Hino Sojo (1901-1956)

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Hino Sojo (1901-1956) Hino Soojoo, Hino Soujou

Hino Soojoo 日野草城 （ひの　そうじょう)
1901年（明治34年）7月18日 - 1956年（昭和31年）1月29日）
本名は日野克修（よしのぶ）。Hino Yoshinobu was his real name.

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kigo for late winter

Soojoo Ki 草城忌 Sojo Memorial Day
"Crane in the Cold" Day, Itezuru Ki 凍鶴忌（いてづるき）
Kairui Ki 鶴唳忌（かくるいき）
Tookaku Ki 東鶴忌（とうかくき）
"Silver Day", Shirogane 銀忌（しろがねき）

January 29

. Memorial Days of Famous Poeple .

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He was born in Ueno, Tokyo. He became a member of the HOTOTOGISU haiku group in 1929 with 24 years. He was also interested in modern and new haiku. More below.





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Hino Sojo (1901-1956) was a 20th century Japanese haiku poet and the first poet to rebel against the strict conservatism of Takahama Kyoshi and his followers.

Sojo grew up in Korea, where his father worked, but attended college in Japan. He earned a law degree from Kyoto University and joined an Osaka insurance company in 1924. Eventually, he worked his way up to the prestigious position of Kobe branch manager in 1945.

While still a teenager, his haiku was published in Hototogisu, the organ of Kyoshi and his followers. But Sojo began chaff at the restrictive rules of the Hototogisu school and started writing haiku on themes traditionally foreign to haiku. Topics such as young love, virginity, spinsters, and nudism shocked conservative readers, and especially shocking was his series of haiku depicting a bride and groom on their wedding night. He was "excommunicated" from the Hototogisu group in 1936.

During World War II, Sojo reduced his literary output as a result of wartime restrictions. He lost most of his possessions in a 1945 air raid. In 1946, he caught pneumonia and pleurisy and spent most of the rest of his life in his sickbed. He eventually lost the use of both his right lung and his right eye.

Ironically, his poetry towards the end of his life was actually very traditional. Critics believe his later work is much better than his younger work, which is interesting in historical terms in how it expanded the realm of haiku but not considered first rate in literary terms.
©　Gamaliel

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生き得たる四十九年や胡瓜咲く　
ikietaru shijuukunen ya kyuuri saku　　　

I lived already
up to fortynine ...
cucumbers flower　　
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

He caught the tuberculosis in 1946 and lived with this illness for a little more than 10 years.

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haru no kumo nagamete oreba ugoki keri

spring clouds...
as I am watching them,
they've moved


Read the Comments by Susumu Takiguchi

... ... ...

Some alternate translations of a Sojo haiku:

ugan ni wa miezaru tsuma o sagan nite

I can't see my wife
With my right eye,
But I can with my left.
tr. Blyth


my right eye
cannot see my wife, I look at her
with my left eye
tr. Takiguchi


My wife--blurred
in my right eye,
clear in my left.
tr. Lucien Stryk


Of the three translations above, the third one by the American poet Lucien Stryk takes the most liberty with literalness.

... ... ...




ひと拗ねてものいはず白きばらとなる
hito sunete mono iwazu shiroki bara to naru

She sulks,
says nothing, and becomes
a white rose.
tr. Ueda


waga omoi tsukikage to nari sora ni mitsu

My pondering
turns into the moonlight
filling the sky.
tr. Ueda

Quoted from
Translating Haiku Forum




見えぬ眼の方の眼鏡の玉も拭く
mienu me no hoo no megane no tama mo fuku

Its sight has been lost
and yet, for that eye also
I polish the eyeglass


From Jinsei no Gogo 『人生の午後』
source : www.haiku-steg.de


. megane　メガネ　 glasses, spectacles, Brille .


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雪の夜の紅茶の色を愛しけり
yuki no yoru no koocha no iro o aishikeri

Oh, I love it !
the color of black tea
on a snowy night


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春の夜や足のぞかせて横座り
haru no yo ya ashi nozokasete yokosuwari

spring evening -
I sit on my side with
the feet peeking out
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

This seating style is not considered proper etiquette in formal Japan.

