Akutagawa Ryunosuke
Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892 - 1927).


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"Air raids night after night"

clear starlit sky
in freezing night, after the planes'
roar has vanished


Ishibashi Hideno



air-raid sirens
the last to turn off the lights
is a temple with blossoms


Sugita Hisajo



火の奥に牡丹崩るるさまを見つ
hi no oku ni botan kuzururu sama o mitsu

in the deep fires
I saw the way
a peony crumbles

Tr. Patricia Donegan

. Kato Shuson, 加藤楸邨 .



Haiku Mind - By Patricia Donegan
- source : books.google.co.jp

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  鞦韆は漕ぐべし愛は奪ふべし  
shuusen wa kogu beshi ai wa ubau beshi

a swing is ment for swinging
love is ment for robbing (from someone else)



三橋鷹女 Mitsuhashi Takajo  
Mitsuhashi Takajo (1899-1972)



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  粉屋が哭く山を駆けおりてきた俺に  
konaya ga koku yama o kakeorite kita boku ni

the miller shoutes at me
when I was running down
the mountain

金子兜太 Kaneko Tohta
Kaneko Tohta (Kaneko Toota) 1919-


He ran down the mountain shouting ... the miller was made up for the haiku.


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  まっすぐな道でさみしい  
massugu na michi de samishi

this road is so strait
loneliness

種田山頭火 Taneda Santoka
Taneda Santoka (1882-1940) 


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  露人ワシコフ叫びて石榴打ち落す  
rojin Washikofu sakebite zakuro uchiotosu

the Russian Washikoff
shouted out and hit
a pomegranate


The Russian was a neighbour of Sanki and he could observe him from his window on the second floor, hitting the fruit so that it would fall down. Washikoff was about 56 years and lived alone in the house, after his Japanese wife had died from a lung disease.


Saitoo Sanki 西東三鬼 Saito Sanki 1900-1962
1900年(明治33年)5月15日 - 1962年(昭和37年)4月1日)
His death anniversary is the first of April.

三鬼忌 (さんきき)Sanki Ki
Saitoo Ki 西東忌(さいとうき)
Sanki no Ki三鬼の忌(さんきのき)




西東忌帽子はやらぬ世となりし
Saitoo-ki booshi hayaranu yo to narishi

Saito memorial day -
his hat is no longer fashionable
in our times


Katayama Yumiko 片山由美子


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戦争が廊下の奥に立ってゐた  
sensoo ga rooka no oku ni tatte ita

渡辺白泉 Watanabe Hakusen
(see above)


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  性格が八百屋お七でシクラメン  
seikaku ga yaoya oshichi de shikuramen



the personality is like
Yaoya O-Shichi ...
cyclamen



京極杞陽 Kyogoku Kiyo (Kyoogoku) (1908 - 1981)

Yaoya O-Shichi, a story of red hot love


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  じゃんけんで負けて蛍に生まれたの 
janken de makete hotaru ni umareta no

I lost a game of rock-paper-scissors
and was reborn
as a firefly


池田澄子 Ikeda Sumiko (1936 - )


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  法医學・櫻・暗黒・父・自瀆   
hooigaku . sakura . makkuro . chichi . jii

legal medicine . cherry blossoms . all black .
my father . masturbation

寺山修司 Terayama Shuji (Shuuji) (1935 - 1983)


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  とととととととととと脈アマリリス   
tototototo tototototo myaku amaririsu

tototototo
tototototo my pulse
amaryllis


中岡敏雄 Nakaoka Toshio


Amaryllis is a kigo for summer. The latin name means shining, sparkling, and it can represent health and well-being. Nakaoka was ill at the time when he wrote this haiku and had to take his pulse regularly. totototo is quite a fast pulse for him, tokutoku would be a normal, slow pulse. And when he looked up, his eyes fell on the strong, energetic, healthy flower.

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  ワタナベのジュースの素です雲の峰   
watanabe no juusu no moto desu kumo no mine

this is the powder
for Watanabe juice ...
billowing clouds

三宅やよい Miyake Yayoi (1955 - )

This powder was famous and the phrase is part of a commercial song of old.
When the powder was put into cold water, it would form "clouds" and then dilute into the sweet fruit drink.


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  噴水や戦後の男指やさし  
funsui ya sengo no otoko yubi yasashi

this fountain ...
the men after the war
have such gentle fingers

寺田京子 Terada Kyoko (1925 - 1976)

The fountain represents the democratic movement that started after World War 2. Men had the chance to forget about samurai, fighting and war and become more gentle toward the ladies.


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  春は曙そろそろ帰ってくれないか  
haru wa akebone sorosoro kaette kurenai ka

dawn in spring -
could you please leave
now ?


