Modern Haiku 44.2

essaysG ENDAI H AIKU : What Is It? 1
Hiroaki Sato
I. The Use of the Term Questionedn the past few years the term gendai haiku has attracted considerable
ATTENTION IN THE 5NITED 3TATES
3COTT -ETZ THE EDITOR OF THE ONLINE HAIKU MAGAZINE Roadrunner, says
he is greatly interested in gendai haiku, and publishes haiku and articles
to demonstrate that interest. He is particularly drawn, he says, to thework Richard Gilbert has done on Kaneko Tôta (㔘Ꮔඩኯ B which Jim Kacian, of the Haiku Foundation, has published throughRed Moon Press.2 !ND 'ILBERT WHO LEADS THE +ON .ICHI 4RANSLATIONGroup at Kumamoto University, in Japan, and says he is engaged inhaiku activity “in country,” runs the Web site gendaihaiku.com. Paul
Miller addressed gendai haiku in his detailed discussion at a Haiku.ORTH !MERICA GATHERING IN !UGUST 
3O lRST WHAT IS gendai haiku (⌟௥ಢྀ AS THE TERM IS UNDERSTOOD
IN *APAN $OES IT MEAN ANYTHING SPECIAL 4HE ANSWER IS NO IT JUSTMEANS hMODERN HAIKUv )T MAY HAVE TO DO WITH THE PERIOD COVERED BUT
not with content or an approach. And the period covered can be since
THE END OF THE TH CENTURY OR THE S TO THE PRESENT) 4HIS ESSAY IS BASED ON MY (AIKU 3OCIETY OF !MERICA TALK ON $EC  h'ENDAI (AIKU 7HAT )S )Tv AND FURTHER BACK MY (3! TALK ON -ARCH  h4AKAHASHI -UTSUO AND .ATSUISHI "ANYA !VANT GARDE AND 4RADITIONALv ) HAVE REVIEWED ONE OF THE BOOKS See Modern Haiku  WINTERnSPRING n 3EE 0AUL -ILLER h(AIKUS !MERICAN &RONTIER v Frogpond  WINTER n

EssaysThis is most clear in the encyclopedia on gendai haiku, called Gendai haiku dai-jiten (⌟௥ಢྀኬ㎙඼ PUBLISHED IN  BY -EIJI
3HOBô (᪺἖᭡ᡛ  )TS EDITORS PURPOSE WAS TO SUPPLEMENT AN EARLIER
VOLUME THE SAME HOUSE PUBLISHED IN  Haikai dai-jiten (ಢㅂኬ㎙඼  4HE COVERAGE OF THE EARLIER VOLUME AS THE TITLE SUGGESTS BEGAN
with haikai, and ended with terms, poets, anthologies, movements,
AND SUCH UP TO THE TIME OF ITS EDITING THE MID S 4HE COVERAGE OF
Gendai haiku dai-jiten, IN CONTRAST BEGINS WITH -ASAOKA 3HIKI ḿᒱᏄぜ n AND ENDS ABOUT THE TIME OF ITS EDITING 4HAT MEANS
the new encyclopedia covers everyone who is somebody in haiku andevery notable phenomenon related to haiku spanning nearly a hundredyears.
There also exist a number of selections and anthologies with gendai
haiku in their titles that do not limit themselves to a readily identifi
able group of haiku or haiku writers. Gendai haiku dai-jiten itself lists
A DOZEN MULTI VOLUME COLLECTIONS THAT lT THE BILL ) HAVE TWO OF THEM
ONE THE SIX VOLUME ASSEMBLAGE CALLED Gendai haiku zenshû (⌟௥ಢྀධ㞗 PUBLISHED FROM  TO  BY 2IPPû 3HOBô (❟㢴᭡ᡛ 
Each of the six volumes carries six to ten haiku poets, each represented
BY  TO  HAIKU IN THE POETS OWN SELECTION ALONG WITH THE POETSCOMMENTARY ON A DOZEN TOPPED WITH AN OVERALL ASSESSMENT BY A WELL
known writer of prose or poetry, but not necessarily of haiku. But fromthe perspective of our subject, one thing to be noted about this compilation is the editorial policy.
These volumes, the editors say, are designed to cover haiku poets
SINCE THE DAYS OF .AKAMURA +USATAO ୯ᮟⲙ⏛⏠ n)SHIDA (AKYô (▴⏛ἴ㒋 n +ATô 3Hûson (ຊ⸠ᴙ㑞n AND 3AITô 3ANKI け᮶୔㨛 n BUT not to fa
vor either those of “the traditionalist school” (ఎ⤣Ὤ OR THOSE OF hTHE
AVANT GARDE SCHOOLv ๑⾠Ὤ /F THE FOUR HAIKU POETS NAMED THE lRST THREE  .AKAMURA )SHIDA
and Katô—may have been relatively tame, at times categorized as they
WERE AS hTHE LIFE EXPLORING SCHOOL v jinsei tankyû-ha (ெ⏍᥀✪Ὤ
WHICH MEANS ) TAKE IT THOSE WHO hEXPLOREv WHAT OUR LIFE IS ALL ABOUT
AND DESCRIBE THEIR lNDINGS IN HAIKU "UT THE FOURTH AND LAST 3AITô

