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is a type of short form
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
that originated in
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 morae (called '' on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a '' kireji'', or "cutting word"; and a ''
kigo A is a word or phrase associated with a particular season, used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry. Kigo are used in the collaborative linked-verse forms renga and renku, as well as in haiku, to indicate the season referred to in the stan ...
'', or seasonal reference. However, haiku by classical Japanese poets, such as
Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...
, also deviate from the 17-''on'' pattern and sometimes do not contain a ''kireji''. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as ''
senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 (or , often translated as syllables, but see the article on for distinctions). tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and a ...
''. Haiku originated as an opening part of a larger Japanese genre of poetry called
renga ''Renga'' (, ''linked poem'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 morae (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets ...
. These haiku written as an opening
stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...
were known as ''
hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, '' renga'', or of its later derivative, '' renku'' (''haikai no renga''). From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the ''hokku'' began to appear as an independent poem, ...
'' and over time they began to be written as stand-alone poems. Haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer
Masaoka Shiki , pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡 升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...
at the end of the 19th century. Originally from Japan, haiku today are written by authors worldwide.
Haiku in English A haiku in English is an English-language poem written in a form or style inspired by Japanese haiku. Like their Japanese counterpart, haiku in English are typically short poems and often reference the seasons, but the degree to which haiku in Engl ...
and haiku in other languages have different styles and traditions while still incorporating aspects of the traditional haiku form. Non-Japanese language haiku vary widely on how closely they follow traditional elements. Additionally, a minority movement within , supported by Ogiwara Seisensui and his disciples, has varied from the tradition of 17 ''on'' as well as taking nature as their subject. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed as a single line, while haiku in English often appear as three lines, although variations exist. There are several other forms of
Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...
related to haiku, such as
tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...
, as well as other art forms that incorporate haiku, such as
haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of ''haibun'' is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal. History The term "''haibun''" was ...
and
haiga is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of ''haikai''. ''Haiga'' are typically painted by haiku poets (''haijin''), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, ''haiga'' was based on simp ...
.


Traditional elements


''Kiru'' and ''kireji''

In Japanese haiku, a ''kireji'', or cutting word, typically appears at the end of one of the verse's three phrases. A ''kireji'' fills a role analogous to that of a ''
caesura 300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for "cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase beg ...
'' in classical Western poetry or to a volta in
sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
s. A ''kireji'' helps mark rhythmic divisions. Depending on which ''kireji'' is chosen and its position within the verse, it may briefly cut the stream of thought, suggesting a parallel between the preceding and following phrases, or it may provide a dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense of closure. The ''kireji'' lends the verse structural support, allowing it to stand as an independent poem. The use of ''kireji'' distinguishes haiku and hokku from second and subsequent verses of
renku , or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns prov ...
; which may employ semantic and syntactic disjuncture, even to the point of occasionally end-stopping a phrase with a . However,
renku , or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns prov ...
typically employ ''kireji''. In English, since ''kireji'' have no direct equivalent, poets sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis, or an implied break to create a juxtaposition intended to prompt the reader to reflect on the relationship between the two parts. The ''kireji'' in the Bashō examples "old pond" and "the wind of Mt Fuji" are both "ya" (). Neither the remaining Bashō example nor the Issa example contain a ''kireji''. However, they do both balance a fragment in the first five ''on'' against a phrase in the remaining 12 ''on'' (it may not be apparent from the English translation of the Issa that the first five ''on'' mean "Edo's rain").


''On''

In comparison with English verse typically characterized by syllabic
meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
, Japanese verse counts sound units known as ''on'' or morae. Traditional haiku is usually fixed verse that consists of 17 ''on'', in three phrases of five, seven, and five ''on'', respectively. Among modern poems, traditionalist haiku continue to use the 5-7-5 pattern while free form haiku do not. However, one of the examples below illustrates that traditional haiku masters were not always constrained by the 5-7-5 pattern either. The free form haiku was advocated for by Ogiwara Seisensui and his disciples. Although the word ''on'' is sometimes translated as "syllable", the true meaning is more nuanced. One ''on'' in Japanese is counted for a short syllable, two for an elongated vowel or doubled consonant, and one for an "n" at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word "haibun", though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four ''on'' in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n); and the word "''on''" itself, which English-speakers would view as a single syllable, comprises two ''on'': the short vowel o and the moraic nasal n. This is illustrated by the Issa haiku below, which contains 17 ''on'' but only 15 syllables. Conversely, some sounds, such as "kyo" () may look like two syllables to English speakers but are in fact a single ''on'' (as well as a single syllable) in Japanese. In 1973, the
Haiku Society of America The Haiku Society of America is a non-profit organization composed of haiku poets, editors, critics, publishers and enthusiasts that promotes the composition and appreciation of haiku in English. Founded in 1968, it is the largest society dedicate ...
noted that the norm for writers of
haiku in English A haiku in English is an English-language poem written in a form or style inspired by Japanese haiku. Like their Japanese counterpart, haiku in English are typically short poems and often reference the seasons, but the degree to which haiku in Engl ...
was to use 17 syllables, but they also noted a trend toward shorter haiku. According to the society, about 12 syllables in English approximates the duration of 17 Japanese ''on''.


