Haikuis one of the most important modes of Japanese poetry,. A traditional hokku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 morae, phonetic units which only partially correspond to the syllables of languages such as English. It also contains a special season word (the kigo) descriptive of the season in which it is set. Hokku often combine two (or rarely, three) different elements into a unified sensory impression, with a major grammatical break (kire) at the end of either the first five or second seven morae

Even before the written records in Japan (760 AD) people spoke tanka to gods and in praise of the reigning monarchy. Tanka, with its 5-7-5-7-7 sound syllable count, its lofty ancestry, its shortness and ease for recall, became the favorite poetical form of the Japanese Imperial Court. And thus, both reached their highest popularity and brilliance during the same centuries -- ninth to eleventh.

Tanka/RengaIn those years -- 9th - 12th centuries -- when was so fashionable, poets competing in contests revived an old Chinese form by linking tanka poems together in a novel way. The poem was "broken" in half so one author wrote the 5-7-5 part and another responded and finished the poem by adding his (mostly men did this though it was first done by a woman!) 7-7 part. Instead of stopping there, someone else wrote a new 5-7-5 poem to "answer" to the previous 7-7 link and they named the genre renga -- meaning linked elegance. This proved to be so much fun poets were soon writing poems of 1,000 and even 10,000 links.

By the 14th century tanka had become stale and staid so renga became all the rage. There were then two main styles: a serious, courtly style and the comic-bourgeois form favored by the newly rich merchants.. Because of the popularity of renga and the extreme necessity for a really good hokku (starting verse), poets began to collect a backlog of "good" hokku to stick up their sleeves in case anyone asked them to start a renga.

 is known as the first great poet in the history of haikai (and

haiku).

who lifted the 17-syllable haiku out of the earlier--and longer--forms of waka and renga poetry to make of it a

genre in its own right. During his lifetime several poets, principally Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Joso, Kyoroku, Shiko, Sampu, Yaha

and Hokushi, became his devoted students, embodying in their own poetry the aesthetic principles Basho had

taught them. Thus a poetic tradition was established, and was passed

on through the generations.

Basho Matsuo(1644 - 1694)

The Gentlest and Greatest Friend of Moon and Winds

It is generally believed that Basho was trained as a Buddhist monk at Kinpukuji in Kyoto during the years 1666-1671, where his studies included Japanese and Chinese classics and calligraphy. In 1672 he moved to Edo (Tokyo), where he became actively engaged in writing poetry. Throughout the years of his residence in this city (1673-1684) he also practiced Zen meditation

In the summer of 1684, he started out on one of his long walking

journeys. In the beginning of the book, The Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton, he writes:

Following the example of the ancient priest who is said to have traveled thousands of miles caring naught for his provisions and attaining the state of sheer ecstasy under the pure beams of the moon, I left my house on the River Sumida in the August of the first year of Jyokyo among the wails of the Autumn wind.

And, like a priest, Basho wore the black robes of the Buddhist

monk, a habit he would retain for the rest of his life.

he had no interest whatever in keeping treasures, since he was empty-handed, He walked at full easeIn the midst of the plainSings the skylarkFree of all things

"Modesty, gentleness, and simplicity!" "These are the truly beautiful things."

 "Purity is the loveliest thing in life "Real poetry is to lead a beautiful life

To live poetry is better than to write it.

"Zen thought and experience have had a pervasive influence upon the practice of this art

First, Basho recommended that poets choose commonplace events as their subject matter.

I woke up suddenlyWith the ice of a nightWhen the water-pot burst.

a spring day. He was sitting in his riverside house in Edo, bending his ears to the soft cooing of a pigeon in the quiet rain. There was a mild wind in the air, and one or two petals of cherry blossoms were falling gently to the ground. It was the kind of day you often have in late March--so perfect that you want it to last forever. Now and then in the garden was heard the sound of frogs jumping into the water Basho was deeply immersed in meditation, but finally he came out with the second half of the poem, "Frog jumps in/Splash!“He thought for a while, but finally he decided on "Old pond."

Old pondFrog jumps inSplash!

Old pond leap - splash a frog

Basho recommended not only everyday experience as the subject matter of poetry, but everyday language as well. It was pungent, lively, direct, and put the poet closer in touch with the concrete reality of his material existence.

First winter rainThe monkey also seems to wish forA straw raincoat

The Zen influence on writing a poem

such stillnessthe shrill of a cicada

pierces rock 

Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and do not learn. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you and the object have become one--when you have plunged deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. However well-phrased your poetry may be, if your feeling is not natural--if the object and yourself are separate--then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit. Submerge yourself into the object until its intrinsic nature becomes apparent, stimulating poetic impulse.

Finding one's true nature in the realization of the intrinsic identity of all things is the aesthetic/religious experience of the traditional haiku poet, which he tries to transmit in a poem that approaches in its brevity the timelessness of the experience itself. What is more remarkable is the experience of the identity-in-multiplicity of all things:

Under the cherry blossomsNoneAre utter strangers. (Issa)

Basho's haikusare dramatic, and they exaggerate humor or depression, ecstasy or confusion. have a paradoxical nature. If anything, the literature of Basho has a character that the more he described men's deeds, the more human existence's smallness stood out in relief, and it makes us conscious of the greatness of nature's power.