櫂美千子 Kai Michiko


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  夜のダ・カポ ダ・カポのダ・カポ 噴火のダ・カポ   
yoru no da kapo da kapo no da kapo funka no da kapo

da capo at night
da capo of da capo
da capo of the vulcanic eruption

高柳 重信 Takayanagi Jushin (Juushin) (1923 - 1983)

This is a play of sounds with DA CAPO . . . repeating something in music.


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  栃木にいろいろ雨のたましいもいたり   
Ibaragi ni iroiro ame no tamashi mo itari

there are a few things in Ibaragi
there is even the soul
of rain

阿部完市 Abe Kai-ichi (Kaiichi) (1928 - )

Ibaragi is a prefecture close to Tokyo, more of a suburb to the big city.


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  夏みかん酸っぱしいまさら純潔など  
natsumikan suppashi ima sara junketsu nado

鈴木しづ子 Suzuki Shizuko (1919 - ?)

She was born in the same year as Kaneko Tohta sensei, wrote some revolutionary love haiku and published one book "Spring thunder" 春雷 ... then faded into the unknown and was not heared of again.


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  魔がさして糸瓜となりぬどうもどうも  
magasashite hechima to narinu doomo doomo

the demons came over me
and I became a sponge gourd ---
thank you, thank you

正木ゆう子 Masaki Yuko (Yuuko) (1952 in Kumamoto - )

doomo doomo, is a kind of thank you or a vague excuse often used in Japanese. It gives the haiku a funny and every-day life flavor.


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福助のお辞儀は永遠に雪が降る   
Fukusuke no o-jigi wa eien ni yuki ga furu

the servile bow of Fukusuke
is with us for ever . . .
it is snowing



鳥居真理子 Tori Mariko (Torii) (1948 - )




. . . CLICK HERE . . .
for my information about the famous FUKUSUKE.

Fukusuke bows and maybe mumbles
DOOMO DOOMO ... thanks for visiting our store or shop !


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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Spirit of Freedom
Aspects of Contemporary Haiku

© Richard Gilbert talks with Udo Wenzel
http://www.haiku-heute.de/Archiv/Richard_Gilbert_03-2007/Richard_Gilbert_e_03-2007/richard_gilbert_e_03-2007.html

Udo Wenzel:
Since the nineties you have been living, teaching and researching in Japan at Kumamoto University. During this time you have gotten a deeper insight into contemporary Japanese haiku life. Besides so-called “traditional haiku” there are also “gendai (modern) haiku.” What are the main differences between these two trends?

Richard Gilbert:
Prior to my arrival in Japan, like most of my American-poet friends, I had virtually no knowledge of gendai haiku, was looking forward to researching the classical tradition and haiku fundaments. It was only after living here for a couple of years that I began reading more gendai haiku, and meeting poets. I can say that I found the poetry, techniques, and critical ideas to be eye-opening.

Your question about the differences between gendai and traditional haiku is challenging, because a reasonable answer involves a bit of relevant history, and not only aesthetic but also socio-political considerations. Ito Yūki (Ph.D. candidate, Kumamoto University), has just completed an article on the origins and evolution of gendai haiku, tentatively titled, “New Rising Haiku: The Evolution of Modern Japanese Haiku and the Haiku Persecution Incident”. He focuses especially on the wartime persecution of the New Rising Haiku poets – instrumental to an understanding of contemporary Japanese haiku. Unfortunately, his paper has not yet been published; in fact, it’s not certain he can easily publish it. Below, I’ll paraphrase from two relevant sections (though would have preferred to quote directly).

In the early 20th century, Takahama Kyoshi, one of the two main disciples of Masaoka Shiki, presided over the Hototogisu group (and its journal), which he had inherited from Shiki. Due to his dictatorial and uncompromising style, by the 1920s, several prominent poets had broken with him. Paraphrasing Ito, the ‘New Rising Haiku movement’ (shinkô haiku undô) wished to compose haiku on new subjects, and utilize techniques and topics related to contemporary social life.

These poets frequently wrote haiku without kigo (muki-teki haiku), and explored non-traditional subjects, such as social inequity, utilizing avant‑garde styles including surrealism, etc. Therefore, along with aesthetic and technique differences, the New Rising Haiku poets, who began the gendai (modern) haiku movement in earnest, had strong philosophical, sociological and intellectual differences with Hototogisu and Kyoshi.

During the war, over 40 New Rising Haiku poets were persecuted; they were imprisoned and tortured, and some died in prison. These progressive poets were also made to sign false confessions and denounce their own and others’ poetry and thought. Various progressive journals were banned and printing presses destroyed. Many of these poets, after a stay in prison, were sent to the front lines of the war.

Ito writes that Takahama Kyoshi became the president of a haiku branch of the fascist government culture-control/propaganda group known as The Japanese Literary Patriotic Organization (nihon bungaku hôkoku kai), which was devoted to both censorship and persecution, along with a host of other war crimes.

