Japanese Traditional Haiku School Introduction

Traditional Japanese School

WHCschools
Susumu Takiguchi, Instructor

SELF-INTRODUCTION

I was born in Japan on 13 May 1944, studied at Waseda University, Tokyo and University of Oxford. My great uncle, Kataoka (surname) Naoo, was a close student of Takahama Kyoshi (1874 - 1959) who was the creator of the Hototogisu (traditional Japanese haiku) School, which has dominated modern Japanese haiku community over the past hundred odd years. The School with its numerous branches still represents the majority of the dedicated haiku poets in Japan, running into millions in number, although its dominant position has been eroded by the emergence of many other schools, especially gendai haiku, or modern haiku schools.

Such was the influential position Kyoshi occupied and such was the strong force my great uncle represented in my family, I was brought up in an environment imbued with artistic and literary activities, especially those of haiku. My parents were both ardent practitioners of haiku, guided by Naoo, and as a child I also dabbled in haiku, and have enjoyed this genre ever since – i.e. for about half a century (quite a long time!). Before I was a teenager, I started to read avidly and widely modern Japanese literature, starting from late Edo period, then early Meiji to Taisho and Showa. I also became much interested in studying classic Japanese literature. The study of modern period led me to the world of such literary figures as Natsume Soseki, a close friend of Masaoka Shiki and Kyoshi, Naito Meisetsu, Mori Ogai and Nagai Kafu, to name but a few of the influential figures of the time. Apart from novels and other forms of poetry, these people provided my basic knowledge and experience of haiku since they were all renowned for the excellence of their own haiku.

In 1971, I came to Britain to study at Oxford, which has become my second home. Haiku continued to be one of my hobbies. However, it became part of my professional activity when I started to teach Japanese culture at different academic institutions in Britain, especially when I became Lecturer of Japanese Language and Civilisation at the University of Aston in Birmingham. My research interest was poetics of Basho's last years. This experience as a Basho scholar became the basis of my subsequent intellectual curiosity about leading haiku poets. Before this time, I had been engaged in the dissemination of haiku but it was really when I was teaching at Aston that I started to take haiku more seriously and joined the Hototogisu School formally. I became a member of the Japan Classical Haiku Association and of various organisations under the Hototogisu School, including the Tamamo, Kacho-Fuei, Kacho and Harukyo.

Though traditional Japanese haiku is my basis, I have come to know many haiku poets of other schools as well when I started to be involved in the international haiku movement (I know over 300 haijin in Japan alone, and a larger number in the rest of the world). In 1997, a feeling and inspiration came to me and I started to develop an idea of organising a haiku movement on a world-wide scale. This resulted in the formation of the World Haiku Club (WHC) in 1998 and the five-year project, the World Haiku Festival 2000, which the Club is running now. The Festival started with the "Prologue of WHF2000" with various haiku-related activities and events in 1998 and 1999. Then, the real Festival was officially inaugurated on 1 January 2000, together with the launch of the WHC website and mailing lists, including the haikuforum. The highlight of the WHF2000 was its six-day London - Oxford Conference which took place from 25 to 30 August 2000 and was a resounding success. From the Conference, a unique friendship was born among the participants around a newly-formed friendship organisation called WHCLOG.

I enjoy writing essays and giving lectures on haiku as well as composing them. They resulted in my books:

Kyoshi - A Haiku Master - Father of Modern Japanese Haiku, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 1997.

The Twaddle of An Oxonian - Haiku Poems & Essays, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 2000, a Commemorative Publication of the World Haiku Festival 2000.

As I said before, my haiku is based on traditional Japanese haiku but I have also been exploring what I call Shintai-haiku (or new-style haiku) which is a form of vers libre.

"Traditional Japanese School": Briefing on How It Will Be Run

Of course, strictly speaking, this school is not possible without using the Japanese language. So, it can only be traditional Japanese school adapted to English. It will not follow the Japanese practice in a rigid way either. It will be a Japanese school modified for the purpose of WHCschools.

In instructing, I will be acting merely as ichijitsu-no-cho (with experience only one day longer), or primus inter pares and not as a qualified teacher or a master, of which I am neither.

ESSENCE OF THE SCHOOL

Broadly, the School is based on the teachings of Takahama Kyoshi (1874 - 1959) who, during his long career as a modern haiku master, established the Hototogisu School, completing the modernisation and reform of haiku, which his own mentor, Masaoka Shiki (1867 - 1902) had to abandon because of the severe illness and subsequent death at the age of 35.

The School is symbolised by yuki-teikei (adherence to kigo=season words and 5-7-5 phoneme form), kacho-fuei (versification of birds and flowers=nature), kyakkan-shasei (objective sketching from life). It represents the narrowest (or strictest) definition of haiku and its more faithful followers maintain that it is the purest haiku and the only haiku and reject all other schools. [For details, refer to Higginson's books, or my own: (1) Kyoshi - A Haiku Master - Father of Modern Japanese Haiku, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 1997, pp. 122. (2) The Twaddle of An Oxonian - Haiku Poems & Essays, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-Net International Press, England, 2000, a Commemorative Publication of the World Haiku Festival 2000, pp. 158]

It is a good practice to start one's learning of haiku with the Hototogisu School with all its strict rules and conventions, in the same way as art students start off with disciplined drawings and study of old masters, or aspiring musicians to begin with Bach or earlier music. Only after having learnt the basics of haiku along the traditional lines can one depart for freer and wider areas of haiku creation.

Having said that, there are inevitably limitations in the approach of the Hototogisu School in terms of poetic expression, especially in terms of the subject matter. Therefore, my school tries to give allowance to them and takes a little bit more flexible and liberal stance. In the English version, things will have to be even more flexible.

In order to overcome such limitations, I have been developing what I coined to be Shintai-haiku (or new-style haiku).

ACTUAL LESSONS

(a) Japanese kukai style: following the standard Japanese kukai system, adapted to suit the needs of this School;

(b) Free teaching style: I pick up works from among the haiku submitted and use them as teaching materials;

(c) Any other styles which may or may not come up as useful as we go along.

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