The wind from Mt. FujiI put it on the fan.Here, the souvenir from Edo.*Edo: the old name of Tokyo..

Sleep on horseback,The far moon in a continuing dream,Steam of roasting tea.

Spring departs.Birds cryFishes' eyes are filled with tears

Summer zashikiMake move and enterThe mountain and the garden.*zashiki: Japanese-style room covered with tatamis and open to the garden.

Basho's motives and motivations, as a man and a poet:

“In this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones and nine orfices there is something, and this something is called a wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name, for it is much like a thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the wind.This something in me took to writing poetry years ago,merely to amuse itself at first, but finally making it its lifelong business. It must be admitted, however, that there were times when it sank into such dejection that it was almost ready to drop its pursuit, or again times when it was so puffed up with pride that it exulted in vain victories over the others. Indeed, ever since it began to write poetry, it has never found peace with itself,always wavering between doubts of one kind and another. At one time it wanted to gain security by entering the service of a court, and at another it wished to measure the depth of its ignorance by trying to be a scholar, but it was prevented from either because of its unquenchable love of poetry. The fact is, it knows no other art than the art of writing poetry, and therefore, it hangs on to it more or less blindly.”

Haiku, which seem so light, free and spontaneous, is built on disciplineAnd Basho had his motto: "Learn the rules; and then forget them." The fact that the smallest literary form - haiku - has the most rules never ceases to amaze and astound

FRAGMENT AND PHRASE THEORY

 a haiku must be divided into two parts. This is the positive side of the rule that haiku should not be a run-on sentence. There needs to be a syntactical break dividing the ku into two parts. From the Japanese language examples this meant that one line (5 onji) was separated from the rest by either grammar or punctuation (in the Japanese an accepted sound-word - kireji - was as if we said or wrote out "dash" or "comma"). Call the shorter portion, the fragment and the longer portion, or rest of the poem, the phrase.

An example of the fragment found in the third line is often used as answer when creating a riddle (a valid and well-used haiku technique) as in:

a vegetarianwith legs crossed in zazenthe roasting chicken

It is also possible to write ku in which the reader would have to decide which part was the fragment by combining either lines # one with # two or reading lines # two and # three together to make the phrase. An example might be:

moonlit pines dimming the flashlight

techniquesusing riddles, associations, contrasts, oneness, sense-switching, narrowing focus, metaphor and simile), double entendre, close linkage, leap linkage, pure objectivism, the language of the anecdotes, the sermons, the Zen dialogues

Learn the rules." Seventeen syllables in one line.2. Seventeen syllables written in three lines.3. Seventeen syllables written in three lines divided into 5-7-5.4. Seventeen syllables written in a vertical (flush left or centered) line.5. Less than 17 syllables written in three lines as short-long-short.6. Less than 17 syllables written in three vertical lines as short-long-short. 7. Write what can be said in one breath.8. Use a season word (kigo) or seasonal reference.9. Use a caesura at the end of either the first or second line, 10. Never have all three lines make a complete or run-on sentence.

Have two images that are only comparative when illuminated by the third image. Example: spirit in retreat / cleaning first the black stove / and washing my hands12. Have two images that are only associative when illuminated by the third image. Example: fire-white halo / at the moment of eclipse / I notice your face13. Have two images that are only in contrast when illuminated by the third image. Example: two things ready / but not touching the space between / fire14. Always written in the present tense of here and now.15. Limited use (or non-use) of personal pronouns.16. Eliminating all the possible uses of gerunds (ing endings on wording).17. Study and check on articles. Do you use too many the's? too little? all the same in one poem or varied? 22. Save the "punch line" for the end line.

22. Save the "punch line" for the end line.23. Work to find the most fascinating and eye-catching first lines.24. Just write about ordinary things in an ordinary way using ordinary language.25. Study Zen and let your haiku express the wordless way of making images.26. Study any religion or philosophy and let this echo in the background of your haiku.27. Use only concrete images.. Use images that evoke simple rustic seclusion or accepted poverty. (sabi) Use images that evoke classical elegant separateness. (shubumi). Use images that evoke nostalgic romantic images. Austere beauty. (wabi). Use images that evoke a mysterious aloneness. (Yugen . Use rhymes in other places within the haiku.. Use alliteration. Example by Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes: twitching tufted tail / a toasty, tawny tummy: / a tired tiger. Use of words' sounds to echo feeling.. Always end the haiku with a noun.

Haiga is a style of Japanese painting which derived from the same aesthetics and ideas as haikai and haiku poetry, and often accompanied such poems in a single piece. Like the poetic forms it accompanied, haiga was based on simple, yet often profound, observations of the everyday world. "since they are both created with the same brush and ink, adding an image to a haiku poem was... a natural activity."[1]

Just as the haiku form often contains a juxtaposition between two of its lines and a third line, haiga can also contain a juxtaposition between the haiku itself and the art work. In short, the art work does not necessarily directly represent the images presented in the haiku.