*Thanks to everyone who attended and participated in this course. I had a wonderful time! I loved talking about poetry with you. And thank you, too, for the kind card.

Schedule

Session One (Sep 22): Haiku origins and form | Haiga origins | Matsuo Bashō's and Yosa Buson's place in Japanese poetry

No reading assigned.

Session Two (Sep 28): Bashō's life, style and themes | Haiku and haiga by Bashō

Please read for this session the handout titled "35 poems by Bashō". Contact me early if you have any particular poems you want me to cover during the session.

One week break

Session Three (Oct 13): Bashō's Narrow Road to the Deep North

Please read in full Narrow Road to the Deep North, at least once. Read the support notes if you have the time. Read the various support articles that I have provided as a handout if you have the time, it helps.

Session Four (Oct 20): Buson's life, style and themes | Haiku and haiga by Buson (spring)

For this session, please read the handout titled "Buson spring haiku"

Session Five (Oct 27): Haiku and haiga by Buson (summer, autumn and winter)

For this session, please read the handout titled "33 Buson summer, autumn and winter haiku". Contact me by Wednesday if you have any particular poems you want me to cover during the session.

One week break

Session Six (Nov 10): Haiku and haiga by Kobayashi Issa.

For this session, please read the handout titled "Selections from Kobayashi Issa's Ora ga haru (My Spring)".

We also do an in-class exercise on this day.

 

➤ Email Wallace at jwallace@berkeley.edu

Society for Asian Art, Literature Courses, Fall 2013

Haiku and Haiga: The Writings and Paintings of Edo Period Japanese Masters

Instructor: John Wallace

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Sundays 10:15-12:15 / Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), considered the greatest haiku master of Japan, also painted. Yosa Buson (1716–1784) is considered by many as the next greatest of haiku poets, but he is also known as a haiga (painting with haiku) master. Haiga is a casual style of painting that includes a haiku next to the image that relates in some way to the image. We will read and discuss Bashō's haiku, read his great prose work Narrow Road to the Deep North, and appreciate his haiga. Buson was key to the "Bashō Revival" movement and we will keep this in mind as we consider his haiku and lovely haiga. Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828) is the other preeminent haiku master of the Edo period. Time permitting, we will consider some of his excellent haiku as well.

We had a poem sequence submission shortly after this class was completed. I am posting it below. It is wonderful.

Frequently I go down the Peninsula to visit my sisters, both of whom have health issues. One lives in an assisted living facility and the other lives at home with two of her adult children. When I am there, I sleep on an air mattress in the latter's living room which is rarely used. In the wee hours of the morning on October 19, 2013, I woke up thinking about the Haika and Haiga class with John Wallace. My thoughts were that we might have to write something and my mind proceeded to compose a short verse inspired by Basho's and Buson's writings. I went back to sleep vowing to remember the words and to write them down when I would get up. When I did write down the words to "In winter...," I decided it was too long, so I rearranged it. Upon reading the second verse, I felt it couldn't stand alone so I should try to complete the seasons. When I finished, it became "The Tree of Life."

I usually prefer to be anonymous, but I feel I should own this.

Jean Devich

Tree of Life

  1. In Winter, the leaves wither and fall exposing the branches of the tree,
    Just as the faces of the aged show the branches of life.
  2. In Winter, the exposed branches of the tree,
    Are as the branches of life on the faces of the aged.
  3. In Spring, the branches of the tree sprout,
    As the child comes from the womb.
  4. In Summer, the leaves hide the branches of the tree,
    As the young grow.
  5. In Fall, the branches of the tree are full of color,
    As the adult flourishes.

© John R. Wallace 2013