The Haiku Foundation Forums

Dear Don,

You write: "Do we need more than kigo such as keywords, season reference and more to keep haiku alive and well for future generations?"

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, but my understanding is that "kigo" and "seasonal reference" are the same thing.

Larry Bole

Reading things here and elsewhere recently has led me to wondering what English-language books on the subject of haiku people have read.

What books do people think are essential for an understanding of the Japanese haiku tradition? And what books may not be essential, but are important to people for one reason or another?

And I'm also curious, if the same books appear over and over (assuming anyone finds this topic interesting), how many people who frequent this site, particularly those under 40 let's say, have read these books?

And finally, does one need to understand the Japanese haiku tradition in order to be an accomplished English-language haiku poet? If not, then reading these books becomes merely academic. I bring this up because I think there are two approaches being taken toward English-language haiku writing today: attempting to follow the Japanese haiku tradition as closely as possible in English, and following what I call a 'concept' of what a haiku is. These two things often overlap, or at least touch on each other, but they are not necessarily always the same thing. I think the 'concept' of haiku approach to writing English-language haiku has developed out of the numerous attempts  over the years by various English-language authors/authorities to define for an English-language audience just what a haiku is.  These definitions have tended to be, in my estimation, inclusive as opposed to exclusive; and in order to be as inclusive as possible, have created a 'concept' of what a haiku is that doesn't always correlate to the Japanese haiku tradition. Of course, a number of modern practitioners of haiku in Japan (since Shiki) haven't always conformed to the Japanese haiku tradition either. Anyway...

My list of English-language books I consider essential for an understanding of the Japanese haiku tradition are:

Blyth's 4 -vol. Haiku, and 2 - vol. History Haiku. These books would be even more essential if Blyth had provided more background and contextual information than he does about the haiku translated.

Ueda, Modern Japanese Haiku (for the introduction)

Miner, Japanese Linked Poetry

Miner and Odagiri, The Monkey's Straw Raincoat and Other Poetry of the Basho School

Higginson, The Haiku Handbook

Higginson, The Haiku Seasons

Ueda, Basho and His Interpreters (for its glimpse of Japanese haiku criticism)

Shirane, Traces of Dreams (along with Blyth, the most essential of the essential)

Keene, Dawn to the West (section on The Modern Haiku)

Kawamoto, The Poetics of Japanese Verse (Chapter 2, The Poetics of the Haiku)

Qiu, Basho and the Dao


And books I've found important, but not absolutely essential:

Henderson, An Introduction to Haiku

Mayhew, Monkey's Raincoat

Giroux, The Haiku Form

Beichman, Masaoka Shiki

Gill and Gerstle, ed., Rediscovering Basho (some of the chapters)

Nakagawa, Studies on English Haiku

Kametaro, Messages from Matsuyama


--Larry

My first contact with haiku was through Blyth's Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics in college, a paperback book long ago given away. Next was D. T. Suzuki's Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture, a hardcover printed Showa XIII  1938, a gift from a college teacher, which I still have. Then in no particular order, Snyder's The Back Country, Kerouac's Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels, and then onto Blyth's 4 vol. Haiku, and 2 vol. History of Haiku. I bought those at J. Toguri Mercantile on Belmont Ave. in Chicago, run by the family of THE Tokyo Rose, the one that was prosecuted. I used to see her working quietly around the store, and wondered what her life was like.

What got me past the alleged Zen of haiku was reading Ueda's Modern Japanese Haiku. This book has a great introduction. And then a number of other books on down to today, as well as haiku-related journals, both print and online. But who can keep up with all of those? The first haiku magazine I read was Modern Haiku, which I first found in Madison, WI.


Larry