PART A

Part A: TYPES OF JAPANESE POEMS

What are the types of Japanese poems?

Japanese poetry forms. Since the middle of the 19th century, the major forms of Japanese poetry have been:

<1>tanka (the modern name for waka)

Tanka is the modern name for classic Japanese poetry, meaning “short poems“. Tanka poetry is non-rhyming. There are five lines in a tanka with a meter pattern of 5-7-5-7-7.

Like the sonnet, the tanka employs a turn, known as a pivotal image, which marks the transition from the examination of an image to the examination of the personal response. This turn is located within the third line, connecting the kami-no-ku, or upper poem, with the shimo-no-ku, or lower poem.

<2>haiku (+ senyru + haiga)

2a. The haiku is a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. The haiku developed from the hokku (the opening three lines of a longer poem known as a tanka). The haiku became a separate form of poetry in the 17th century.

Haiku. The best known form of Japanese poetry, haiku is also one of the greatest forms of poetry, alongside the sonnet and the ode. It’s flexible, it’s easy to read, and it’s still going strong hundreds of years after its birth.

Should haiku have titles? Many place the haiku in the center of the page and center the lines so it forms a diamond shape. This is how haiku are traditionally formatted. You can also add a short title at the top of the haiku, such as “Autumn” or “Dog.” It is not absolutely necessary that you title your haiku poem. Many haiku do not have titles.

Cuttung Words. What are cutting words in haiku? Every haiku has two parts to it. It’s divided in the middle by what’s called a “cutting word”. It’s a structure that is designed to engage the reader and it permits multiple interpretations to this potent poetic form.

Note. What makes a good Haiku? See more notes on the Haiku under Part C: below.

2b. Senryu (川柳)

Senryu is very similar to Haiku. It is also consist of three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables in the same manners as Haiku. However, Senryu tend to be about human foibles (foible = minor weakness or eccentricity) while Haiku tend to be about nature, and Senryu are often cynical or darkly humorous while Haiku are more serious.

https://www.britannica.com/art/senryu

Senryū, a three-line unrhymed Japanese poem structurally similar to a haiku but treating human nature usually in an ironic or satiric vein. It is also unlike haiku in that it usually does not have any references to the seasons. Senryū developed from haiku and became especially popular among the common people about the 18th century. It was named for Karai Hachiemon (pen name Senryū), one of the most popular practitioners of the form.

https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/senryu/human_nature Thanksgiving Alliteration Living and laughing Gathering, gleaming in grace Thanksgiving today! © Joseph 11/22/07

2c. Haiga

Haiga is a Japanese concept for simple pictures combined with poetry, usually haiku.
…
The creative process of haiga:

1. You can write the poem first, and let it inspire the image.
2. The image can be created first and inspire the poem.
3. You can just write a poem, and have someone else create the image.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiga

<3>shi or western-style poetry

Shi and shih are romanizations of the character 詩/诗, the Chinese word for all poetry generally and across all languages. 

Today, the main forms of Japanese poetry include both experimental poetry and poetry that seeks to revive traditional ways.

PART B

Part B: BRIEF OVERVIEW OF JAPANESE POETRY

https://doyouknowjapan.com/poetry/

Poetry of Japan

Brief Overview of Japanese Poetry

Worldwide Famous Japanese Poetry
Japanese poetry is a poetry written or spoken in Japanese language. Japanese lyric poetry such as Haiku, Senryu and Tanka are now widespread to the world and enjoyed by many non-Japanese practitioners. As Japanese poetry became popular around the world, Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka are now written and spoken in English and other languages. It is not too much to say that Japanese poetry became already an art for everyone in the world.

Japanese Poetry was originated from Human Emotions
The beginning of Japanese poetry is said to be some kind of screaming or crying which express the human emotions. Those expressions evolved into the songs for the ceremonial gathering and religious rituals. However, those songs are lost due to non-existence of written language in ancient Japan.
In early 7th century, the oldest history book written in Japanese “Kojiki” recorded the old style poems in those days, and these were already refined similar to the poems of today. Therefore, it is impossible to trace the change of ancient Japanese poetry.

Love was brought by Poetry in Old Japan
In the “Manyoshu”, the oldest collection of Japanese poems from 8th century, more than 4,500 poems were recorded. In the collection, there are varied poems from the emperors to commons, and you can see the lifestyles of the day. In those days, poetry is not just an art, but practical tool to express ones emotion and feelings. For example, sending a poem of love to someone is very common way of confessing love. Also, instead of dating with lover, exchanging the poems of love is the most common way of nurturing relationship. On the other hand, poetry played very important role in a world of politics. It was necessary to have an ability to make a good poem in the aristocratic society, otherwise it was impossible to get a social success. Good taste of poetry was one of the most important elements of show the people’s capability.