''Kigo''

A haiku traditionally contains a ''
kigo A is a word or phrase associated with a particular season, used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry. Kigo are used in the collaborative linked-verse forms renga and renku, as well as in haiku, to indicate the season referred to in the stan ...
'', a word or phrase that symbolizes or implies the season of the poem and is drawn from a '' saijiki'', an extensive but prescriptive list of such words. Season words evoke images that are associated with the same time of year, making it a kind of logopoeia. ''Kigo'' are not always included in non-Japanese haiku or by modern writers of Japanese free-form haiku.


Examples

One of the best-known Japanese haiku is
Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...
's "old pond": Translated: This separates into ''on'' as: Another haiku by Bashō: Translated: As another example, this haiku by Bashō illustrates that he was not always constrained to a 5-7-5 ''on'' pattern. It contains 18 ''on'' in the pattern 6-7-5. Translated: This separates into ''on'' as: This haiku example was written by Kobayashi Issa: Translated: This separates into ''on'' as,


Origin and development


From hokku to haiku

Hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, '' renga'', or of its later derivative, '' renku'' (''haikai no renga''). From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the ''hokku'' began to appear as an independent poem, ...
is the opening stanza of an orthodox collaborative linked poem, or
renga ''Renga'' (, ''linked poem'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 morae (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets ...
, and of its later derivative,
renku , or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns prov ...
(or ''haikai no renga''). By the time of
Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...
(1644–1694), the hokku had begun to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in
haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of ''haibun'' is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal. History The term "''haibun''" was ...
(a combination of prose and hokku), and
haiga is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of ''haikai''. ''Haiga'' are typically painted by haiku poets (''haijin''), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, ''haiga'' was based on simp ...
(a combination of painting with hokku). In the late 19th century,
Masaoka Shiki , pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡 升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...
(1867–1902) renamed the standalone hokku to haiku. The latter term is now generally applied retrospectively to all hokku appearing independently of renku or renga, irrespective of when they were written, and the use of the term hokku to describe a stand-alone poem is considered obsolete.


Bashō

In the 17th century, two masters arose who elevated ''
haikai ''Haikai'' ( Japanese 俳諧 ''comic, unorthodox'') may refer in both Japanese and English to ''haikai no renga'' ( renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. ...
'' and gave it a new popularity. They were Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) and Uejima Onitsura (1661–1738). ''
Hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, '' renga'', or of its later derivative, '' renku'' (''haikai no renga''). From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the ''hokku'' began to appear as an independent poem, ...
'' is the first verse of the collaborative ''haikai'' or ''
renku , or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns prov ...
'', but its position as the opening verse made it the most important, setting the tone for the whole composition. Even though ''hokku'' had sometimes appeared individually, they were always understood in the context of ''renku''. The Bashō school promoted standalone ''hokku'' by including many in their anthologies, thus giving birth to what is now called "haiku". Bashō also used his ''hokku'' as torque points within his short prose sketches and longer travel diaries. This subgenre of ''haikai'' is known as ''
haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of ''haibun'' is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal. History The term "''haibun''" was ...
''. His best-known work, ''
Oku no Hosomichi , translated as ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'', is a major work of ''haibun'' by the List of Japanese language poets, Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, considered one of the major texts of Japanese liter ...
'', or ''Narrow Roads to the Interior'', is counted as one of the classics of Japanese literature and has been translated into English extensively. Bashō was deified by both the imperial government and
Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
religious headquarters one hundred years after his death because he raised the haikai genre from a playful game of wit to sublime poetry. He continues to be revered as a saint of poetry in Japan, and is the one name from classical Japanese literature that is familiar throughout the world.


