S4E9: Haiku from the Island

Thank you to everyone who sent me emails and messages after the last Haiku Pea episode to celebrate our hundredth episode. Thank you all very much for all the motivation you give me to keep the podcast going and the coffee is of course.

Today we’re going to have the latest of our workshops, this one on Shiki’s idea of selective realism. I hope. We are building up quite an educational resource hear on the podcast and on YouTube. The video of Randy Brooks will be very useful for you to look at if you are submitting to this month’s topic of kigo.

Spread the word and let other haiku poets know about it, I think there are one or two who haven’t heard of us.

Also on the podcast a reading from Kristen Lindquist. We had a chat which a virtual walk round an island that’s very special to her AND there are some haiku tips. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did. Do please listen to the end, I think it’s worth it.

A few reminders:

The current submission topic is kigo. So you can write up to 10 haiku with a seasonal reference, anything that takes your fancy. But don’t forget your deadline is the 20th of May so you still have a bit of thinking time available. Kristen is joining Jim and Robert and myself as part of the editing team. Let’s keep them busy.
Thank you for all the great feedback you’ve been giving to the spring journal. What would be really amazing is if you could go to Amazon and give us a review. It might even feature on the back cover of the summer journal!
Something that comes up every time I publish the journal. Some of you write to ask me is your work in the journal. I always let you know in your acceptance email which podcast and journal your piece of work is going to be in. Please, please make a note of it. If you don’t know that your work has been accepted somewhere how can you be sure that you are sending journals fresh and original pieces of work. If your work is duplicated in various journals that might cause problems for everyone.

Selective realism presentation.

In my workshop today I’ll talk to you to about selective realism .

It’s a technique that was articulated by one of the Japanese masters, Masaoka Shiki in the late 1800’s / early 1900’s. I’ve spoken about Shiki before in weeks 21 and 24 in the early days of the podcast, but I’d like to revisit him again.

Many people think that he speaks only to the beginner poet but if you study him you’ll find that he does have advice for the poet as they advance in their experience of haiku. That’s what I’d like to highlight today.

Context

Masaoka Shiki, or Shiki as I will continue to call him, was born into a samurai family and a Japanese society which was undergoing immense change. In 1868 Japan was opened up to the western world. So Shiki was of that generation of Japanese who became exposed to new ideas and philosophies, which were prevalent in the west at the time.

This is the time in Japan when the old ways were becoming redundant and rejected but as yet there was no new, nothing set in stone. There was, so to speak a cultural vacuum.

Shiki left home around the age of 16 to move to Tokyo to further his education, eventually commencing studies in philosophy.

There is speculation that initially he wanted to be active in the formulation of foreign policy in this new Japan, but he realised, perhaps not the extent of his illness, but that he was ill and therefore would not be able to follow his desired career. He switched to studying literature and determined instead to have some influence in the formulation of the future of poetry, in particular tanka and haiku.

This still didn’t motivate him as a student. He didn’t finish his education. I won’t hypothesise as to why not, but he threw himself into his self study of haiku and tanka and much like Bashō went on a walk about.

At this point the idea of shasei, the sketch of life, was really percolating through his mind.

Despite his desire to be a poet, he also felt the need to be a soldier, a samurai and go and fight in the first Sino Japanese war and yet because of his illness he really couldn’t. He applied and reapplied for a position as a journalist until eventually he was accepted and sent to China. There he found himself in terrible living conditions which worsened his illness and as we know, he never recovered.

When he came home from the war he threw himself back into haiku and tanka. Becoming involved with the journal Hototogisu. Writing essays on haiku and tanka and creating thousands of haiku, many of them while bedridden with his illness.

spring day
a long line of footprints
on the sandy beach

Shiki —translated by Yuzuru Miura

A very simple sketch of life haiku. Written without adornment, yet there are layers to it aren’t there? I think I can detect a sense of yügen as well as sabi.

Shiki’s four principles or states of haiku development:

• Shasei
• Selective realism
• Imagination
• Truthfulness

Shasei

Almost everybody has heard of shasei or a sketch from life. It’s probably one of the first things you come across, well after you’ve realised that you don’t have to write in a 575 format that is.

Shiki suggested that this was the basic principle of composition in Haiku. That beginner poets should accurately observe nature. His criticism of haiku being composed prior to his studies was that he felt they were often an intellectual exercise. I think Randy Brooks put it very well in our podcast last month, these poems were in the poet’s head. They had little or no emotive connection to the reader.

He advised his disciples that they should take walks in nature, during every season. But that even in a small garden they would find a new subject to write about every day.

He also felt that the poet should only use words that are necessary. Good advice, often I find that poetic folks brought up on western poetry have a tendency towards the adjective. Or should I say the overuse of the adjective. Once you start doing that you start to tell people what it is that you’re trying to achieve and what it is that they should be thinking or feeling. When you edit the words down so you really only use the necessary ones you give your reader the information which they can then use to fill in the blanks, to feel their own emotional response, to come up with their own story, to make the poem their own.

There has been criticism that such poems can be bland. Shiki himself said that if a poem is too realistic it’s “prone to be commonplace and lacking in surprise” (1) This is a fair point but surely that is the result of us as poets not creating a work that is exciting. Perhaps we are inexperienced, perhaps we’ve not put enough effort into finding the right words and so our poem is very blah. Or maybe we as readers do not put enough effort into discovering the layers within a poem. However, it is possible to create a poem that works just using sketch from life. Shiki quoted this example from Bashō which has been translated by Makoto Ueda . (1)

the wild see
extending over Sado Isle
the River of Heaven

Bashō,

I don’t know Sado but that doesn’t stop me transposing the image to something I do know. Perhaps in my case I would be sitting by the local lake. The wind might be blowing and creating quite a stir on the lake, the sky will be clear of everything except the Moon and the stars and in the distance I would see white snow capped mountains, over which the Milky Way extends.

