日本語とジェンダー【国際大会 2011 in ハンガリー2011

第12号

研究発表(2012)

要旨】

Haiku1 & Women
Matsui Sachiko
Haiku was borne in Meiji (1868-).
(haiku poet).

At Taisho 2ndDuring Meiji, there was almost no existence of female haijin(1913), Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959) firstly introduced a column

named “Hujin Jikkushu” in his magazine Hototogisu for the female poets, that allowed a chance forthe women to submit their haiku works.

Having said that, female poets were not in fact attending

any haiku gatherings as men did but just followed the themes set and circulated by the editors.

It wasbecause at that time ladies in good family were not allowed to go out without any companions, they
could only get permission to go out for their family’s matters but absolutely not for any personal
excuses.
As a result these women’s works were unavoidably developed from their daily family lives
therefore they were ridiculed as “kitchen haiku.”Frankly speaking, “kitchen haiku” was not really adisparaging term at the beginning; it described the fact that female poets were unable to get their poet
ideas freely around thus majority of their poet situations were based on their family’s experiences but
afterwards, it turned into the implication of “nonsense or worthless ladies’ works”.
It is commented that tanka2 is more suitable for women but not haiku.

The reason is that

because it is allowed to express directly the feelings in tanka, but for haiku it is needed to hide suchfeelings behind the wordings. Women, who are weak in controlling their feelings, are therefore said
unsuitable for haiku.
Starting from the middle of Taisho (1919-), there appeared successively a few great female poets,
say, Hasegawa Kanajyo (1887-1969), Sugita Hisajyo (1890~1946), Takeshita Shizunojyo(1887-1951); Nakamura Teijyo (1900-1988), Hoshino Tatsuko (1903-1984), Hashimoto Takako(1899-1963), most of them are wives of good families yet the number of female poets was still far lessthan male poets.
The great jump of female poets happened in the 40th of Showa (1976-), there might be a few
reasons for such, firstly, along the popularity of electrical appliances it brought the easiness for
women to participate more in their social activities.

Also, like Sugita Hisajyo, being a housewife

who left doing housework but simply fascinated in haiku composing was once criticized inappropriate,but became socially accepted.

This change in opinions to female was likely to be another reason.

Making haiku is definitely not able to support one’s living financially. It's a matter of fact thathaiku composing was just limited to a sense of leisure interest.

Female treated haiku composing to

be one of the basic skills, like piano, dancing, they need to equip to be qualified as being educated.
Different from other literatures, most of the haiku authors are women while they are also readers
to other haiku poets.
haiku.

This unique way in supporting each other is a special element in the literacy ofCertainly, it does not mean that we are denying any of the values of literacy of haiku.

Because of the growing popularity in women’s participation generally, it is natural that more and67
Copyright © 2012 The Society for Gender Studies in Japanese All rights reserved.

日本語とジェンダー

more superb female poets are coming out.

第12号

(2012)

That explains why we have so many female haiku poets

nowadays.
Looking back to the history of Japanese literacy, the period where female poets became active
can be traced back to the time interval in between the age of Heian (794-1185) and the beginning ofKamakura (1185-1333), in which verse writing activities were limited to the nobles only.

It does notmean that the female poets were extremely excellent at the moment, it was just because female poets
have had their opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities among the nobles.
There must be a lot of talented women who, despite of having good competences, were unawareof their existences nor their surroundings, being totally neglected or ignored.

By considering such

fact, recently it makes me feel as a woman that how we should treasure our environments andsurrounding experiences.
注）
A Japanese short poem consisting of 17 syllables in the 5,7,5 combination. It always started withseasonal expression.
2
A traditional Japanese poem containing five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables. Below a brief
comparison between Tanka and Haiku
1

TankaHaiku

Combination
5,7,5,7,7 total 31
words
5,7,5 total 17 words

Expression
It’s normal to express feelingsdirectly
A realistic expression but
never put feelings on wordings
directly（Professor Emeritus, Mie University 松井幸子

Restrictions
Relatively freeMust include seasonalwordings三重大学名誉教授）

68
Copyright © 2012 The Society for Gender Studies in Japanese All rights reserved.