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This is Your Haiku Life - Hoshino Tsubaki

 

 

Hoshino Tsubaki (1930- )

 

A Shining Example of Excellence and Modesty
Susumu Takiguchi
Oxford, UK

Hoshino Tsubaki is one of the most influential haiku poetesses living in today’s Japan. As its President, she leads the orthodox school of traditional Japanese haiku through the Tamamo circle, editing its extremely popular haiku magazine. She is a champion of ordinary male and female haijin of all age groups and from all parts of the country. Each of her haiku poems is a little cameo of the most typical of Japanese life, which has been lived by millions of people from the time past through the time present -- and towards the time to come. Though her endlessly long list of friends and acquaintances includes members of Japanese Imperial Family and many celebrities, Tsubaki essentially is a people’s haijin. [Note: At WHC, we follow the academic convention of Japanese studies regarding Japanese names, i.e. surname is followed by given names, excepting the author's - ST]

hototogisu naku kata no mado ake-te oku

mountain cuckoo
where singing is heard
the window's left open

(English version by ST & DWB)

Tsubaki was born Hoshino Hayako in Tokyo, on 21 February 1930, the first daughter of Hoshino Yoshito and his wife, Tatsuko (1903-1984). Tsubaki's mother, a celebrated haiku poetess in her own right, was the second daughter of Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959), a founding father of modern haiku. But unlike Tatsuko, who used her given name for haiku, Hyako elected to use a haigo (haiku name), Tsubaki, meaning "camellia"  Her paternal grandfather, Hoshino Tenchi (1862-1950), was an eminent scholar of Japanese literature. What better family would one wish to be born into, if one were to follow a literary career? While at university, Tsubaki studied English literature and loves talking in English whenever opportunities present themselves.

yoyo no tsuki Kyoshi-sensei to iru yo na

night by night, 

the moon, as if being

with Master Kyoshi

(English version by ST & DWB)

Tsubaki’ mother, Tatsuko, was tutored by Kyoshi, who thought she was the best haiku talent among his many children, all of whom subsequently became renowned haijin. His appreciation of her works was so high that he even created a haiku magazine for her so that she could develop as a haiku poet and future haiku leader, both of which became true. The magazine, Tamamo, was coincidentally founded in 1930, the same year of Tsubaki's birth.

The magazine originally started as a publication exclusively for women haiku writers, thus helping to develop this area substantially. Over the years, it grew into a large and influential general haiku magazine for both men and women, second only to Hototogisu, the top magazine, which Kyoshi himself presided over for decades. These two magazines are the apex of the Hototogisu School, the umbrella group to which hundreds of central and regional haiku magazines, clubs, associations belong. The Hototogisu School is the orthodox haiku movement, preserving and developing the traditional haiku under the slogans of Kacho Fuei (flowers and birds poetry, i.e. nature) and Kyakkan Shasei (objective sketch). There are no official statistics but the Hototogisu School can be said to comprise the majority of the Japanese haiku community. In Japan, magazines such as these also represent the formal haiku organisations which produce them. Tamamo and Hototogisu have between them thousands of paying members, and countless numbers of other followers almost everywhere in Japan, from Hokkaido to Kyushu.

yuu-Fuji ni eda sashi-nobe-te kaeri-bana

toward 'evening Fuji'
a branch extends
out-of-season blooms

(English version by ST & DWB)

Tsubaki took over the editorship of Tamamo and presidency of its organisation in 1984 (Showa 59) when her mother died at the age of 81. By then, Tatsuko had come to command such  nationwide respect and authority, that this new post was too big a pair of shoes for anyone to fill. Besides, Tatsuko had the backing of her late father, Kyoshi, a luxury Tsubaki could not enjoy. As previously mentioned, the collaboration between father and daughter helped, among other things, to foster women’s haiku in Japan. Now Kyoshi’s eldest granddaughter, Tsubaki, has succeeded her mother, and with her son, Takashi, she continues to develop this well-liked organisation into the 21st century. Tsubaki has recently enshrined the achievements and fostered the continuing influence of Kyoshi and Tatsuko by founding a haiku museum in Kamakura: The Kamakura Kyoshi and Tatsuko Commemorative Museum of Haiku.