Modern Haiku 44.2

3ANKI IS KNOWN FOR THE MOVEMENT CALLED hTHE .EWLY 2ISING (AIKU v
Shinkô Haiku (᩺⮾ಢྀ THAT ENDED IN ARRESTS AND JAILING IN JUST BEFORE *APAN WENT TO WAR WITH 'REAT "RITAIN THE .ETHERLANDS AND
THE 5NITED 3TATES 3OME POETS IN THE MOVEMENT WROTE HAIKU THAT WERE
markedly antiwar and the authorities didn’t like it.
The editors of these six volumes were more eclectic. The four listed
ARE )IDA 2Yûta (㣜⏛㱗ኯ n A TRADITIONALIST HAIKU POET
Ôoka Makoto (ኬᒱಘ B  A NON TANKA NON HAIKU POET FAMED
for his small but perennial newspaper column citing and commenting
ON TANKA AND HAIKU BOTH CLASSICAL AND MODERN 4AKAYANAGI 3HIGENOBU(㧏ᰏ㔔ಘ n BEST KNOWN FOR HIS LINEATED HAIKU OF WHOM
WE WILL SEE MORE LATER AND 9OSHIOKA -INORU ྚᒱᐁ n A
3URREALIST POET
3O WHAT WAS IT THAT HAPPENED THAT PROMPTED THESE EDITORS NOT TO TAKEa clear stance as regards gendai haiku?
)N  TWO YEARS AFTER *APANS DEFEAT IN 7ORLD 7AR )) WITH THE POLICE
STATE OFlCIALLY ABOLISHED A GROUP OF THIRTY lVE HAIKU POETS GOT TOGETH
er to set up an association called Gendai Haiku Kyôkai (⌟௥ಢྀ༝ఌ  )N DOING SO THE CHARTER MEMBERS WHO INCLUDED +USATAO (AKYô,3HûSON AND 3ANKI APPEAR TO HAVE HAD ONLY ONE STANDARD FOR MEMBER
ship: to exclude Takahama Kyoshi (㧏ὶ⹣Ꮔ n AND SOME
big names aligned with him. Kyoshi was the foremost traditionalist who
wielded “dictatorial” power through his magazine Hototogisu.
4HAT OBVIOUSLY WAS THE PROBLEM )N  THE ASSOCIATION COLLAPSEDThe reasons were “unclear,” Gendai haiku dai-jiten says, but the main
impetus apparently was the schism between those who thought haiku to
be writings that adhered to the yûki-teikei (᭯Ꮢᏽᆵ FORMAT  THOSE
that included a kigo (Ꮢㄊ hSEASONAL WORD v AND WRITTEN IN teikei(ᏽᆵ THE hSET FORMv OF nn SYLLABLES  AND THOSE WHO WERE A LITTLE
more expansive, tolerant.
After all, haiku writers are a contentious lot. Kaneko Tôta tells usthat his mother warned him not to get involved in haiku by saying“haiku is high jinx” (haiku wa kenka  3HE WAS IN A POSITION TO KNOW ಢྀࡢ႒ბ. Kaneko Tôta, Waga sengo haiku-shi )WANAMI 3HOTEN  EssaysHer husband, a physician, was a haiku poet, and his haiku gatherings
OFTEN ENDED IN lST lGHTING BRAWLS AMONG THE PARTICIPANTS
4HE UPSHOT THOSE WHO ACCEPTED NON yûki-teikei haiku decided tokeep the original name of their association, the Gendai Haiku Kyôkai,and carried on. The splinter group called itself Haijin Kyôkai (ಢெ༝ఌ  WITH .AKAMURA +USATAO BECOMING ITS PRESIDENT )T WAS THIS NEWGROUP THAT FOUR DECADES LATER IN  CREATED A FUROR WHEN IT SUBMIT
ted a request or demand to publishers that the school textbooks they
put out include only yûki-teikei haiku. They argued that in haiku “thekigo AND THE nn SET FORM ARE INSEPARABLEv
But there was a glitch. Although the Gendai Haiku Kyôkai contin
ued to admit those who spurned kigo and “the set form,” and they still
do so, that has only muddied the meaning of gendai haiku.
II. The ZEN’EI Questionow, MAKING A DISTINCTION BETWEEN TRADITIONALIST AND AVANT GARDE
would surely make sense, though the editors of the six volumes
CHOSE NOT TO 4HE QUESTION THEN MAY BE )S THERE ANY GROUP OR ASSOCIATION OF HAIKU POETS CALLED AVANT GARDE  zen’ei (๑⾠ IN *APANESE
There apparently hasn’t been any haiku organization calling itself
zen’ei, but the notion of zen’ei in haiku has existed for some time. Fol
LOWING *APANS DEFEAT IN  4AKAYANAGI 3HIGENOBU APPARENTLY WASAMONG THE lRST TO USE THE TERM WHEN IN  HE CHARACTERIZED hTHE
haiku saint” Bashô AND THE HAIKU HE CREATED AS hPSEUDO AVANT GARDEv
)N THE CHAOS FOLLOWING THE NATIONAL CATASTROPHE THE PREDOMINANT SENTIMENT WAS TO DISMISS ANYTHING ASSOCIATED WITH PRE DEFEAT CUSTOMS AND
practices as “feudalistic,” “undemocratic,” or else unworthy of “a newJapan.” The Kyoto University humanities professor Kuwabara Takeo(᱋ཋṂኰ n CONDEMNED HAIKU AS hA SECONDARY ART v but.