At the time, the Director of the society was Ono Bushi, whose title was: The Agent of Investigation of the Minds of the Nation’s Citizens (kokumin jyôsô chosa iin). Perhaps the most notorious statement published by Ono reads:

I will not allow haiku even from the most honorable person, from left-wing, or progressive, or anti-war, groups to exist. If such people are found in the haiku world, we had better persecute them, and they should be punished. This is necessary. (Kosakai, 169; trans. by Ito, with Gilbert)

At least one poet who survived imprisonment reported that he was commanded by the Secret Police to “write haiku in the style of Hototogisu” (Kosakai, 79).

According to the fascist‑traditionalists, to write haiku without kigo meant anti-tradition, which in turn meant anti-Imperial order and high treason. As such, all New Rising Haiku was to be annihilated. Ito writes, “We are reminded of how the Nazis preserved so-called pure nationalist art, while persecuting the modern styles of so‑called ‘degenerate art.’” (Cf.Kosakai, Shôzô. (1979). Mikoku: Showa haiku danatsu jiken [Betrayer/Informer: Showa era haiku persecution]. Tokyo: Daimondo.)

One sees that,historically, “freedom of expression” in the gendai haiku movement was not an idle aesthetic notion. A significant context to modern Japanese haiku history links certain influential persons and groups promoting traditionalist haiku culture with Japanese national-socialism. It would be a mistake to assume, regarding these facts, that traditional approaches are inherently lacking or that traditional haiku culture is by nature nationalist, particularly these days – however, history leaves little to the imagination; more light needs to be shed on these facts, if only so that people outside of Japan can obtain a clearer understandingthe context of gendai haiku.

The war ended half a century ago, and much of this information has been surprisingly hard to dig up, Ito has found. Clearly, the spirit of the gendai poets in the face of fascism, repression and persecution is laudable.

The liberal, democratic spirit and freedom of expression exhibited by the New Rising Haiku poets remains at the core of gendai haiku.

Read more in the given LINK.

Anonymous said...

嶋田青峰(しまだ せいほう)と言っても知らない人が多いだろうが、新興俳句運動に理解を示していたというだけで、1941(昭和16)年、「治安維持法」による新興俳句派に対する弾圧事件「俳句事件」に連坐して起訴され、3年後に留置場で喀血して釈放されたが、5月31日病状が悪化し亡くなった。

私も彼の略歴など特別知っているわけではないので、以下参考に記載のもの等を参考に書くと概ね以下の通りである。
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/yousan02/m/200705

Anonymous said...

Janus-Faced Justice: political criminals in imperial Japan

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/yousan02/m/200705

Anonymous said...

NEW RISING HAIKU

The Evolution of Modern Japanese Haiku and the Haiku Persecution Incident


Itô Yûki, Ph.D. (cand.), Kumamoto University, Graduate School of Cultural and Social Sciences

Monograph: Red Moon Press, May 2007

ISBN 978-1-893959-64-4

at Simply Haiku, Winter 2007
http://www.poetrylives.com/SimplyHaiku/SHv5n4/features/Ito.html

anonymous said...

The Haiku Universe for the 21st Century
by Modern Haiku Association


“Gendai haiku” means literally “modern or contemporary haiku,” and loosely refers to expansive ideas of the haiku form arising from the 1920s on, and more particularly to the direct progenitors of the gendai haiku movement.… Literally, the word [gendai] means “contemporary” but just as with “modern art,” something more is implied, in terms of movements, categories, history and personages.… Gendai haiku offer the reader the shape of who we are in the shape of things to come, in resonance with archaic myth, (and) the formal insights of previous ages.…

Gendai haiku partake of a tradition and culture in which, unlike that of the historical Judeo-Christian West, nature and culture were not extensively polarized. So in gendai haiku exists an invitation to the present and a future, in congruence with the past.
This congruency is also an uprooting, accomplished via expansive and often experimental avant-garde language and techniques. Yet the old is likewise held in the new, in plying the form.”

http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/ModernHaikuAssociation2009.html

anonymous said...

A few more words from Hasegawa:

There are also various problems related to the current state of Western haiku. They are not, however, the same problems facing Japanese haiku. Rather, the problems are even more complicated. While the biggest problem facing Japanese haiku is that of how to reconcile haiku, a traditional form of literature indigenous to Japan, with the realism learned from the West.

Haiku in the West have, in addition, the even greater problem of how to root this traditional form of literature indigenous to Japan in the cultural soil of the West. It seems to me that the current state in which “a lot of haiku written today in the English language by Western practitioners fall short of memorability and depth, and appear to be formula based” has occurred just because they have become the “victim of realism.” I think that there are deeper underlying problems even before that — for example, the problem of the fundamental understanding of what a haiku is.

http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/ModernHaikuAssociation2009.html

anonymous said...