Buson

The next famous style of haikai to arise was that of
Yosa Buson was a Japanese poet and Painting, painter of the Edo period. He lived from 1716 – January 17, 1784. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing ...
(1716–1784) and others such as Kitō, called the Tenmei style after the Tenmei Era (1781–1789) in which it was created. Buson is recognized as one of the greatest masters of
haiga is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of ''haikai''. ''Haiga'' are typically painted by haiku poets (''haijin''), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, ''haiga'' was based on simp ...
(an art form where the painting is combined with haiku or haikai prose). His affection for painting can be seen in the painterly style of his haiku.


Issa

No new popular style followed Buson. However, a very individualistic, and at the same time humanistic, approach to writing haiku was demonstrated by the poet Kobayashi Issa (1763–1827), whose miserable childhood, poverty, sad life, and devotion to the
Pure Land Pure Land is a Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist concept referring to a transcendent realm emanated by a buddhahood, buddha or bodhisattva which has been purified by their activity and Other power, sustaining power. Pure lands are said to be places ...
sect of
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
are evident in his poetry. Issa made the genre immediately accessible to wider audiences.


Shiki

Masaoka Shiki , pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡 升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...
(1867–1902) was a reformer and modernizer. A prolific writer, even though chronically ill during a significant part of his life, Shiki disliked the 'stereotype' of haikai writers of the 19th century who were known by the deprecatory term ''tsukinami'', meaning 'monthly', after the monthly or twice-monthly ''haikai'' gatherings of the end of the 18th century (in regard to this period of ''haikai'', it came to mean 'trite' and 'hackneyed'). Shiki also sometimes criticized Bashō. Like the Japanese
intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
world in general at that time, Shiki was strongly influenced by Western culture. He favored the painterly style of Buson and particularly the European concept of ''
plein-air ''En plein air'' (; French language, French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein ai ...
''
painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
, which he adapted to create a style of haiku as a kind of nature sketch in words, an approach called . He popularized his views by verse columns and
essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...
s in
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
s. Hokku up to the time of Shiki, even when appearing independently, were written in the context of renku.Hiroaki Sato. ''One Hundred Frogs'', Weatherhill, 1983, p.113 Shiki formally separated his new style of verse from the context of collaborative poetry. Being
agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
, he also separated it from the influence of Buddhism. Further, he discarded the term "hokku" and proposed the term ''haiku'' as an abbreviation of the phrase "''haikai no ku''" meaning a verse of ''
haikai ''Haikai'' ( Japanese 俳諧 ''comic, unorthodox'') may refer in both Japanese and English to ''haikai no renga'' ( renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. ...
'', although the term predates Shiki by some two centuries, when it was used to mean ''any'' verse of haikai. Since then, "haiku" has been the term usually applied in both Japanese and English to all independent haiku, irrespective of their date of composition. Shiki's revisionism dealt a severe blow to renku and surviving haikai schools. The term "hokku" is now used chiefly in its original sense of the opening verse of a renku, and rarely to distinguish haiku written before Shiki's time.


Exposure to the West

The earliest Westerner known to have written haiku was the Dutchman
Hendrik Doeff Hendrik Doeff (2 December 1777 – 19 October 1835) was the Dutch commissioner in the Dejima trading post in Nagasaki, Japan, during the first years of the 19th century. Biography Doeff was born in Amsterdam. As a young man, he sailed to Ja ...
(1764–1837), who was the Dutch commissioner in the
Dejima or Deshima, in the 17th century also called , was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan, that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1858). For 220 years, it was the central con ...
trading post in Nagasaki during the first years of the 19th century. One of his haiku is the following: Although there were further attempts outside Japan to imitate the "hokku" in the early 20th century, there was little understanding of its principles. Early Western scholars such as
Basil Hall Chamberlain Basil Hall Chamberlain (18 October 1850 – 15 February 1935) was a British academic and Japanologist. He was a professor of the Japanese language at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during ...
(1850–1935) and
William George Aston William George Aston (9 April 1841 – 22 November 1911) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, author, and scholar of the languages and histories of Korea and Japan. Early life Aston was born near Derry, Ireland.Ricorso Aston, bio notes/ref> He disti ...
were mostly dismissive of hokku's poetic value.