 )TS 7EB SITE HTTPWWWHAIJINKYOKAIJPABOUTMEMBERHTML SAYS THAT IT
STARTED WITH  MEMBERS BUT BY  IT HAD   MEMBERS ) OWE TO THE HAIKU POET 3HIMADA 'AJô for this information.
 HTTPWWWGENDAIHAIKUGRJPINDEXSHTML h'I ZENEI HA v 4AKAYANAGI 3HIGENOBU Babel no tô .AGATA 3HOBô   h$AINI GEIJUTSUGENDAI HAIKU NI TSUITE v +UWABARA 4AKEO Daini geijutsu(KôDANSHA  n 4HE ESSAY APPEARED AT THE END OF 

Modern Haiku 44.2



THAT WAS NOT THE ONLY BOMB THROWN AT HAIKUDOM /THER PROMINENT
critics did something similar.
4AKAYANAGIS DEBUT BOOK IN  Fukiko (ⷃᏄ  THE TITLE“Butterbur Child,” is the name of an imagined girl — consisted of
haiku broken up into various lines, itself a radical departure: most
HAIKU TILL THEN WAS WRITTEN AND PRINTED IN ONE LINE EVEN THOUGH /GI
WARA 3EISENSUI Ⲯཋ஬ἠỀ n HAD ADVOCATED BREAKING
haiku into two lines four decades earlier. Also, all the haiku in the
SMALL HANDSET BOOKLET DEALT WITH SEEMINGLY NONHAIKU SUBJECTS )Nfact, the short lineated pieces were accepted as haiku, you mightsay, because the author put them forward as such. The following is
FROM HIS  COLLECTION Hakushaku-ryû (ఐ∎㡷 “The Count’s
4ERRITORYv 
᲻
ࡡእ
᭞ࠈࡄࠈࡡ
ࠈᣇ
ℾࠈࡡࠈᙏࠈ᧌
ࠈ࡞
㌗ࠈࢅࠈ↕
ࡂࠈᙤ
⻅
 h(AIBOKU NO SHI v 4AKAYANAGI Babel no tô,  h&UKUKO TANJô,” Takayanagi, Babel no tô, n 4HE COLLECTION IS INCLUDED
in its entirety, sans the afterword, in Kaneko Tôta / Takayanagi Shigenobu shû, theGendai haiku no sekai  !SAHI 3HINBUNSHA   &OR THIS BOOK NO EDITORS
name is given.
 4HE BOOK IS INCLUDED IN Kaneko Tôta / Takayanagi Shigenobu shû, with the
HAIKU ON PAGE  4HE TITLE MAY COME FROM h#OUNT Ômiya” that Takayanagi
set up as an imagined interlocutor, as well as his being enamored with the French
SYMBOLIST WRITER COMTE DE 6ILLIERS DE L)SLE !DAM ! LINE FROM HIS WRITING IS USED
as an epigraph for Fukiko.
 2OMAN TRANSLITERATION IN DISREGARD OF LINE BREAKS mori no yofuke no haikano misa ni mi o yaku saiga, A TOTAL OF TWENTY ONE SYLLABLES )N %NGLISH h)N  A FOR
EST LATE  AT NIGHT  IN  A lRE WORSHIPPING -ASS  BURNING ITSELF A  PAINTED  MOTHv

