Tanka, Haiku, and Senryu - Page 2
by Bill Emery
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Traditionally and ideally, a haiku presents a pair of contrasting images: one, suggestive of season and locale; the other, a vivid but fleeting observation. Working together, they evoke mood and emotion. Unlike tanka the haiku poet does not make the connection but leaves the integration of the two images for the reader's mind. As pointed out in Makoto Ueda's Modern Japanese Haiku, An Anthology, 1976, "Haiku, by its very nature asks each reader to be a poet."

In contrast the haiku was perfected in this period. By some considered the greatest of Japanese aesthetic achievements in literature, it can be described as the distilled essence of poetry reflecting the influence of Zen.

Three poets are preeminent for their haiku:

Basho*, pseudonym of MATSUO MUNEFUSA (1644-94), is considered a master of the haiku form. In his youth Basho was a samurai, but after 1666 he devoted his life to writing poetry. The structure of his haiku reflects the simplicity of his meditative life. When he felt the need for solitude, he withdrew to his Basho-an, a hut made of plantain leaves (Basho)-hence his pseudonym. Influenced by Zen Buddhism, Basho infused a mystical quality into much of his verse and attempted to express universal themes through simple natural images-from the harvest moon to the fleas in his cottage. This represents a departure from earlier haiku, which was treated as a literary game.

In the last ten years of his life Basho made several journeys, drawing from them more images to inspire his contemplative poetry. One such journey is described in Oku-no-hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North, 1702), noted for its sensitive prose passages.

Yosa Buson's haiku expresses his experience as a painter.

Kobayashi Issa, of humble origin, drew his material from village life.

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