Selective Realism

In this next stage; we have evolved as poets and much like Shiki himself we understand that not every real scene can be made into a poem. We become selective and start to really focus in on something within our natural environment that interests us, or moves us.

I think those of you with an interest in photography or art have a natural advantage with this method. You have a feel for how to look at something and frame it. And an understanding of how in framing it you can bring something to life

Now, each of us has our own unique voice, we have our own taste, we look at things differently. Naturally when we look at a scene we are drawn to the beauty of it but Shiki suggests that some of the most interesting things we could look at and talk about in our poetry are often to be found in the shade. Nothing is perfect is it? Often there is a little crinkle or defect which makes what we’re looking at, yes beautiful but also more interesting.

Wally Swist (2)

Let me show you what I mean by reading you a couple of poems from Wally Swist

at the rivers edge —
the muskrat redigging
it’s muddy burrow

drought summer —
falling yellow leaves trickling
across pools of the river

Imagination

Depending on what you read, this next stage in the evolution is called imagination or subjectivity. Janine Beichman suggests that from 1886 Shiki began to concern himself with the role of imagination and poetry, “even though still averring that it must be grounded in reality.” (3) So although Shiki still believed that realism was the core technique of the haiku, he felt an experienced poet could now start using their imagination or introducing subjectivity.

But how?

Donald Keene (4) speaks of subjectivity “at times the artist will change bit by bit the placing of objects in the actual features of the landscape, or he may even modify the actual landscape by subjectivity bringing in things not present in the view before him.”

But as an experienced poet you will be able to create authentic haiku. By which I mean you won’t stray into fantasy.

How do you arrive at this elevated status of advanced haiku poet? How do you gain the confidence to do this successfully?

Shiki recommended reading as much haiku as you can which is important because as Ueda says, Shiki’s ideal poet “is a learned person with refined artistic taste who can distinguish between the new and the stereotyped.” Furthermore, “he will base his poem on shasei, but will focus on some new subjects or look at an old subject in a new perspective. In the latter process he may make use of his imagination and depart from shasei, for a poet with a powerful imagination can, if he wishes, create a realistic scene without basing it on actual experience.” “One of the pieces of advice Shiki had for students in the last stage of the training was “you must combine realism and imagination thereby producing great literature that is neither entirely realistic not entirely imaginative.”” (1)

I’d like to give you an example from Shiki. At the time he wrote this he was bedridden. He couldn’t possibly see a scene like this. It comes entirely from his imagination probably based on a scene he has viewed in the past or a combination of scenes.

across the summer moor
walks a traveller – on his back
a tengu mask

Shiki translated by Makoto Ueda (1)

Truthfulness

Shiki wanted to appeal to emotions. He felt that a poem designed to appeal to the intellect would not appeal to the emotions whereas something directly observed something which the reader feels to be truthful would.

Listening to one of my favourite podcasts this morning I heard Conn Iggulden discussing the writing of prose, in particular historical works, but what he said I felt made sense in the context of selective realism. He said of his stories that of stories based in truth they have far more power than if they were fiction. I think that reflects what Shiki was trying to achieve.

In his later years Shiki tried very much to focus not just on direct observation of nature but his inner truth and manifestation of his emotions and feelings but objectively, without gimmicks or the use of over exuberant language. He kept things simple. Let me give you an example which was written in the year of his death.

new years calendar:
during the month of May,
a day for my death.

Masaoka Shiki translated by Makoto Ueda (1)

It’s very simply written, it’s succinct and I defy anyone not to feel some emotion when reading this.

Conclusion

So what guidance can I give you with regard to Shiki’s principles of haiku and what I’ll be looking for in the selective realism submission in June.

Your haiku should be a direct observation of nature
Focus on a small part of the landscape you are observing; a piece to which you are connected emotionally
You can introduce or remove elements of the landscape using your imagination as long as you are creating a scene based in realism
Create an emotional connection between yourself, the scene you’re exploring, and your reader
Only use words that are necessary, no overabundance of adjectives
Be authentic – no fantasy haiku

Next what I hope is a lovely treat for you.

Kristen Lindquist

Check out Kristen’s blog and website and husband’s book series (Paul Doiran Poacher’s Son)

One last reminder that the editing team are awaiting your submissions for kigo and that there is a great talk by Randy Brooks available in the YouTube section of the website; it inspired me and I hope it will do the same for you. Your submission deadline this month is the 20th of May, emails only please.

I know I have one essay coming for the summer Journal, but don’t forget if you have a burning issue, you can write an essay about it or if you have haibun please submit them for consideration for the summer journal.

Thank you so much for coming along and joining Kristen and myself today. Don’t forget once you’ve listened to us go and spread the word about the podcast it’s always fun to have submissions and emails from new poets.

So until next time when I’ll be reading your selection of your original poems that you where inspired to write for the topic of euphony and of course you can find out which poems have been nominated for the Poetry Pea judges choice, keep writing…

If there is something missing from the show notes, something extra you like to know about today’s podcast or you’d like some information on being a community judge, joining the editing team, submitting your haibun or essay or you just like to say hello send me an email. Ciao

Makoto Ueda, Modern Japanese Poets and the nature of Literature
Wally Swist, The windbreak Pine – New and Uncollected haiku 1985 to 2015
Janine Beichman, Masaoka Shiki, haiku his life and works
Donald Keane, The winter sun shines in

S4E9: Haiku from the Island