Blyth

R. H. Blyth was an
Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they we ...
who lived in Japan. He produced a series of works on
Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
, haiku, senryū, and on other forms of
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
and Asian literature. In 1949, with the publication in Japan of the first volume of ''Haiku'', the four-volume work by Blyth, haiku were introduced to the post-war English-speaking world. This four-volume series (1949–52) described haiku from the pre-modern period up to and including Shiki. Blyth's ''History of Haiku'' (1964) in two volumes is regarded as a classical study of haiku. Today Blyth is best known as a major interpreter of haiku to English speakers. His works have stimulated the writing of haiku in English.


Shimoi

The Japanese-Italian translator and poet
Harukichi Shimoi was a Japanese poet, translator and writer. Shimoi lived in Italy for many years and was an important promoter of cultural exchange between Japan and Italy. Shimoi translated works from Yosano Akiko and Matsuo Bashō into Italian, and conver ...
introduced haiku to Italy in the 1920s, through his work with the magazine Sakura as well as his close personal relationships within the Italian literati. Two notable influences are the haiku of his close friend Gabriele d'Annunzio, and to a lesser extent, those of
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
, to whom he was introduced in the early 1930s. An early example of his work appears in the 1919 novella ''La guerra italiana vista da un giapponese'', which features a haiku by the Japanese feminist poet
Yosano Akiko , known by her pen name Yosano Akiko (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , ), was a Japanese author, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji era as well as the Taishō era, Taishō and early Shōwa eras of Japan. She is one ...
:


Yasuda

The Japanese-American scholar and translator Kenneth Yasuda published ''The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature, History, and Possibilities in English, with Selected Examples'' in 1957. The book includes both translations from Japanese and original poems of his own in English, which had previously appeared in his book titled ''A Pepper-Pod: Classic Japanese Poems together with Original Haiku''. In these books Yasuda presented a critical theory about haiku, to which he added comments on haiku poetry by early 20th-century poets and critics. His translations apply a 5–7–5 syllable count in English, with the first and third lines end-rhymed. Yasuda considered that haiku translated into English should utilize all of the poetic resources of the language. Yasuda's theory also includes the concept of a "haiku moment" based in personal experience, and provides the motive for writing a haiku: an aesthetic moment' of a timeless feeling of enlightened harmony as the poet's nature and the environment are unified". This notion of the haiku moment has resonated with haiku writers in English, even though the notion is not widely promoted in Japanese haiku.


Henderson

In 1958, ''An Introduction to Haiku: An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Bashô to Shiki'' by
Harold G. Henderson Harold Gould Henderson (1889–1974) was an American academic, art historian and Japanologist. He was a Columbia University professor for twenty years. From 1948 through 1952, he was the President of the Japan Society (Manhattan), Japan Society i ...
was published by Doubleday Anchor Books. This book was a revision of Henderson's earlier book titled ''The Bamboo Broom'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1934). After World War II, Henderson and Blyth worked for the American Occupation in Japan and for the Imperial Household, respectively, and their shared appreciation of haiku helped form a bond between the two. Henderson translated every hokku and haiku into a rhymed
tercet A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. Examples of tercet forms English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem. A poetic triplet is a tercet in which all three lines follow the same r ...
(ABA), whereas the Japanese originals never used rhyme. Unlike Yasuda, however, he recognized that 17 syllables in English are generally longer than the 17 ''on'' of a traditional Japanese haiku. Because the normal modes of English poetry depend on accentual meter rather than on syllabics, Henderson chose to emphasize the order of events and images in the originals. Nevertheless, many of Henderson's translations were in the five-seven-five pattern.