Essays

Takayanagi delighted in experimenting. The Count’s Territory evenhad a piece entirely made up of O, P,AND THREE OTHER SYMBOLS )NALL THE PIECES SUPPLEMENTING HIS  COLLECTION Nihon Kaigun (᪝ᮇᾇ㌯ h4HE *APANESE .AVYv HE USED THE LAST SOUND OF EACH LINE
to start the next line.
Predictably, by the time Takayanagi’s first book came out, there
were haiku poets identified as zen’ei, AND SOME OF THEM IN started a magazine titled Kaitei (ᾇ⛤ h4HE -ARINE $ISTANCEv
with zen’ei as its central concern. Kaneko Tôta was the leader ofthat group.
"UT +ANEKO WAS  AND HAS REMAINED  FAR LESS DARING THAN 4AKA
yanagi in form and content. The first adumbration of this may wellhave been his manifesto in the inaugural issue of Kaitei: “We love
THE SHORTEST @SET FORM POETIC FORM IN THE *APANESE LANGUAGE CALLED
haiku.” From early on he talked about “social consciousness,” his
preference of expressing himself over “haikuesqueness” — haikusei(ಢྀᛮ  AND SO ON  but he has since reiterated the importanceof not just retaining “the shortest poetic form,” if not the set form
OF nn SYLLABLES BUT ALSO OF SHOWING THE SENSE OF SEASON !ND HE
has frowned upon lineation.
/F COURSE WE MUST REMEMBER THAT HOWEVER AVANT GARDE HE MAY
appear in his lineated haiku, Takayanagi started out writing haiku
in one line and continued to do so, on seemingly far more con
VENTIONAL SUBJECTS UNDER THE PEN NAME 9AMAKAWA 3EMIO ᒜᕖ⻴ኰ LIT hMOUNTAIN RIVER CICADA MANv  4HE CRITIC )SODA +ôichi
(☶⏛කୌ n ONCE CITED *OHN #AGE IN COMPARISON WITH
 +ANEKO 4ôta, Waga sengo haiku-shi )WANAMI 3HOTEN   ࢂࡿࢂࡿࡢಢྀ࡛࠷࠹ྞࡡ᪝ᮇㄊࡡ᭩▯ᏽᆵモᙟࢅយࡊ࡙࠷ࡾࠊ
The Gendai haiku dai-jiten entry on Kaitei.
 +ANEKOS  ARGUMENT WITH 9AMAGUCHI 3EISHI IS QUOTED IN 4AKAYANAGI
Babel no tô, n +ANEKO CLARIlED WHAT HE MEANT BY hTHE SHORT POETIC FORMv IN THE BOOK HE
WROTE WITH THE TANKA POET /KAI 4AKASHI ᒱ஬㝧 B  Tanshikei bungaku-ron
+INOKUNIYA 3HOTEN  WHERE HE EMPHASIZED THE HAIKU hRHYTHMv )N HIS
later “introduction to haiku,” Haiku nyûmon (HokuyôSHA  HE STRESSED THE
importance of the sense of season as well as “the haiku form and rhythm.”Modern Haiku 44.2

