![]() Therefore it is necessary for us to try to understand nature in haiku in order to understand haiku fully. It is related to the question of nature itself. This is because kigo goes much deeper than a fleeting mention of a hint of a particular seasonal phenomenon. Besides, since Shiki’s time haiku has developed with kigo so much as a vital component that one cannot and should not dismiss it as surplus to requirement. The problem is that poetry is not common sense. Common sense has it that we should learn to live with it and hopefully make the most of it. However, this did not happen and we have been lumbered with kigo, which has become one of the main causes of rows and rivalry in the haiku community. When hokku became independent of renku it should also have been emancipated from the “shackles” of kigo, as some put it, otherwise the poem would become too artificial and restricting. Thus kigo was an indispensable component for any hokku. The rules of renku dictated that hokku should contain an indication of where and in what season a particular renku session was taking place. Of all the baggage, kigo is one of the most vexatious(2). In addition to this, haiku also had to cope with the problem of unravelling all the baggage which it bequeathed from renku and somehow was not allowed to leave behind. More specifically, by having been severed from renku, haiku now had to meet the challenges to become, without its main body, a fully-fledged poetic form in its own right and survive in rapidly modernising Japan, and later in the modern world as a whole. It must now be evident that the question we have to address is the impact of the loss of renku on the subsequent developments of haiku. Renku has become a kind of ‘headless chicken’. ![]() What is not known well or discussed properly are the implications of this separation of hokku and renku. We also know that Shiki discarded renku as a proper literary genre, which in fact is the most important aspect of his haiku reform and modernisation. The word “haiku” is not Shiki’s invention but it was he who gave it a modern meaning and reason for being. Hokku in this sense is haiku as we know it. We all know that Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) completed the centuries-old process of separating hokku from the body of renku (1) (linked-verse), thus turning the former finally into an independent genre of modern literature in its own right. Witnessing people in conflict with each other over the issue of how to deal with the question of nature in haiku in general and with kigo, or season words, in particular, I cannot help thinking that this must really be a serious business.Īs a starting point, let me deal with a particular subject which has been little discussed or understood. In what follows I shall attempt at answering these questions, taking haiku as an example. Why is it, then, that Japanese poetry seems to have acquired a special attention paid to it in terms of nature? More importantly, what exactly is meant by nature in Japan? Nature has featured in any poetry of any tradition.
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