Kigo

[Don Baird]

Recently Dr. Gabi Greve finished the World Kigo Data Base.  It is an amazing accomplishment and one that I, in particular, appreciate greatly.  I love the use of kigo.  I believe it adds so much to the essence of the haiku - to the feeling, mood and resonance.  Most of my haiku contain kigo for those reasons.

Take a look at this work:  (it's stunning body of time and effort)

http://wkdkigodatabase03.blogspot.com/2010/03/saijiki-list.html

What are your thoughts on Kigo?  Do you use them?  Do you think they are important?  Or, do you think they are not needed in ELH?

New Year's eve' ...
sounds of the world celebrating
kigo

Don

[Dave Russo]

Thanks for this post on a venerable topic, Don!   

H.F. Noyes, in the Introduction to Favorite Haiku, Volume 2, wrote:

". . . A clear indication of season suggests a shared background of color, scent and sound. The big world of season simply overwhelms our ordinary small-minded preoccupations."

For this reason, and for the sake of convention, I think season words will continue to play a significant role in English-language haiku.

Yet, for all of the talk about season words, some have reported that if you survey the haiku published in English-language haiku journals, most of the haiku don't use season words. Why would that be? Ignorance maybe, but I think it's also because season words go against the grain of modern literature in English.

Season words are nowhere near as important to English-language literature as kigo are to Japanese haiku. In his essay, Beyond the Haiku Moment, Haruo Shirane wrote:

"In Japan, the seasonal word triggers a series of cultural associations which have been developed, refined and carefully transmitted for over a thousand years and which are preserved, transformed and passed on from generation to generation through seasonal handbooks, which remain in wide use today. "

On the other hand, avoiding clichés is very important in modern English-language literature. George Orwell's first rule for writers is: "Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print." So much for autumn leaves!

When I first started reading haiku magazines, I used to think, "Why are they all using the same phrases like 'autumn moon' and 'winter chill'?" I think the effective use of subtle seasonal references might be enough to keep any haiku poet, radical or conservative--Japanese or otherwise--busy for a long time. 

[Don Baird]

Hi Dave,

A great response!  Thank you so much. 

This paragraph summarizes it nicely:

"In Japan, the seasonal word triggers a series of cultural associations which have been developed, refined and carefully transmitted for over a thousand years and which are preserved, transformed and passed on from generation to generation through seasonal handbooks, which remain in wide use today. "

In English, in particular, the USA, while we might have a few seasonal references similar to the Japanese poets, we do not have very many with equivalent depth of meaning.  In short, English seasonal words and kigo are not the same.  I suppose I split the hair one more time! 

It's quite common for us to reference these words such as seasons and various assundering aspects that relate to them as kigo, but in Japan, the meaning of kigo reaches far beyond the pond ripple of of our seasonal words.  Japan's culture, as you've cited, is richly embedded in the use of kigo and its grounding function.  Thousands of years of a way of life has created a depth in their language and culture that reaches light years beyond the "Autumn moon" as we would respond to it in English.  There is a interplay between a the season word and the Japanese culture; and, folks there understand that, clearly.

It would be very difficult for us to pull out a phrase or a word that would have anywhere near the impact a Japanese kigo does.  That's very frustrating in some way and yet, very freeing as well. 

For me, I try to understand the essence of what kigo is, and then include it the best I can in my ELH.  While we do not have as many authentic kigo (if any) as Japan or China, we do have many ways to reference time of day, month and year.  I include them when I can and, most importantly, when I believe I need one.  There are many solid haiku in Japanese as well as English that have not used a kigo.  I suppose, therefore, that it's arguable by some, that the poem isn't truly a haiku.  I'm not sure that's true, cosmically.  I'll let you know in another fifty years!  :)

The impact of a kigo ...

oh snail ...
you were there
yesterday!

... is important.  And, I don't see the use of snail in this haiku any less than it would be in Japanese.  It's possibly our understanding that would make it less, if our understanding of it is less.  Each natural being in Japan seems to have enormous respect, history and implications: and, all of life is celebrated.  In the USA, it's simply a snail.  But, maybe that's ok? I choose to celebrate it.

The zen of it:  a snail is a snail ...  Does it have to have two thousand years of meaning to be a kigo?  Or, the fact that it's a snail, it's summer-time and snails have a reputation ... is that reputation it's kigo?  If so, then the snail reference in this poem is bringing about the history of it for thousands of years.  Snails are lazy:  they are summer kigo (spring too).  They leave trails, they eat leaves and the lawn, they've been in stories and jokes throughout the world.  They are eaten:  they are poisoned.  They are.  We have a kigo! ... ?  Go English. :)

As a side note, the Japanese kigo are in the saijiki.  Even in Japan, it is not considered a kigo unless it is in their book.  I know of no book like that in the USA.  Dr. Gabi Greve has been working on this for years.  Due to her work, we are on the path to having a saijiki and authentic kigo for English haiku.  This is an awesome time for English speaking/writing haijin. It is an awesome time for haijin of any language!  We are coming together in this after years of hard effort from many poets around the world.

Thanks again for your great comment.  I agree with it all and only attempt to add to the thoughts a little bit here.  In that, I do so with the greatest respect and sincerity.  This haiku journey is challenging, but worth it.

all the best,

Don

[Edward Zuk]

As a side note, the Japanese kigo are in the saijiki.  Even in Japan, it is not considered a kigo unless it is in their book.  I know of no book like that in the USA.

The book that you want is Haiku World by the late Harold Higginson, which is an international saijiki.  His book The Haiku Seasons discusses the (potential) importance of kigo in English-language haiku.

I find that I am very careful about using kigo in most of my haiku.  When I am being consciously experimental, however, I often do not use them.