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akikaze ya Seiryou-ji ima mon o tozu

The Autumn breeze is cool now.
Seiryou-ji Temple
has closed its gates.
Tr. Sigmats


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朝寒や歯磨匂ふ妻の口
asa-samu ya hamigaki niou tsuma no kuchi

The morning cold:
smelling of tooth powder,
my wife's mouth.
Tr. Makoto Ueda


this cold morning -
the mouth of my wife smells
of toothpaste
Tr. Gabi Greve


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日盛りの土に寂しきおのが影
hizakari no tsuchi ni sabishiki ono ga kage
. . . . . also given in this version
日盛りの土に寂しやおのが影
hizakari no tsuchi ni sabishi ya ono ga kage

The noonday sun:
On the ground,
My shadow is lonely.
Tr. Blyth


Noonday sun--
how lonely,
my shadow.
Tr. Stryk


Blyth about this haiku:
The very directness, the mechanical precision of the shadow gives the poet a painful feeling, a feeling of fatal limitation and inescapability which he describes, inadequately enough, by the word 'sabishi' (lonely).



The break in this haiku is hard to render in English.

my own shadow
how lonely on the ground
in brigt sunshine
Paraverse by Gabi Greve


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Response haiku by Chen-Ou Liu, Canada

looking
into each other's eyes...
the shadow and I

Kigo Hotline, September 2010


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寝白粉香にたちにけり虎が雨
neoshiroi koo ni tachi ni keri tora ga ame

the fragrance
of her white night powder -
Rain of Lady Tora

. WKD
Rain of Lady Tora and the Soga Brothers


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ところてん煙の如く沈み居り
tokoroten kemuri no gotoku shizumi-ori

Jelly Strips, gelidium jelly (tokoroten)



His most important haiku,
quoted from the Wikipedia

春の灯や女はもたぬのどぼとけ
（『草城句集』）

南風や化粧に洩れし耳の下

春暁やひとこそ知らね木々の雨

高熱の鶴青空に漂へり

春寒や竹の中なるかぐや姫

丸善を出て暮れにけり春の泥

汽車の尾をなほ見送れり春シヨール

ものの種にぎればいのちひしめける

吹き落ちて松風さはる牡丹の芽

かたはらに鹿の来てゐるわらび餅

春の灯や女は持たぬのどぼとけ

水道の水のはげしさ桜鯛

猫の子のつくづく見られなきにけり

子猫ねむしつかみ上げられても眠る

篁(たかむら)を染めて春の日しづみけり

春の夜や檸檬に触るる鼻のさき

手をとめて春を惜しめりタイピスト

紅つつじ花満ちて葉はかくれけり

食べさせてもらふ口あけ日脚伸ぶ

ぼうたんの暮るる始終を見て去りぬ

明易き夜の夢にみしものを羞づ

薫風や素足かがやく女かな

樹も草もしづかにて梅雨はじまりぬ

あぶらとり一枚もらふ薄暑かな

をなごらもどてら着ぶくれさみだるゝ

うちひらく傘の匂や夏の雨

梅雨寒の昼風呂ながき夫人かな

グラジオラス妻は愛憎鮮烈に

ところてん煙のごとく沈みをり

初蝉や昼餉にほはす邑の家

夏の灯の動くことなき田舎かな

南風や化粧に洩れし耳の下

三伏や見ゆる一眼大切に

松風に誘はれて鳴く蝉一つ

炎天に黒き喪章の蝶とべり

サイダーのうすきかをりや夜の秋

雷に怯えて長き睫(まつげ)かな

鼻の穴すずしく睡る女かな

水晶の念珠つめたき大暑かな

夕焼や吾子の笑顔のよごれたる

青々と夕空澄みて残暑かな

稲刈って飛鳥の道のさびしさよ

すらすらと昇りて望の月ぞ照る

望月の照らしに照らす道の上

一歩出てわが影を得し秋日和

門灯の低く灯りぬ秋出水

颱風のゐる天気図を怖れけり

青ふくべ一つは月にさらされて

朝寒や歯磨匂ふ妻の口

降られゐて牛おとなしや秋桜

船の名の月に読まるゝ港かな

海光の一村鰯干しにけり

残菊のなほはなやかにしぐれけり

熱燗に応へて鳴くや腹の虫

舷をどたりと打つや冬の浪

店の灯の明るさに買ふ風邪薬

伝え聞く友の栄華や日向ぼこ

早寝して夢いろいろや冬籠り

枯菊やこまかき雨の夕まぐれ

蹴ちらせば霜あらはるゝ落葉かな

冬ざれのくちびるを吸ふ別れかな

暮れてゐる冬至の顔の往き来かな

冬ざれや青竹映る手水鉢

牡蠣船の少し傾げる座敷かな

雪の夜の紅茶の色を愛しけり

切干しやいのちの限り妻の恩

枕辺へ賀状東西南北より

湯をつかふ音もときめく初湯かな

印刷機の既に喧し事務始

次の間に妻の客あり寝正月

初春や眼鏡のままにうとうとと

更けて焼く餅の匂や松の内

初飛行近畿立体地図の上

一点が懐炉で熱し季節風

女房の我慢の眉や二日灸





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Reference

Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　



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