Haiku of Japan

Most Famous Poetry Form in Japan
Haiku (俳句) is a very short form of Japanese poetry. It is consist of three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Haiku was originally part of “Renka” (series of poems), which was a style of Japanese poetry that certain number of persons making one long poem in combination. Haiku was the first part of a long Renka poem, but people started to enjoy the Haiku part independently. During the Meiji period, faimous poet Shiki Masaoka defined the rules of Haiku and it became widespread across the country.

Three Main Principles of Haiku

Haiku rhythm
Haiku is comprised of 3 phrases. First phrase is with 5syllables, second phrase is with 7 syllables, and last phrase is with again 5 syllables. These phrases with certain numbers of syllables produce distinctive and attractive rhythm of Haiku poetry.

Seasonal word
In Haiku poem, it is necessary to put the seasonal references called Kigo (seasonal word) or Kidai (seasonal topic). It is said that seasonal references is one of the most important elements of Haiku poetry. The seasonal word is usually extracted from the “Saijiki” which is the extensive dictionary of seasonal words.

Cutting word
Kireji (cutting word) is also an essence of Haiku. Kireji expresses the moment of separation of two images or ideas in the poem. By inserting Kireji in the Haiku, you can feel a rest and that leads the imagination of hidden emotion and background of the poem.

Haiku became Widespread to the Western World

Nowadays, Haiku is spread to the world and became widely popular in many countries. Although there were further attempts outside Japan to imitate the “Haiku” in the early 20th century, there was little understanding of its principles. One of the first advocates of English-language Haiku was the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi. In “A Proposal to American Poets,” published in the Reader magazine in 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the Haiku and some of his own English efforts, ending with the exhortation, “Pray, you try Japanese Haiku, my American poets!” At about the same time the poet Sadakichi Hartmann was publishing original English-language Haiku, as well as other Japanese forms in both English and French.

In France, Haiku was introduced by Paul-Louis Couchoud around 1906. Couchoud’s articles were read by early Imagist theoretician F. S. Flint, who passed on Couchoud’s ideas to other members of the proto-Imagist Poets’ Club such as Ezra Pound. Amy Lowell made a trip to London to meet Pound and find out about haiku. She returned to the United States where she worked to interest others in this “new” form. Haiku subsequently had a considerable influence on Imagists in the 1910s, notably Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” of 1913, but, notwithstanding several efforts by Yone Noguchi to explain “the haiku spirit,” there was as yet little understanding of the form and its history.

• An old pond
  A frog jumps in-
  The sound of water.
• In the cicada’s cry
  No sign can foretell
  How soon it must die.
• Clouds appear
  and bring to men a chance to rest
  from looking at the moon.
• No sky
  no earth – but still
  snowflakes fall
• A lovely thing to see:
  through the paper window’s hole,
  the Galaxy.
• A sudden shower falls –
  and naked I am riding
  on a naked horse!
• Night, and the moon!
  My neighbor, playing on his flute –
  out of tune!
• First autumn morning:
  the mirror I stare into
  shows my father’s face.
• The crow has flown away:
  swaying in the evening sun,
  a leafless tree.
• A mountain village
  under the pilled-up snow
  the sound of water.
• The summer river:
  although there is a bridge, my horse
  goes through the water.
• The winds that blows –
  ask them, which leaf on the tree
  will be next to go.
• A lightning flash:
  between the forest trees
  I have seen water.

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Senryu of Japan

Portrays the Emotions of Human Beings with Humour

Senryu (川柳) is a very short form of Japanese poetry similar to Haiku. It is also consist of three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables in the same manners as Haiku. However, Senryu tend to be about human foibles while Haiku tend to be about nature, and Senryu are often cynical or darkly humorous while Haiku are more serious. It portrays the characteristics of human beings and psychology of the human mind. There’s another side of senryu, a more serious side that express the misfortunes, the hardships and woe of humanity. Senryu that are serious in tone about romance, sex, family, friendship, marriage, and divorce — Senryu that express other moods and human emotions such as love, hate, anger, jealousy, sorrow, sadness, and fear — Senryu that portray the stark reality of the human condition — the facts, fashions, sports, social issues and life-styles of popular culture — Senryu that express passion and fullness of heart.
Unlike Haiku, Senryu does not include a Kireji (cutting word), and does not generally include a Kigo (seasonal word) or Kidai (seasonal topic).

Senryu is named after Edo period Haiku poet Senryu Karai (1718-1790), whose collection Haifūyanagidaru (誹風柳多留) launched the genre into the public consciousness.

