Basho - Yachimoto

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Basho and his fresh poetry

Eiko Yachimoto, JP


QUOTE
©　Sketchbook 2009

I have never belonged to any haiku kessha, or bonded organization, myself. Being a member of AIR, the Association for International Renku, for more than ten years, I have written quite a few hokku, or a starting verse of renku that was renamed haiku by Shiki.

snip


Basho and his fresh poetry
When Basho (1644~1694) heightened haikai no renga, from the word-play or parody verses of the Teimon and Danrin schools, the sources of his fresh wind were Saigyo (1118~1190), the waka poet of medieval Japan and To-Hu, the Chinese poet who lived in the Tang Dynasty (618~907). All his life Basho managed to avoid becoming stereo-typed, due not only to his individual depth, determination and genius as a poet, but also because he would have to be forever creative in his understanding of Saigyo and To-Hu if he had wanted to transplant their poetry into haikai no renga, a completely different genre of literature.

After Basho died, haikai no renga flourished all through the Edo period (1619 ~1868) in regard to the number of participants, but it is said that the poetic height attained in Sarumino, the best kasen anthology edited by Boncho and Kyorai of the Basho school, had hardly been exceeded even by Buson who meant to go back to Basho’s poetry.


Were all renku masters after Basho tsukinami (stale and conventional)?

Even before Basho died, Enomoto Kikaku (also known as Takarai Kikaku) was a star haijin in the city of Edo, having many more followers than Basho. Some people say that Basho’s fame was established because Basho was the teacher of this brilliant Kikaku. His doctor father had a grand plan for educating his son and chose young and unknown Basho as one of his private teachers. Kikaku was 15 years old when he met Basho and learned fast. He was the very first disciple Basho had, but Kikaku clearly acquired his own poetic voice and style, which Basho never taught.

In studying Kikaku I was impressed by one comment of his:

“Compose a verse on your tongue,
and you can blow away your doubts and pains.
Know that you find yourself turn to a Buddha
which you can dedicate to the world.”
He had grasped renku composition as poetry therapy!

A renku session that people shared was a magnetized field where rich imageries and good thoughts were in constant exchange among the participants. In feudal society where people were divided by the class they belonged to, renku provided a space where an individual could regain humanity. So many samurai and merchants composed renku together under their master. Even in a rural village a designated renga place was available and villagers composed there on a regular basis.

It may be true that their poetry, if evaluated strictly from the literature point of view, was not as excellent as Basho’s, and some masters became rather stale and money-oriented…but that does not mean we could ignore these 200 years when haikai no renga or renku nurtured Japanese society…

There were quite a few women haijin also, Chiyo-ni, Sutejo. Kikusha-ni, Taniguchi Denjo, Igarashi Hamamo, Enomoto Seijo come to my mind as the names of poetesses who composed most beautifully in renku sessions. Regrettably not many modern scholars have explored the 200 years between Basho and Shiki and so few books on these years are readily available. It is amazing that Hisajo did read their poetry and left her analysis on them.

Tsukinami literally means monthly average. Just like we schedule AIR sessions in advance, renku masters of the Edo period scheduled the session monthly. Verses composed “on desk” without fresh encounter with nature were labeled a tsukinami verse by Shiki.


Young Masaoka Shiki on and around
200th Death Anniversary of Basho

In 1853 the Edo people were awakened from Japan’s seclusion by Commodore Perry and the U.S. frigate. The Tokugawa shogunate had to disappear from history in 1868. The society was in a gigantic turmoil for decades and a uniquely energetic young man, who was born in 1867 as the eldest son of a fallen samurai class, appeared on the stage of journalism and literature. We all know this charming man of peculiarly feverish interest in people and all sorts of objects: Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902).

Shiki quit Tokyo University in March 1893 when he was 26 and started his career in a news paper company called Nippon. Kuga Katsunan, the owner, let Shiki, his mother and his sister live next to his house, didn’t say “No” when Shiki with health problems insisted on going to China as a war reporter, soothed Shiki gently when he was in utmost physical pain, let him write on the futon whatever he wanted to write, kept him on the company’s payroll until he died. All started in 1893. He began writing “Basho Zatsudan”, or things about Basho from Nov 13, to January 22, 1894. In July that year, before working for the news paper company, he had taken a trip tracing Basho’s famous trip: the narrow road to the deep north.

What annoyed him a great deal and made him furious at the end was the attitude of quite a few tsukinami renku masters who were busy securing their businesses and social positions by building a Basho’s pavilion, a Basho’s haiku stone or the likes for his 200th death anniversary. Shiki deplored to see Basho turned into a religion that defied any criticism. He had to fight. His method was so practical that he dared to say:
Basho wrote so many bad haiku, so few great haiku.
He wanted to shock those who blindly followed the religion of Basho. His research into the long haikai history had the fruit of finding Buson, an established painter as well as a haijin. He wrote a superb thesis on Buson.

to be continued here

http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook4-1Feb09/Sketchbook_4-01_February_2009_Eiko_Yachimoto_Chapter_3_Kyoshi_and_the_Irony_of_Shiki_s_Modern_Haiku_Movement.htm



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