To offer a quick overview, Japanese haiku during the 20th century touched upon such diverse topics and concepts as:
the free-form (non–5–7–5), traditional (pre-Shiki ideas, as well as
shasei /objective realism), natural beauty, individualism/individuality, subjectivity,
muki non-seasonal/keyword),
humanism, proletarianism, socialism, the imaginary, the human spirit,
haiku without a center of interest,
“the essence” of haiku, the avant-garde,
French Symbolism, Surrealism, and formatting (4-line haiku).
.
http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/ModernHaikuAssociation2009.html

anonymous said...

Still, the haiku tradition in the West has been extremely warped because of poor and skewed translations, a lack of awareness of wordplay, allusions, and metaphor, and a promotion of very specific interpretive methods.
The emphasis has been on the insularity of Zen and Buddhism, ignoring the fact that these are entwined deeply with Taoism, Shintoism, ancient Chinese and Japanese literature, folktales and mythologies, and local environs and culture — what Haruo Shirane has called the “horizontal axis” (the present/contemporary world) largely absent of the “vertical axis” (”the movement across time … leading back into the past, into history, into other poems”).

Because of that emphasis, preference for objectivity/realism and the imagistic over subjective or language-based haiku was seen as the true way of understanding the genre. Who is to know whether or not the lack of explication on 20th and 21st century work in this anthology will not have the same effect now and in the future.

Translators beware. Rev your engines. Still, it is exciting and challenging to ingest the work in all its nakedness and to find connections with and inspiration from them in this form. Creative misreadings can take us to exciting places too.
.
http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/ModernHaikuAssociation2009.html

anonymous said...

Gendai poets’ work represents a fusion and hybridization that is not unlike late 20th century music or food, for example. Think of the use of a backwards guitar, sitar, record scratching, or sampling in rock or pop songs? And how were those fusions confronted and reacted to by culture? Foie gras and truffle mayonnaise on your hot dog? Or take the bánh mì sandwich, a result of Western imperialism: the fusing of Vietnamese ingredients with French bread.

Ultimately, that is what it is all about: fusion, infusion, adaption, and change. Nature. Sometimes effortlessly, other timeswith great noise, violence, and upheaval.
.
http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/ModernHaikuAssociation2009.html
.

Gabi Greve - WKD said...

昇降機しづかに雷の夜を昇る  
shookooki shizuka ni rai no yo o noboru

the elevator
rises quietly in a night
with thunder

Saito Sanki (Saitoo) 西東三鬼, 1940 

Saito uses these metaphors
elevator, the uplifting of the Communist Party in Japan
rai no yoru, a night where the conditions in Japan are insecure.

anonymous said...

Gendai Haiku Translations

Translated by Richard Gilbert and Itô Yûki

In the early 20th century, Takahama Kyoshi, one of the two main disciples of Masaoka Shiki, presided over the Hototogisu group (and its journal), which he had inherited from Shiki. Due to his dictatorial and uncompromising style, by the 1920s, several prominent poets had broken with him.

Paraphrasing Itô Yûki's article,(1) the ‘New Rising Haiku movement’ (shinkô haiku undô) wished to compose haiku on new subjects, and utilize techniques and topics related to contemporary social life. These poets frequently wrote haiku without kigo (muki-teki haiku), and explored non-traditional subjects, such as social inequity, utilizing avant‑garde styles including surrealism, etc.

Therefore, along with aesthetic and technique differences, the New Rising Haiku poets, who began the gendai (modern) haiku movement in earnest, had strong philosophical, sociological and intellectual differences with Hototogisu and Kyoshi. During the war, over 40 New Rising Haiku poets were persecuted; they were imprisoned and tortured, and some died in prison. These progressive poets were also made to sign false confessions and denounce their own and others’ poetry and thought. Various progressive journals were banned and printing presses destroyed. Many of these poets, after a stay in prison, were sent to the front lines of the war. Itô writes that Takahama Kyoshi became the president of a haiku branch of the fascist government culture-control/propaganda group known as The Japanese Literary Patriotic Organization (nihon bungaku hôkoku kai), which was devoted to both censorship and persecution, along with a host of other war crimes. At the time, the Director of the society was Ono Bushi, whose title was: The Agent of Investigation of the Minds of the Nation’s Citizens (kokumin jyôsô chosa iin). Perhaps the most notorious statement published by Ono reads:

I will not allow haiku even from the most honorable person, from left-wing, or progressive, or anti-war, groups to exist. If such people are found in the haiku world, we had better persecute them, and they should be punished. This is necessary. (Kosakai, 169; trans. by Itô, with Gilbert)

MORE
in Roadrunner - 2007

http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/pages72/translation72.htm