The Haiku Foundation Forums

Hi Larrry,

yabureta, ragged ... have a look at the bark of the akamatsu, which is the part of the tree Basho is comparing his mushroom to.



Matsutake - The name comes from the area where the mushroom grows, in a pine grove of Japanese red pines (akamatsu).
The broken parts of the hat look like the broken bark of akamatsu.
.
anyway, to translate matsutake simply as "mushroom" does not help the understanding.
.
Gabi

QuoteAs I find interesting Christian-themed haiku by Japanese poets,
I will hopefully remember to post them here, if you'd like.
Larry

Thanks so much, Larry, that would be wonderful!

A lady in waiting ...  :-*

Gabi


Ooura Catholic Church Nagasaki

Quote from "Speculations of Robert Spiess"

608
A genuine haiku is the 'testament' of an aspect of the world process itself,
apart from any intervention of human ego.

627
As human nature tends to be deflected from its original unity and simplicity by ego and its constrictive and seductive illusions, haiku are salutary in mitigating this tendency, and to bring our nature back to its original mode.

653
The haiku poet does not need ego in order to be self-aware.

717
Haiku poets should be aware of the tyranny of the ego,
for it clings to its obsession with being special.

726
By forgetting one's ego,
the haiku poet's true being is confirmed by all things.

867
In a haiku's now-moment (whether immediate or from memory)
the ego and the intellect are to be left behind.

871
In genuine haiku the heart annihilates the ego.

Speculations of Robert Spiess
long-time editor of Modern Haiku.
.

Part of my artistic sensibilities is to break conventions.
Poetry is almost all about personality.
onecloud

That is a good point.

Japanese haiku as formal poetry to start with
gives plenty of opportunity to do that.
Maybe this is one factor why many feel so attracted to it?

I always wondered if haiku were short free verse to start with  and no conventions to break
... would it loose its attraction ?


For me Japanese haiku  is not about personality, not about improving my big ego,
but on the contrary, trying to loose my ego in the nature of things.

Gabi
(Maybe I lived too long in Japan
with the constant whacks of my Haiku teachers  ...  :o )
.

This is not an object oriented poem but rather one of activity -
the action and continuum of creation/transformation.

I do not like the "object oriented - activity oriented" - classification very much.

A Japanese kigo refers to the change of the seasons as experienced in human life and are thus all a kind of "action within the object" ... life goes on, feel the coolness of autumn on a summer day (and summer kigo) ... things change, move along with the sun, moon and stars . . .

Greetings from my valley,
where winter is just about to move on and make way to spring - with a big snowstorm !!

Gabi

Obaku temples are also famous for their good food ...

Manpukuji, where Chinese cuisine took root in Japan

The deep-rooted influence of Chinese culture is easily spotted in contemporary Japan, but perhaps most obviously in the nation's food culture. Manpukuji temple, founded here by a Chinese monk in the 17th century, played an essential role in the spread of Chinese cuisine across the nation.

Zen-style calligraphy and portraiture techniques introduced from China by the temple's monks and devotees were highly regarded by Japan's cultural elite at the time, but none equalled the impact of
fucha ryori　普茶料理, the Chinese-style Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. Indeed, its impact is still keenly felt today.

"The cuisine has had an unequalled effect on the development of Kansai's food culture," says Chisei Tanaka, a priest and chief researcher at the temple's Obaku Cultural Research Institute. "It brought new ingredients and combined boiling, grilling and steaming procedures."

"[After the founding of Manpukuji temple] the nation experienced a major boom in fucha ryori--much more exuberant than what you see for French or Italian food now," Tanaka says.
http://washokufood.blogspot.com/2008/05/noppejiru-niigata.html


mafu 麻腐（まふ）,  sesame tofu with sanshoo pepper
unpen 雲片（うんぺん） left over vegetables fried
kanpai 羹杯（かんぱい） hitashi type food
en , tsuai えん（菜）つぁい tsukemono pickles
hantsuu 飯子（はんつう) cooked rice

The list sounds like a poem to me ..

When leaving temple Manpukuji, the poetress Kikusha writes, summing up the Chinese atmosphere and the tea plantations:

山門を出れば日本ぞ茶摘うた
sanmon o dereba Nihon zo chatsumi uta

outside the temple gate
it's Japan again!
song of the tea pickers

. Tagami Kikusha 田上菊舎
(1753, August 23 -1826, September 24)


Gabi
(still hungry in the early morning.)
.

kami to hotoke -

すゝしさや神と佛の隣同士
suzushisa ya kami to hotoke no tonaridooshi

this coolness !
Gods and Buddhas
side by side

Masaoka Shiki
Tr. Gabi Greve


We can have them both in one haiku!
http://wkdfestivalsaijiki.blogspot.com/2007/01/gods-kami-to-hotoke.html

Gabi
.

QuoteI'm not sure that this is the proper forum to discuss the ways in which Zen is different from other sects of Buddhism,
but I'm willing to enter into such a discussion, and
how those differences may or may not apply to the writing of haiku.
Larry

This sounds interesting to me! I would love to read more about the influence of the many Buddhist sects on haiku.
Are there for example haiku collections in Japan according to these criteria?
As I said earlier, I only studied the relevant kigo so far, but have not come across a study on the various believes with regard to the contents of haiku.

Gabi
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The seasonal reference in haiku is not merely window dressing, or a place-marker, as some have implied. As Koji Kawamoto points out in his book, The Poetics of Japanese Verse: Imagery, Struture, Meter,
the seasonal reference 'activates' the significance of the haiku by providing a context in which the haiku's activity takes place. Often the activity taking place in the haiku has no significance without that context.
The reason a seasonal reference lacks that importance to writers of ELS haiku is because ELS haikuists generally don't have a deeply conditioned response to seasonal references in the same way that Japanese haikuists do.


