Matsunaga Teitoku (1570-1653) was a
haiku
is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or s ...
writer, considered by
R H Blyth to be the most important of
Matsuo Bashō's predecessors.
Achievements
Teitoku played a significant role in regularising the rules for
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 in raising its importance and status as a genre. He specialised in elegant wordplay, and in subject-matter reflecting the Chinese classics and
waka
Waka may refer to:
Culture and language
* Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand
** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe
** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe
** Waka taua, a Māori w ...
.
Through his disciples in the
Teimon school, he influenced succeeding generations of haiku poets: thus for example Bashō's first haiku teacher, Kigin, came from his school.
Criticism
Teitoku's approach was criticised by the
Danrin school The Danrin school (談林派) is a school of haikai poetry founded by the poet Nishiyama Sōin (1605 to 1682). The name literally means 'talkative forest' – in other words a ‘Literary Forest’.
Origins
The school arose in reaction against the ...
for shallowness and excessive wordplay. One member, Bashō himself, is reported to have said of its founder,
Nishiyama Sōin
was a '' haikai-no-renga'' poet of the early Tokugawa period.
R H Blyth called Sōin "one of the Fathers of Haiku".
Influence and importance
Sōin founded the Danrin school of haikai poetry, which aimed to move away from the serious 'bookishn ...
, that, if not for him, "we would still be licking the slaver of aged Teitoku".
See also
*
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
References
External links
Matsunaga Teitoku
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teitoku, Matsunaga
1570 births
1653 deaths
Japanese writers of the Edo period
17th-century Japanese poets