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The genre of haiku is one of the shortest poetic forms in the world. In Japanese, haiku poems are normally composed with seventeen syllabic characters in a five-seven-five pattern, with each haiku including a kigo, or "seasonal word," that indicates the time in Japan's four distinct seasons. What makes haiku unique is their ability to express in a mere seventeen syllables the wonders and discoveries of our day-to-day lives as well as reflections on life and nature, often with a dash of humor.
Haiku grew out of an earlier genre called haikai renga that was enjoyed among the literati of the 16th and 17th centuries. In haikai renga, several people would take turns composing verses of five-seven-five or seven-seven syllables that were then linked together into poems as long as thirty-six or one hundred verses. In form, haikai renga was the same as the renga that had been composed since the 12th century, though the renga of the Imperial Court was a delicately refined genre. Only elegant subjects were chosen, and they were presented in a flowery language thought suitable for poetry. There were even rules on the number of times and the sequence in which topics could be repeated. In contrast, haikai renga used more down-to-earth language and encompassed both the lofty and the profane. In the 17th century, the first five-seven-five verse of haikai renga, called the hokku, came to be composed as an independent poem. In the 19th century, hokku evolved into the literary form haiku thanks largely to the innovations of Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), who regarded haikai renga as a mere intellectual game and haiku as an art. |
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The essence of the season.
Things that evoke springtime: The warming water of flowing streams, rape blossoms, sweets wrapped in cherry leaves. |
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