!RNOLD 3CHOENBERG TO QUESTION IF 4AKAYANAGI REALLY WAS hA DESTROYER
of the [haiku] mode.” His conclusion: Takayanagi was “also a con
servative.”
3IMILARLY YOU MAY SAY +ANEKO IS A CONSERVATIVE AT HIS CORE !
BUREAUCRAT AT THE "ANK OF *APAN COUNTERPART OF THE 53 &EDERAL
2ESERVE "OARD UNTIL HIS MANDATORY RETIREMENT IN  HE MAY HAVEBEEN AT ONE TIME REGARDED AS THE mAG BEARER OF ONE BRANCH OF zen’ei
haiku in Japan and, yes, still carries an air of zen’ei about him. But
in the end his haiku do not go all the way in discarding yûki-teikei.
)N THIS REGARD THERE WERE FAR MORE DARING WORKS DURING THE HALF
century preceding Takayanagi and Kaneko, as we see next.
III: Traditional and Nontraditionalronically, or perhaps appropriately, it was also during the chaos
FOLLOWING *APANS DEFEAT THAT THE GREAT NON HAIKU WRITING HAIKUCOMMENTATOR 9AMAMOTO +ENKICHI ᒜᮇ೸ྚ n MADE
one of the clearest statements on the “haiku mode” (ಢྀᵕᘟ AS
HE SAW IT AND STATED A CLEAR PREFERENCE )N Gendai haiku, he referred
TO THE TWO WELL KNOWN SCHOOLS OF HAIKU THAT HAD DEVELOPED AND DI
VERGED AFTER 3HIKI  ONE UNDER 4AKAHAMA +YOSHI THE OTHER UNDER
Kawahigashi Hekigodô (ἑ᮶☈ᲄ᱊ n  AND DECLARED
that “the radical arguments” of Hekigodô and his followers, most
PROMINENTLY .AKATSUKA )PPEKIRô (୯ሪୌ☈ᴝ n LED TOjiyûritsu (⮤⏜ᚂ hFREE RHYTHMv HAIKU WHICH IN THE END hDISAPPEARED OUTSIDE THE REALM OF THE HAIKU MODEv &OR 9AMAMOTO hTHE
HAIKU IS A SHORT POEM WITH nn A TOTAL OF  SYLLABLES NOTHING
more, nothing less.” To this form, the inclusion of a kigo was amust, in his view. He was a stickler for the yûki-teikei format.
Hekigodô did not initially write haiku deviating much from yûkiteikei. Later he began to do so, and wrote haiku like the following:) )SODA +ôichi, Kaneko Tôta / Takayanagi Shigenobu shû,  4HIS VOLUME
INCLUDES 4AKAYANAGIS ONE LINE HAIKU 9AMAMOTO +ENKICHI Gendai haiku +ADOKAWA 3HOTEN  ORIGINALLY AND  IN TWO VOLUMES ) 

EssaysᏄぜᑽኃẍᇸ࠿ᒁ᰷ࡡ๡ࡅࡒࡡࢅᣞࡉࡊ᪝࠿⁻ࡿShiki-koji bodô ga yane no hageta no o yubizashi hi ga more
,AYMAN 3HIKIS MOTHER POINTING TO THE TORN PART OF THE ROOF THE
sun slanting in This piece has no identifiable kigo and cannot really be scanned,
CONTAINING AS IT DOES A TOTAL OF TWENTY FOUR SYLLABLES THAT MAY COME TO
nn IF ONE ATTEMPTS BREAKING IT DOWN BY SYNTACTIC UNIT (EKIGODô
WROTE IT IN 
For comparison, that same year, Murakami Kijô (ᮟ୕㨛ᇖ n WHO HAD QUICKLY BECOME +YOSHIS STAR PUBLISHED HIS lRST BOOKof haiku, all pieces in it, of course, composed in yûki-teikei FORMAT )Tcontained some of the haiku that would make Kijô famous. Amongthem:㮒⩹࠷࡙࠵ࡢࡿⅪ࡛㣣ࡢࡿࡄࡽ
Taka oite aware karasu to kawarekeri
The hawk, having grown old, pity, is kept with a crow