Thanks for your thoughts, Larry!
Gabi

here is a list of my homework,

Japanese haiku about temples
http://yoshi5.web.infoseek.co.jp/cgi-bin/HAIKUreikuDB/ZOU/BUNKAsyuukyou/336.htm

Japanese haiku about Buddhs statues
http://yoshi5.web.infoseek.co.jp/cgi-bin/HAIKUreikuDB/ZOU/BUNKAsyuukyou/201.htm

Buddhism
http://yoshi5.web.infoseek.co.jp/cgi-bin/HAIKUreikuDB/ZOU/BUNKAsyuukyou/203.htm
part 2
http://yoshi5.web.infoseek.co.jp/cgi-bin/HAIKUreikuDB/ZOU/BUNKAsyuukyou/204.htm


and a lot more . . .

It might take a few lifetimes . . .

Just finished another kigo ... looking for haiku

Toowan Kuyoo 唐椀供養 (とうわんくよう)
memorial service for Chinese bowls

Last Sunday in March

at the temple Manmanji 万満寺, Matsudo town, Chiba
千葉県松戸市馬橋

This is a ritual to ward off paralysis from bleeding in the brain and other effects of bad health (chuuki 中気除け) and after a purifying fire ritual of chopsticks and Chinese bowls, food is served in these bowls.
This ritual dates back to 1591, when Tokugawa Ieyasu passed here and was the first to eat from a purified rice bowl.

After the food is eaten, pilgrims crawl under the legs of the large Nio-Statue to ward off evil for the next year.
http://wkdfestivalsaijiki.blogspot.com/2012/02/toowan-kuyo-for-bowls.html


Gabi
.

And let us not forget the Nichiren sect
(which is quite popular here in Western Japan)

and the kigo related to them


昼もなほ暗き西の谷日蓮忌　　
hiru mo nao kuraki Nishi no Tani Nichiren-ki

even during daytime
it is dark at "Nishi no Tani" ...
Nichiren memorial day

Sasabune


- - - and one I can write every year in my valley in summer

full moon night -
the sound of prayer drums
from the Nichiren temple


More about Nichiren
http://dragondarumamuseum.blogspot.com/2006/03/nichiren.html

.
Gabi

quoting myself . . .

ZEN is well known in the West, but other forms of Japanese Buddhism are not.

To make the great pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku is not only reserved for believers of the Esoteric sects, but done by many people for many reasons, after retirement, after loosing a loved one or just for finding oneself as a youngster.

Many henro pilgrims carry a small haiku book and produce many beautiful haiku, some featured in the internet these days and some hidden in the pockets of the white robe, only shown to each other when meeting on the way.

The Shikoku Pilgrimage, henro 遍路, comprises many kigo for spring.
The cool climate of spring is the best time to walk the pilgims road in Shikoku.
But there are of course pilgrims all year round.

More is here
http://worldkigo2005.blogspot.com/2006/04/pilgrimage-henro-05.html

not all that is green is spinach
not all that is Buddhism is Zen

or something to that effect from an old german saying .

Gabi
.

Valentine's Day 2012

even the rain
shows shades of pink -
Valentine's Day


with a lot of new haiku

http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentines-day-2012.html


Happy Valentine to all !
Gabi
.

about Emperor Jinmu Tenno

宮の居の流鏑馬凛凛し神武天皇忌
miya no i no yabusame ririshi Jinmu Tennoo ki

the gallant figures
at the Shrine Yabusame -
Jinmu Memorial Day

Yoshi Yoshi
source : shashin-haiku.jp

At Miyazaki Jingu 宮崎神宮
This shrine is dedicated to Jinmu Tenno.
His old name as a deity here is
神日本磐余彦天皇（かんやまといわれひこのすめらみこと）
Kan Yamato Iwarehiko no Sumera Mikoto

And a lot more about the deification of Japanese emperors
http://darumamuseumgallery.blogspot.com/2012/02/jinmu-tenno.html

Gabi

Shingō (新郷村, Shingō-mura) Shingo village
is a village located in the Sannohe District of south-central Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan.
The village promotes itself as the home of the
Grave of Christ (キリストの墓, Kirisuto no Haka) after a local legend.

Shingō village claims to be the last resting-place of Jesus, buried in the "Tomb of Jesus." According to the village's claims, Jesus Christ did not die on the cross at Golgotha. Instead his brother, Isukiri, took his place on the cross, while Jesus fled across Siberia to Mutsu Province, in northern Japan, where he became a rice farmer, married, and raised a family near what is now Shingō.
Entrepreneurs sell memorabilia and Jesus souvenirs to the tourists. Another tomb in Shingō is said to contain an ear of the brother of Jesus and a lock of hair from the Virgin Mary. The claims started in 1933 after the discovery of supposed "ancient Hebrew documents detailing Jesus' life and death in Japan" that was supposedly the testament of Jesus. These documents were allegedly seized by the Japanese authorities and taken to Tokyo shortly before World War II and have not been seen since.

The English text on the sign explaining the legend of the Tomb of Christ reads:

When Jesus Christ was 21 years old, he came to Japan and pursued knowledge of divinity for 12 years. He went back to Judea at age 33 and engaged in his mission. However, at that time, people in Judea would not accept Christ's preaching. Instead, they arrested him and tried to crucify him on a cross. His younger brother, Isukiri casually took Christ's place and ended his life on the cross.
Christ, who escaped the crucifixion, went through the ups and downs of travel, and again came to Japan. He settled right here in what is now called Herai Village, and died at the age of 106. On this holy ground, there is dedicated a burial mound on the right to deify Christ, and a grave on the left to deify Isukiri. The above description was given in a testament by Jesus Christ.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2005/03/christmas.html
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