• The robber,
  when I catch,
  my own son.
• Hide and seek
  Count to three
  Winter comes.
• In the beautiful woman,
  The wife
  Finds some defect.
• In this world,
  Tied by parents,
  And by money.
• Laughing loudly
  To forget
  My loneliness.
• Gruesome
  Is the age of forty
  Of a beautiful woman.
• The staffer I trained,
  With whom I have never lost patience,
  Screams at me.
• “Yes Sir!”
  Just once I want to hear this,
  From my wife.
• To my child
  I have to yet again teach
  the name of our Prime Minister.
• My wife
  is made in Japan
  but she is poisonous.
• Arguing downstairs
  she shuts the windows
  in her dollhouse

Tanka (Waka) of Japan

The Oldest Form of Japanese Poetry

Tanka (短歌) is a long form of Japanese poetry. It is consists of five phrases of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables. This 31-syllable poem has been a popular form of poetry in Japan for more than 1300 years. As a form of poetry, Tanka is much older than Haiku and Senryu, and Tanka evokes a moment with concision and musicality. In Japanese, Tanka is often written in one straight line, while they are usually divided into the five phrases: 5-7-5-7-7 in English and other languages. Normally, each phrase encloses one image or idea. As Tanka is a lyrical in nature, it provides room to the poet to share his feelings.

Up to and during the compilation of the Manyoshu in the 8th century, Waka (Poetry of Japan) was a general term for poetry composed in Japanese, and included several genres such as Tanka (短歌, “short poem”), Choka (長歌, “long poem”), Bussokusekika (仏足石歌, “Buddha footprint poem”) and Sedoka (旋頭歌, “repeating-the-first-part poem”). However, by the time of the “Kokinshu” collection at the beginning of the 10th century, all of these forms except for the Tanka and Choka had effectively gone extinct, and Choka had significantly diminished in prominence. As a result, the word Waka became effectively synonymous with Tanka, and the word Tanka fell out of use until it was revived at the end of the 19th century.

• A cool wind blows in
  With a blanket of silence.
  Straining to listen
  For those first few drops of rain,
  The storm begins in earnest.
• Peaceful solitude
  intrinsic to our spirit
  lost in pensive thought
  standing on the edge of time
  the road to nowhere special.
• In the spring of joy,
  when even the mud chuckles,
  my soul runs rabid,
  snaps at its own bleeding heels,
  and barks: “What is happiness?”
• wondering if this is what
  my parents felt,
  in their own time
  seeing a better past slip
  ever further behind
• all these years
  in one house, one job
  one town and in me―
  too many changes to fathom
  as I sweep away autumn leaves
• closing my book —
  I note how the clock has moved
  remorselessly away
  from the time the day was whole
  and I was immortal
• from my palm
  she takes the apple . . .
  and it’s understood
  our time is not
  forever
• wondering whether
  further along this gentle curve
  are life and death,
  I see nothing but empty plains
  in the train window

PART C

Part C: WHAT MAKES A GOOD HAIKU

https://www.pspoets.com/blog/2019/6/29/what-makes-a-good-haiku

WHAT IS A HAIKU, ANYWAY?

Basically, a Haiku is a 17-syllable poem made up of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Historically, they’re meant to capture some sort of relationship between the poet and nature, expressing unity or understanding, but the subject matter is ultimately up to the writer.

HAIKUS ANSWER THE WHERE, WHEN, AND WHAT

Another important aspect to the 5-7-5 format is the idea that a good Haiku answers three questions: Where, When, and What.

For example, consider this poem by the Shakespeare of Haiku poetry, Basho:

On a leafless bough
A crow is perched—
The autumn dusk.

In the first line, Basho tells you where the action of the poem is taking place, offering you a visual to immediately connect with. Then, the second line emphasizes what is engaging with the bough—a crow that captures the center of your imagination, while complementing the surroundings. Lastly, Basho introduces when the crow perches itself on the limb—the dusk of Autumn, which creates a stark twilight that gives the reader a sense of despair or solitude.

NOTE: You might have noticed that this poem actually answers the three questions out of order: offering the “When” in the final line as opposed to the second, but that’s the beauty of the Haiku! You have complete freedom to chop and change whatever elements you want to get your message across. Ultimately, poetry is subjective, and the most important thing is how you use your creativity to develop a poem that satisfies your thoughts and lends insight for the reader to have their own!

NOTE 2: Kigo

Season word Kigo (季語, “season word”) is a word or phrase associated with a particular season, used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry. Kigo are used in the collaborative linked-verse forms renga and renku, as well as in haiku, to indicate the season referred to in the stanza. Kigo are words or phrases that can be strongly associated with a particular season, or sometimes the association can be more subtle. Pumpkins (kabocha), for example, are a winter squash that is associated with the fall harvest.

NOTE 3: Kireji

What is a Kireji in haiku? Kireji (切れ字, lit. “cutting word”) are a special category of words used in certain types of Japanese traditional poetry. It is regarded as a requirement in traditional haiku, as well as in the hokku, or opening verse, of both classical renga and its derivative renku (haikai no renga).

NOTE 4: Kigo and Kireji

Kigo (season word) is one such abbreviation, symbolizing the season in which the poem is set. Kireji (i.e. cutting word) appears at the end of one of the three phrases, acting as a sort of spoken punctuation. Kigo and kireji enable haiku poets to get the understanding from the reader.

NOTE 5: Renga

A Japanese form composed of a series of half-tanka written by different poets. The opening stanza is the basis of the modern haiku form.

TAMAT.