Haiku in other languages

In France, haiku was introduced by Paul-Louis Couchoud around 1906. In the early 20th century, Nobel laureate
Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...
composed haiku in
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
. He also translated some from Japanese. In Gujarati, Jhinabhai Desai 'Sneharashmi' popularized haiku and remained a popular haiku writer. In February 2008, the World Haiku Festival was held in Bangalore, gathering ''haijin'' from all over India and Bangladesh, as well as from Europe and the United States. In South Asia, some other poets also write Haiku from time to time, most notably including the Pakistani poet Omer Tarin, who is also active in the movement for global nuclear disarmament and some of his 'Hiroshima Haiku' have been read at various peace conferences in Japan and the UK. Indian writer in Malayalam language, Ashitha, wrote several Haiku poems which have been published as a book. Her poems helped popularise haiku among the readers of
Malayalam literature Malayalam, the lingua franca of the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puduchery, is one of the six classical languages of India. Malayalam literature comprises those literary text ...
. In 1992 Nobel laureate
Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz ( , , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish language, Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the ...
published the volume ''Haiku'' in which he translated from English to Polish haiku of Japanese masters and American and Canadian contemporary haiku authors. The former
president of the European Council The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This Institutions of the European Union, institution comprises the college of heads of state or governme ...
,
Herman Van Rompuy Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy (; born 31 October 1947) is a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009, and later as the first permanent President of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. Van Rompuy, a ...
, is a haiku writer and known as "Haiku Herman". He published a book of haiku in April 2010.


English-language haiku

Paul-Louis Couchoud's articles on haiku in French were read by early
Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...
theoretician F. S. Flint, who passed on Couchoud's ideas to other members of the proto-Imagist
Poets' Club The Poets' Club was a group devoted to the discussion of poetry. It met in London in the early years of the twentieth century. It was founded by Henry Simpson, a banker. T. E. Hulme helped set up the group in 1908, and was its first secretary. ...
such as
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
.
Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on February 9, 1874, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughte ...
made a trip to London to meet Pound and learn about haiku. She returned to the United States, where she worked to interest others in this "new" form. Haiku subsequently had a considerable influence on Imagists in the 1910s, notably Pound's " In a Station of the Metro" of 1913, but, notwithstanding several efforts by
Yone Noguchi was an influential Japanese writer of poetry, fiction, essays and literary criticism in both English and Japanese. He is known in the west as Yone Noguchi. He was the father of noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Biography Early life in Japan Nog ...
to explain "the hokku spirit", there was as yet little understanding of the form and its history. One of the first advocates of English-language hokku was the Japanese poet
Yone Noguchi was an influential Japanese writer of poetry, fiction, essays and literary criticism in both English and Japanese. He is known in the west as Yone Noguchi. He was the father of noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Biography Early life in Japan Nog ...
. In "A Proposal to American Poets," published in the ''Reader'' magazine in February 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the hokku and some of his English efforts, ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets!" At about the same time the poet
Sadakichi Hartmann Carl Sadakichi Hartmann (November 8, 1867 – November 22, 1944) was an American art critic, poet, and anarchist. Biography Hartmann, born on the artificial island of Dejima, Nagasaki, to a Japanese mother Osada Hartmann (who died soon after ...
was publishing original English-language hokku, as well as other Japanese forms in both English and French. Scholar Richard Iadonisi writes in his article, "I Am Nobody" that novelist Richard Wright is considered, "the first noteworthy American minority writer" to produce haiku. There is much scholarly debate over why Wright became interested with the haiku form. It is known that he had begun to study haiku while battling
dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...
. While Wright was purportedly an avid reader of Ezra Pound— whose Imagist poetry was based on the haiku form— Iadonisi suggests that Wright was not interested in American style haiku. Instead, Wright opted to study the techniques of British writer
Reginald Horace Blyth Reginald Horace Blyth (3 December 1898 – 28 October 1964) was an English writer and devotee of Japanese culture. He is most famous for his writings on Zen and on haiku poetry. Early life Blyth was born in Essex, England, the son of a railway ...
. He also studied classical haiku poets such as Kobayashi Issa and
Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...
. Wright began writing a series of haiku in the summer of 1959, completing it in 1960. He had written thousands of haiku between that time span. Wright titled his work ''Haiku: This Other World'' and submitted it to William Targ of World Publishing, who rejected it. In 1998, thirty-eight years after Wright's death, ''This Other World'' was finally published.