(To digress a bit, this piece, a traditional haiku par excellence, shows
the inherent oddness of kigo as a poetic concept. The hawk is a winterkigo, but the crow is not even a kigo, of any season, even as “crow’snest” (㬇ࡡᕛ is one for spring and “crow chicks” (㬇ࡡᏄ one for
SUMMER
Many in the Proletarian Literary Movement — a movement from theS TO THE S THAT WAS INmUENCED BY SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST
ideals that exalted workers and rejected individualism — went further
than Hekigodô AND )PPEKIRô IN TURNING OUT hFREE RHYTHMv HAIKU IN
the process spurning “written language” (ᩝㄊ IN FAVOR OF hSPOKEN
language” (ཾㄊ  &OR EXAMPLE (ASHIMOTO -UDô (ᶣᮇከ㐠 n WHO BEGAN TO WRITE HAIKU UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF /GIWARA 3EISENSUI WROTE THE FOLLOWING IN THE LATE S +AWAHIGASHI (EKIGODô et al., the Nihon shijin zenshû SERIES VOL  3HICHô
SHA  Modern Haiku 44.2

ᡋணࢥࢴࢤࡡ㙘ྋᵕ࠿࠽ࡼ࠿ୌᐓࡡ⸩⏷ࢅ࣒ࢲ࣒ࣔࢲࣔ
࡞ࡊ࡙࿇ࡿࡷ࠿ࡖࡒ
Sensô gokko no Chindai-sama ga oraga ikka no imo-batake o mechamechani shitekureyagatta
4HE ,ORD 'ARRISON PLAYING WAR ALL MESSED UP MAH FAMILYS SWEET
potato patch damn it This HAS FORTY ONE SYLLABLES nnnnn OR TEN SYLLABLES MORE THAN
THE STANDARD TANKA h3WEET POTATO lELDv IS AN AUTUMN kigo, but one
doubts that Hashimoto used it as such. “The Lord Garrison” refers to
the commander of a garrison. The garrison system in Japan was abol
ISHED IN  IN FAVOR OF THE DIVISIONAL SYSTEM BUT THE HEAD OF THIS
army unit apparently continued to be called “garrison commander”
WELL INTO THE S  HERE IN THE OSTENTATIOUSLY DEFERENTIAL FORM OF“lord garrison.” Little wonder, then, Hashimoto was among those ar
RESTED AND JAILED IN  FOR NOT JUST WRITING HAIKU THAT DONT LOOK LIKE
haiku but also for espousing politically dangerous views through them.
!GAIN FOR COMPARISON IN  -IZUHARA 3Hûôshi (Ềཋ⚽᱔Ꮔn PUBLISHED HIS lRST BOOK OF HAIKU Katsushika (⴩㣥which foretold his break with Kyoshi, not over the yûki-teikei format
but over what to describe in haiku.
㤷㓁ᮄဋࡂ㔘ᇸࡡᡤ࡞ࢂ࠿よࡿ࡟
Ashibi saku Kondô no to ni waga furenu
Where ashibi BLOOM ) TOUCH THE DOOR OF THE 'OLDEN (ALL3Hûôshi would adopt ashibi (㤷㓁ᮄ, Pieris japonica A SHRUBKNOWN FOR CLUSTERS OF LOVELY SMALL POT SHAPED mOWERS FOR THE NAME OF
his magazine the next year.22 The plant is known to be toxic, and so thename “tree that makes the horse drunk,” and it is a spring kigo.
 3AKAMOTO 4ADAO ED Tanka haiku senryû 101-nen: 1891–1992 3HICHô
SHA   &OR 3HûôSHIS ESSAY THAT ANNOUNCED HIS BREAK WITH +YOSHI SEE MY h@.ATURES
Truth’ and ‘Truth in Literary Arts,’” Modern Haiku  AUTUMN  nEssays

IV. Kaneko Tôta and his Avant-garde Spirit
hen YOU REmECT ON THE GREAT DIVERGENCE FROM THE STANDARD MODE OFHAIKU THAT HAD OCCURRED AFTER 3HIKIS DEATH EVEN AS THOSE WHO STUCKto yûki-teikei traditions firmly held ground, you will see that Kaneko Tôta
is not really much of a rebel. He at times writes haiku hypersyllabic enoughto render the results almost shapeless, but he never seems to have writ
TEN HYPER LENGTHY PIECES SUCH AS (EKIGODô, Mudô, and those who agreed
with them did. He at times writes without a kigo, but not always. For thatmatter, Kaneko seems never to have really abandoned the use of written
language.
,ET US CONSIDER SOME OF HIS HAIKUKEEPING IN MIND THAT ) PICK HERE
only a few out of Kaneko’s vast oeuvre. The collections of his haiku pub
LISHED IN  ALONE COME TO FOUR FAT VOLUMES EACH AVERAGING  PAGES
)N HIS ACCOUNT OF HIS OWN hPOSTWAR HAIKU HISTORY v HE NOTES THE FOLLOW
ing two are from the period when he began to discuss with friends things
LIKE hPLEBEIANISM AND THE AVANT GARDE SPIRITv ኬ⾏ᛮ࡛๑⾠⢥♼ IN
HAIKUTHAT IS IN  OR SO

