Session 23: Haiku, Karumi Bashō's later haiku as perhaps an extension of sabi

Topics

❖ Haiku (hokku) in general
❖ Matsuo Bashō and his haiku
◊ aesthetic term: karumi (evident in some of Bashō's later haiku)

Thoughts—read before class, revisit for tests

Linked-verse (renga 連歌) had become a powerful poem composition practice by the mid-1400s and continued to be so into the early 1500s. Haiku (俳句) were initially the first three lines of linked-verse and in that capacity were called hokku (initial verse 発句). The name haiku wasn't used until later. Haiku (at least premodern haiku), therefore, should not be considered separate from this origin of linked-verse and the poetics (including sabi) associated with it. While chanoyu, in its transformation into wabicha, drew much from linked-verse poetics, it would be more accurate to say that the brilliant haiku (hai-verse) and haibu (hai-prose such as Narrow Road) compositions of Bashō, while indeed post-Rikyu by nearly 100 years, look back into literary history (waka, linked verse and Nō drama of Japan, Chinese poetry and prose) and develop a profound expression of sabi from literature, rather than taking guidance from the practice of tea (or, in my opinion, even Zen for that matter, though he studied Zen carefully).

Karumi (lightness 軽み) was a concept Bashō worked on towards the end of his life. He died without fully developing this new poetic tradition. Lightness is not a less solemn or more frivolous approach to writing haiku but rather a search for ordinariness & plainess in topic and style as an extension of the drive in sabi to get closer to the "thusness" of an object through verse.

While Buson and Issa are also assigned for this day, we may not discuss them because of the emphasis on sabi. However, they are absolutely wonderful haiku poets. Buson's sense of color is very pleasurable and I find Issa's ability to write compassionate, warm, even cute haiku in the face of the terrible tragedies of his life to be a constant lesson and most definitely worthy of respect.

Required—to be completed for today's session

✓ Haiku reader (bSpace, PDF)

Multimedia notes

❖ None. However, I read aloud from Makoto Ueda's Bashō and His Interpreters.

Links

⇢ None.

Other

Terms and such mentioned this day that are not otherwise in an obvious place on the web site, the powerpoints, the assigned reading, etc. (to help with capturing items mentioned, perhaps quickly, in class, not for test purposes)

None.