Italian-language haiku

Probably one of the first Italian encounters with Japanese poetry took place through the literary magazine ''L'Eco della Cultura'' (founded in 1914), which published texts of Japanese poetry edited by Vincenzo Siniscalchi. From 1920 to 1921, the
University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II (; , ) is a public university, public research university in Naples, Campania, Italy. Established in 1224 and named after its founder, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, it is the oldest public, s ...
published a magazine, ''Sakura'', on the study of Japanese culture, with the collaboration of the Japanese scholar
Harukichi Shimoi was a Japanese poet, translator and writer. Shimoi lived in Italy for many years and was an important promoter of cultural exchange between Japan and Italy. Shimoi translated works from Yosano Akiko and Matsuo Bashō into Italian, and conver ...
. An Italian translation of a haiku by
Akiko Yosano , known by her pen name Yosano Akiko (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , ), was a Japanese author, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji era as well as the Taishō and early Shōwa eras of Japan. She is one of the most ...
is included in Shimoi's 1919 novella ''La guerra italiana vista da un giapponese''. Gabriele D'Annunzio also experimented with the haiku in the early twentieth century. In 1921 the magazine ''La Ronda'' published a negative critique of the Japanese "Hai-kai" fashion that was spreading in France and Spain, while in the following years many futurists appreciated the fast haiku style. In Italy, the national haiku association was founded in Rome in 1987 by Sono Uchida, the well-known Japanese haijin and the ambassador of Japan in Vatican. Soon after, the national association called Italian Friends of the haiku (Associazione Italiana Amici dell'Haiku) was established, and then the Italian Haiku Association. The poet Mario Chini (1876–1959) published the book of haiku titled "Moments" (Rome, 1960). Later, Edoardo Sanguineti published some of his haiku. The famed poet Andrea Zanzotto also published a collection of haiku in English, which he translated back into his native Italian (Haiku for a Season / Haiku per una stagione, Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2021).


Spanish-language haiku

In Spain, several prominent poets experimented with haiku, including Joan Alcover,
Antonio Machado Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (26 July 1875 – 22 February 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation ...
,
Juan Ramón Jiménez Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (; 23 December 1881 – 29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high ...
and Luis Cernuda.
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...
also experimented with and learned conciseness from the form while still a student in 1921. The most persistent, however, was Isaac del Vando, whose ''La Sombrilla Japonesa'' (1924) went through several editions. The form was also used in Catalan by the avant-garde writers Josep Maria Junoy (1885–1955) and Joan Salvat-Papasseit, by the latter notably in his sequence ''Vibracions'' (1921). The Mexican poet
José Juan Tablada José Juan de Aguilar Acuña Tablada (April 3, 1871 – August 2, 1945) was a Mexican poet, art critic and, for a brief period, diplomat. A pioneer of oriental studies, and champion of Mexican art, he spent a good portion of his life living abroad ...
is credited with popularising haiku in his country, reinforced by the publication of two collections composed entirely in that form: ''Un dia'' (1919), and ''El jarro de flores'' (1922). In the introduction to the latter, Tablada noted that two young Mexicans, Rafael Lozano and Carlos Gutiérrez Cruz, had also begun writing them. They were followed soon after by Carlos Pellicer,
Xavier Villaurrutia Xavier Villaurrutia y González (27 March 1903 – 25 December 1950) was a Mexican poet, playwright, translator, and literary critic whose most famous works are the short theatrical dramas called ''Autos profanos'', compiled in the work ''Poesía ...
, and by
Jaime Torres Bodet Jaime Mario Torres Bodet (17 April 1902 – 13 May 1974) was a prominent Mexican politician and writer who served in the executive cabinet of three Presidents of Mexico. He was the second Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Sci ...
in his collection ''Biombo'' (1925). Much later,
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
included many haiku in ''Piedras Sueltas'' (1955). Elsewhere the Ecuadorian poet and diplomat Jorge Carrera Andrade included haiku among the 31 poems contained in ''Microgramas'' (Tokio 1940) and the Argentine
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
in the collection ''La cifra'' (1981).