Wྡྷࡀྙ࠹஦㝭ࡡኟ㣫ࡒ࠿࠷࡞⚽⅁‫ࡊࡒ‮‬
Mukiau nikai no yûge tagaini akibi mitashi
3UPPER FACE TO FACE ON THE SECOND mOOR lLLING EACH WITH THE AUTUMN
lamp

4HIS ONE IS CLOSE TO BEING SHAPELESS AS IT COMES OUT AS nnn OR SYNTACTICALLY n +ANEKO HAS DISCUSSED hRHYTHMICALv AND hSYNTACTICALv
BREAKS IN HAIKU "UT IN COMPARISON WITH THE PIECES BY (EKIGODô and
Mudô, it appears to try to retain the haikuesque form. Also, akibi, “autumn lamp,” may not be an officially sanctioned kigo, but it does indicate
a season.
㌬✾᧷㐛ࡡᆊࡡୌࡗࡡↇℾᛛࡾ
Shasô sakka no saka no hitotu no takibi ikaru
The train window swishes by a slope a single bonfire angry  +ANEKO Waga sengo haiku-shi, Modern Haiku 44.2

This piece is hard to scan at first, perhaps because the alliteration of sibilants of the first half trips up the reader. When you repeat the piece a few
times, though, you may be persuaded that this may well be one of the
haiku of which Kaneko is proud from the viewpoint of “rhythm,” an ele
MENT HE STRESSES IN HIS HAIKU PROSODY )N THE END IT WORKS OUT AS nn
NOT FAR FROM nn 3TILL UNLESS TOLD IN ADVANCE THAT THIS IS MEANT TO BE A
haiku, many are likely to take it to be just a somewhat slipshod sentence.
As it happens, this “bonfire” haiku is singled out for commentary by
Katô 3Hûson in the takibi hBONlREv SECTION OF THE Nihon dai-saijiki(᪝ᮇኬṋ᫤エ +ôDANSHAS SUMPTUOUSLY ILLUSTRATED   PAGE
compendium of haiku categorized by kigo, PUBLISHED IN  9AMA
moto Kenkichi provides detailed historical backgrounds for many ofthe more important kigo.
3O FOR COMPARISON LET US LOOK AT NOT JUST ONE BUT SEVERAL OF THE HAIKUCHOSEN THERE BY THE WELL KNOWN POETSALL IN yûki-teikei format. A saijiki,“seasonal account,” always lists a number of haiku for each kigo.
ↇℾ࠾࡝ࡊᾐ࠻ࢆ࡛ࡌࡿࡣ⫩࡙ࡼࡿ
Takibi kanashi kien to sureba sodaterare
4HE BONlRES SAD AS IT TRIES TO FADE ITS STIRRED UP
Takahama Kyoshiእↇℾ࡞㔘Ⰵࡡᓭᓏ࡙ࡽ
Yo-takibi ni kin’iro no gake sobadateri
Right by the night bonfire rises a golden bluff
Mizuhara Shûôshi

ↇℾℾࡡ⢂྿ࡡ㟯᫋Ễࡀ࠾࡝
Takibi hi no kona a no seishun nagaki kanaBonfire fire sparks: my youth lasted long indeed
Nakamura Kusatao