[Don Baird]

Thanks so much.  I appreciate your info. I believe I have that one ... I'll have to run upstairs and look through the stacks.   There's so much to know at all times it seems.

:)

Don

[Gael Bage]

Playing devils advocate, especially in the UK, and more and more since global warming our weather etc makes for unseasonal kigo words, last year my pear tree blossomed in spring and again in july and my apple tree had blossom in october. I was still picking grapes in december and fairly recently we have had snow in spring,summer weather is drifting later into autumn and spring had recently been arriving earlier...... so things are becoming very unseasonal
Wot no little devil smiley?

[Don Baird]

hahahahaaa... we're going to need a revolving saijiki then... to keep up with the weather pattern. :)   However, "It shouldn't take too much longer before we can come to the determination that the 1998-2007 warm period was more a part of natural variability than a sign of anthropogenic climate change".  As researchers reveal here: http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/category/temperature-history/

NEWS:
Kigo Alert!  "Japan's kigo may be found in the USA in 2025!  Updates soon!!!"   :)  If that happens, we'll have the most authentic kigo on earth!  Don't keep your fingers crossed though. I love to jest!

Don

[AlanSummers]

Three great musts for the kigo users are Bill Higginson's Haiku World (and Haiku Seasons); Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar (see www.snapshotpress.co.uk); and Gabi Greve's online kigo site.

I'm sure there are others too, but I highly recommend these three. :-)

[Gabi Greve]

On the other hand, avoiding clichés is very important in modern English-language literature. George Orwell's first rule for writers is: "Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print."
So much for autumn leaves!
Dave

You are getting your finger to a point of crosscultural appreciation which is very important to me, and to my "foreign" friends who live in Japan.

Should we appreciate a penomenon of a different culture, which is new to us, 
within its own terms, which we have to learn bit by bit,
by deprogramming our own cultural understanding and become open for the new world?

or should we judge new and unfamiliar things within the terms of our own culture, to which we are used  from childhood and tend to think are "right" ?

eating soup
with chopsticks ...
crosscultural encounters


Gabi



And a big thanks to Don for bringing kigo back to haiku  ;D

.

[Don Baird]

@ Gabi ...  thanks for all you do, my friend.  It is very much appreciated.

chopsticks -
the art of eating rice
one grain at a time




edited poem:  ... :)

[Lorin]

Should we appreciate a phenomenon of a different culture, which is new to us, 
within its own terms, which we have to learn bit by bit,
by deprogramming our own cultural understanding and become open for the new world?

or should we judge new and unfamiliar things within the terms of our own culture, to which we are used  from childhood and tend to think are "right" ?


Gabi
.

Good questions, Gabi, which of course apply as much to one culture as another, to the Japanese as well as to the English-speaker, to the dwellers in the Northern Hemisphere as well as to those in the Southern ,if we are not to be mere tourists and snatchers of souvenirs in each others' cultures.

I appreciate your WKDB very much, in its aspect of listing and educating us about kigo, which as has been noted, is a Japanese cultural phenomenon which developed over thousands of years. A most excellent resource!

I also believe that if English-language haiku is to develop a genuine 'kigo culture' (or regional cultures), it will also happen over a long time (perhaps not as long as thousands of years in this day and age, but still at least a couple of hundred) and it will happen through the poems, the ku themselves, not be imposed from without. We will also learn much about the various cultures of the various English-speaking nations : something that those involved purely with Japanese haiku have never had to consider, as far as I know.

Christmas party -
mynahs watch over a nest
in the garage

- commended , 7th paper wasp Jack Stamm Award, first published in rusted hinge, the 7th paper wasp Jack Stamm anthology, May 2006.

Christmas could be a possible kigo for the English-speaking world. Mynahs (not a native species of bird in Australia) watching over their nests in December and January needs to be recognised as a genuine seasonal reference, but not a kigo at this stage.

- Lorin

[AlanSummers]

Along with Gabi's kigo database is the ongoing Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition where I am sure many people keep hold of the previous year calendars as important and quality haiku including well placed seasonal words and seasonal references for that time.  It also works as a kind of eco-stamp, as I've noticed going back on my snow haiku for instance.

Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition:
http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/thcc/entry_guidelines.htm

This haiku was put on a seasonal blog in 2006:

bedroom window-
thick snow covers the city
with toboggans

I think that might have been our snowiest winter until last year. ;-)

Alan

[Lorin]

"It also works as a kind of eco-stamp..." - Alan

Writing haiku can, indeed, act as a kind of 'eco-stamp', and the 'snapshot' calendars are a very nice reminder.

The mynah population here is still expanding. Nests not only in suburban garages now. I saw one the other day....had the feeling of being watched, looked up and sideways, and there was a mynah with a bundle of bright green in its beak, which seemed odd. Then I saw that it was near a huge plastic Christmas wreath which faced the road, in one of the busiest parts of the Sydney Road shopping strip. The bird then looped down and up and disappeared up a hole in the overhead 'verandah' roofing!

- Lorin

[AlanSummers]

I can't find a haiku to hand about a Noisy Miner, but I do have one about a Mynah, but one in India where I helped with transport at New Delhi airport.

november rain
an ashram indian shoos
mynah squabbles


Publications credits: Azami #53 (1998)

Yes the Snapshot Press Haiku Calendars are a valuable source in their own right. :-)

Alan

[Lorin]

yep, Alan, it's the Indian mynah I wrote about, although here in Melbourne. The Noisy Miner and the Bell Miner (otherwise 'bellbird') are native species, might be related to the mynah somewhere along the line (well, they all have prominent 'eye-makeup' ) and are in no danger of extinction either.