Southeastern Europe

The first publication in Yugoslavia treating haiku was Miloš Crnjanski's ''Poezija starog Japana'' (Poetry of Ancient Japan), published in 1925. He was attracted to the aesthetics of ''aioi-no-matsu'' - the eternal - and Buddhist empathy, in common with his poetic theme of connecting distant things and concepts through affection. In socialist Yugoslavia, development of haiku poetry began during the 1960s, when the first haiku books were written, starting with ''Leptirova krila'' (The Butterfly's Wings) by Dubravko Ivančan in 1964. Other writers include Vladimir Zorčić (1941–1995), Milan Tokin's (1909–1962) unpublished collection ''Godišnja doba'' (Seasons),
Desanka Maksimović Desanka Maksimović ( sr-Cyrl, Десанка Максимовић; 16 May 1898 – 11 February 1993) was a Serbian poet, writer and translator. Her first works were published in the literary journal ''Misao'' in 1920, while she was studying at t ...
, Alexander Neugebauer (1930–1989), and Zvonko Petrović (1925–2009). Vladimir Devide (1925–2010) published the first book on haiku theory in 1970, titled Japanese Poetry and its Cultural and Historical Context, with many translations of Japanese classics. Dejan Razić (1935–1985) published two books on haiku in 1979, The Development of Haikai Poetry from its Beginning to Basho, and The Peak of Haikai Poetry. The journal Haiku ran from 1977 to 1981. The Haiku Marathon (1982) and the Yugoslav Haiku Competition (1985) were organised in the 1980s by Slavko Sedlar. The first Serbian haiku journal Paun started being published in 1988 with Milijan Despotović as an editor. The journal Kulture istoka (1983–1992) gave further impetus to the study of Japanese and other oriental cultures. In 1991, the Belgrade-based haiku club Šiki was formed, named after Masaoka Shiki. In 1999, Anakiev together with Serge Tome created the web site Haiku Association of Southeastern Europe.The site is offline, but can be accessed through th
Internet Archive
/ref> The Haiku Association of Yugoslavia was formed in 2000. The multilingual "Knots- The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry" was published in 1999 with poems from writers all over southeastern Europe. The 2000 conference of the World Haiku Federation was held in Slovenia.


Related forms


Haibun

Haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of ''haibun'' is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal. History The term "''haibun''" was ...
is a combination of prose and haiku, often autobiographical or written in the form of a
travel journal The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered a 1s ...
. Well-known examples of haibun include ''
Oku no Hosomichi , translated as ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'', is a major work of ''haibun'' by the List of Japanese language poets, Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, considered one of the major texts of Japanese liter ...
'' by Bashō and ''Ora ga Haru'' by Issa.


Haiga

Haiga is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of ''haikai''. ''Haiga'' are typically painted by haiku poets (''haijin''), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, ''haiga'' was based on simp ...
is a style of Japanese painting based on the aesthetics of
haikai ''Haikai'' ( Japanese 俳諧 ''comic, unorthodox'') may refer in both Japanese and English to ''haikai no renga'' ( renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. ...
, and usually including a haiku. Today, haiga artists combine haiku with paintings, photographs and other art.


Kuhi

The carving of famous haiku on natural stone to make poem monuments known as ''kuhi'' () has been a popular practice for many centuries. The city of
Matsuyama 270px, Matsuyama City Hall 270px, Ehime Prefectural Capital Building is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, in Japan and is also Shikoku's largest city. , the city had an estimated population of 505,948 in 243,541 h ...
has more than two hundred ''kuhi''.


Famous writers


Pre-Shiki period

* Arakida Moritake ( 14731549) *
Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...
(
1644 It is one of eight years (CE) to contain each Roman numeral once (1000(M)+500(D)+100(C)+(-10(X)+50(L))+(-1(I)+5(V)) = 1644). Events January–March * January 22 – The Royalist Oxford Parliament is first assembled by King Cha ...
1694) * Nozawa Bonchō (c.
1640 Events January–March * January 6 – The Siege of Salses ends almost six months after it had started on June 9, 1639, with the French defenders surrendering to the Spanish attackers. * January 17 – A naval battle over ...
1714) * Hattori Ransetsu (
1654 Events January–March * January 6 – In India, Jaswant Singh of Marwar (in the modern-day state of Rajasthan) is elevated to the title of Maharaja by Emperor Shah Jahan. * January 11 – Arauco War – Battle of Río B ...
-
1707 In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Tuesday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. Events January–March * January 1 – John V is crowned King of Portugal and the Algarv ...
) * Takarai Kikaku (
1661 Events January–March * January 6 – The Fifth Monarchists, led by Thomas Venner, unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London; George Monck's regiment defeats them. * January 29 – The Rokeby baronets, a Br ...
1707 In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Tuesday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. Events January–March * January 1 – John V is crowned King of Portugal and the Algarv ...
) * Uejima Onitsura (
1661 Events January–March * January 6 – The Fifth Monarchists, led by Thomas Venner, unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London; George Monck's regiment defeats them. * January 29 – The Rokeby baronets, a Br ...
1738 Events January–March * January 1 – At least 664 African slaves drown when the Dutch West Indies Company slave ship ''Leusden'' capsizes and sinks in the Maroni River during its arrival in Surinam. The Dutch crew escapes ...
) * Yokoi Yayū (
1702 In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Wednesday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. Events January–March * January 2 – A total solar eclipse is visible from the southern ...
1783 Events January–March * January 20 – At Versailles, Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain signs preliminary peace treaties with the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Spain. * January 23 – The Confederation Congress ...
) * Fukuda Chiyo-ni (
1703 In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Thursday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. Events January–March * January 9 – The Jamaican town of Port Royal, a center of trade ...
1775 Events Summary The American Revolutionary War began this year, with the first military engagement on April 19 Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after Paul Revere's ride. The Second Continental Congress took various steps tow ...
) *
Yosa Buson was a Japanese poet and Painting, painter of the Edo period. He lived from 1716 – January 17, 1784. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing ...
(
1716 Events January–March * January 16 – The application of the Nueva Planta decrees to Catalonia make it subject to the laws of the Crown of Castile, and abolishes the Principality of Catalonia as a political entity, conclud ...
1783 Events January–March * January 20 – At Versailles, Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain signs preliminary peace treaties with the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Spain. * January 23 – The Confederation Congress ...
) * Ryōkan Taigu (
1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the starting point of modern zoologic ...
-
1831 Events January–March * January 1 – William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing '' The Liberator'', an anti-slavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts. * January 10 – Japanese department store, Takashimaya in Kyoto estab ...
) * Kobayashi Issa (
1763 Events January–March * January 27 – The seat of colonial administration in the Viceroyalty of Brazil is moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. * February 1 – The colonial authorities in the Province of North Carolin ...
1827 Events January–March * January 5 – The first regatta in Australia is held, taking place in Tasmania (called at the time ''Van Diemen's Land''), on the River Derwent at Hobart. * January 15 – Furman University, founded in 1826, b ...
)