Essays᪝㞘ࡡↇℾ࡯࠹࡯࠹ᓭࡆ࠿ࡌ
Hiyatoi no takibi bôbô gake kogasu$AY LABORERS BONlRE AmAME AmAME SCORCHES THE BLUFF
Saitô Sanki)D LIKE TO CITE TWO MORE OF +ANEKOS HAIKU FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF
teikei, if not from yûki-teikei +ANEKO DOES WRITE HAIKU IN THE nnn
SYLLABLE SET FORM /FTEN THOUGH HE SEEMS INTENT ON THWARTING EXPEC
tations even when the total syllabic count comes to seventeen. The
following is a good example:రฌ࠾ᡤ࠿ࡢࡒࡴࡂࢢࣞ࢕ࢺࡡ῿
Doko ka to ga hatameku keroido no minato
3OMEWHERE A DOOR mAPS IN THIS KELOIDAL PORTHe WROTE THIS WHILE ASSIGNED TO .AGASAKI WHERE AN ATOMIC BOMB WAS
dropped. The word keroido hKELOIDv QUICKLY BECAME PART OF THE *APA
nese language as a result of the hideous skin burns left on the bod
IES OF THOSE EXPOSED TO THE HIGH TEMPERATURE BLAST &OR +ANEKO THIS
haiku may well be a good example embodying “social consciousness,”shakaisei (♣ఌᛮ THAT HE HAS BECOME FAMOUS FOR EMPHASIZING !PARTFROM THAT ITS HARD FOR NON HAIKU AlCIONADOS TO READ THIS AS A HAIKUBECAUSE SYNTACTICALLY IT DEMANDS TO BE BROKEN INTO nn
4HE LAST PIECE ) CITE IS ONE +ANEKO WROTE AROUND THE TIME THE 'ENDAI
Haiku Kyôkai collapsed and he and his group started Kaitei. )T IS CHO
sen here because it may represent what makes gendai or zen’ei haiku atonce charming and puzzling.
ᯕᶖᅧ࠿ࢨࣔࢵୌᯓࡡದࡡᏓᓞ
Kajuen ga shatsu ichimai no ore no kotô
The orchard is my island me only in a shirt

From the perspective of teikei, Kaneko could have easily used a furigana — a typographical device the writer can use to provide his preferredModern Haiku 44.2

reading to a word — to have the last word read shima; if he had, this piece
WOULD FALL PERFECTLY INTO THE nn PATTERN 4HAT WOULD HAVE MADE IT A
haiku, at least formally, even though the poet’s meaning could still be a
puzzler. But he didn’t, leaving the regular reader a little more confused.
)N TRUTH AT LEAST ONE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE KIND OF gendai haiku Kaneko
AND THOSE WHO WRITE LIKE HIM MAY BE THIS SLIGHTLY OFF BALANCE ASPECT OF
their use of teikei — a point to be noted only because of Kaneko’s state
ment in the inaugural issue of Kaitei cited above: “We love the shortest
SET FORM POETIC FORM IN THE *APANESE LANGUAGE CALLED HAIKUv“The storms of zen’ei HAIKUv PEAKED AROUND n SAYS THE Gendai haiku dai-jiten, hAND PASSED AFTER INmUENCING EVEN yûki-teikei writers.”.EVERTHELESS WE MUST NOTE THAT THE EFFECTS OF zen’ei have been various andEXTENSIVE AND THESE ARE LIKELY TO BE WHAT 3COTT -ETZ IDENTIlES AS SOME
of the elements of gendai haiku or “the gendai movement” in selecting
English haiku for Roadrunner: “modernity, contemporaneity, experimen
TATION SURREALISM FREE FORM SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESSAWARENESSv 
V. Translation
aneko Tôta is only one of a great many nontraditional haiku writers. To begin to understand whatever distinction there may be
between traditionalist and nontraditionalist haiku, we need to look at
far more haiku poets and their writings. The Haiku Universe for the 21stCentury that Gendai Haiku Kyôkai compiled and published in English
may be a good place to start, with a few caveats.
First, as noted, Gendai Haiku Kyôkai is inclusive and accepts as its
MEMBERS PEOPLE RANGING FROM THE GREAT TRADITIONALIST -ORI 3UMIO ᲻⃀㞕 n TO OF COURSE +ANEKO 4ôta, who once served as its
PRESIDENT 4AKAYANAGI 3HIGENOBU WAS ONCE ITS VICE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
3ECOND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONALIST AND NONTRADITIONALIST
often depend on tone, language, subject matter, context, the writer’s
background the reader is expected to know, and such, but many ofthese things seldom come through clearly in translation.

K "Y PERSONAL E MAIL 3EPT   ) LEARNED THE EXISTENCE OF The Haiku Universe through Paul Miller’s talk, thedraft of which he kindly sent to me.

EssaysAnd yes, there is the matter of translation. But that’s anotherquestion altogether.