Shiki and later

*
Masaoka Shiki , pen-name of Masaoka Noboru (正岡 升), was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry, credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during ...
(
1867 There were only 354 days this year in the newly purchased territory of Alaska. When the territory transferred from the Russian Empire to the United States, the calendric transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar was made with only 1 ...
1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's ...
) * Takahama Kyoshi (
1874 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Caspe &n ...
1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...
) * Samukawa Sokotsu (
1875 Events January * January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third C ...
1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...
) *
Taneda Santōka Taneda (written: 種田) is a Japanese surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form t ...
(
1882 Events January * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in New York at the ...
1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...
) * Ozaki Kōyō (
1882 Events January * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in New York at the ...
1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...
) * Ogiwara Seisensui (
1884 Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera '' Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy The ...
1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...
) *
Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', ''Kusamakura (novel), Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work ''Light and Darkness (novel), Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of Br ...
(
1867 There were only 354 days this year in the newly purchased territory of Alaska. When the territory transferred from the Russian Empire to the United States, the calendric transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar was made with only 1 ...
1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...
) *
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , art name , was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He took his own life at the age ...
(
1892 In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west. Events January * January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...
1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the BBC, British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, John Reith becomes the first ...
) * Mitsuhashi Takajo (
1899 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...
-
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...
)


See also

*
Estonian haiku Estonian haiku () is a short poem in Estonian that has adopted the form and style of the original Japanese haiku. Estonian haiku was first introduced in 2009. The so-called "Estonian haiku" is shorter than the Japanese one; the syllable count in ...
*
Hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, '' renga'', or of its later derivative, '' renku'' (''haikai no renga''). From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the ''hokku'' began to appear as an independent poem, ...
*
Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...
* List of kigo * Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards * Matsuyama Declaration * Saijiki (''kigo'' list) *
Senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 (or , often translated as syllables, but see the article on for distinctions). tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and a ...
*
Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...


Notes


References


External links


Haiku for People in North America and beyond
Online Haiku page curated by Kevin McLaughlin, Haiku Editor of "Better Than Starbucks - not your ordinary poetry magazine"
Shiki Haikusphere and NOBO list




*
Haiku Society of America The Haiku Society of America is a non-profit organization composed of haiku poets, editors, critics, publishers and enthusiasts that promotes the composition and appreciation of haiku in English. Founded in 1968, it is the largest society dedicate ...

The Heron's Nest
A quarterly online Haiku journal, founded in 1999
Nippoem
Journal of Japanese Poetry Translation, publishing translations of haiku in bilingual format {{Authority control __FORCETOC__ Japanese literary terminology Japanese poetry Articles containing Japanese poems Stanzaic form