Kyoshi had moved from Tokyo to live in Kamakura in 1910 (Meiji 43), when he was 36. There, he lived for just under half a century, until his death in 1959 (Showa 34). Though Kyoshi was born in Matsuyama and lived in a number of different locations, including Tokyo and Komoro, his association with Kamakura is the closest. This modest-size city of historical, cultural and religious importance was to all intents and purposes Kyoshi’s second hometown. Kamakura became the most intimate of places for Tsubaki and her mother.

Kamakura wa nami no oto yori ake yasushi

Kamakura
dawn breaks from tide-sounds...
earlier and earlier

(English version by ST & DWB)

You would be forgiven if you thought that Tsubaki was not older than sixty. Added to her youthful look are her vivaciousness, conviviality and warmth of heart. You would be even more surprised to know that she has fought off a serious cancer. She is a typical Yamato nadeshiko (Dianthus superbus, flower known as the "pink", i.e. a graceful Japanese lady). However, her outlook of life is positive and her activity dynamic. She plays golf. She drives a big 4-wheel jeep. And she travels around the world.

hatsu-tabi wa sheikusupia no nemuru kuni

my first trip of the year --
to the country where
Shakespeare sleeps

(English version by ST)

However, it is Tsubaki’s many haiku activities that are quite incredible. The biggest and most important of them is, of course, selecting haiku submitted every month toward publication in Tamamo. She reads thousands of haiku from which top selections for special mentions are made -- as well as the rest of the pool of poems, all of which are sent to the printers the moment her selections are made. She once compared the process to machine gun fire.

Tsubaki also presides over many Tamamo kukai which take place up and down the country, sometimes abroad. These kukai are not only hard work, but also extremely time-consuming. On top of this, she is often invited to give public lectures at different cultural and educational festivals and events. She teaches haiku on TV shows, acts as an official judge with many newspapers and is a lecturer at a number of cultural centres, notably the Yomiuri Cultural Centre. As if these are not enough, Tsubaki also leads many ginko journeys at home and abroad. In spare time which does not seem to exist, Tsubaki writes books. Her publications include anthologies: Haya-Tsubaki (early camellia), Hana (flowers), Hato (white horses), a collection of essays: Haiku to Tomo ni (together with haiku). If one has a romantic idea about a haiku master, think again: this is what it means in practice.

shime-kiri no go-fun ga daiji haru no kaze

the crucial time:
five minutes before the deadline…
spring breeze

(English version by ST)

Notwithstanding, Tsubaki is also a very kind and modest person. Incredibly, she agreed to meet us, the representatives of the World Haiku Club, during her busy schedule in September 2002. The meeting proved an unforgettable experience, which is chronicled by Debi Bender in this issue. Many years ago, during one of her overseas ginko journeys, Tsubaki visited London, leading a troop of about thirty Tamamo members including her son, Takashi and other leading haijin such as Ishikawa Seisuijo. At that time, I was an investment banker in the City of London, and in my spare time presided over a small haiku society called “The Big Ben”. A meeting was organised by the Japanese government’s Board of Tourism in the West End of London between Tamamo's august and giant of a haiku organisation and my midget haiku society. This was the beginning of the teaching and friendship accorded to me by Tsubaki, and my close association with so many of her friends and acquaintances. As a guest at the London kukai, which she chaired, one of my aisatsu-ku ("greeting haiku" or "haiku of socialising") was about my meeting with her and her troops:

kyuukatsu wo jo-suru ga gotoshi aki no yoi

autumn evening –
as if old friends are meeting
after a long interval

Ryuseki (Susumu Takiguchi)

Who would believe that in her youth, Tsubaki loathed haiku. It may well have been due to a youthful reaction toward the fact that almost everyone in her family seemed crazy about haiku. Even so, she took part in kukai many times as a child. In 1948, at the age of 18, some breakthrough came when she participated in the official kukai presided over by Kyoshi himself. That year, she joined a small number of members from the group who accompanied the great man for a ginko to Hokkaido. At the kukai, held in Otaru, Tsubaki entered a haiku:

 Fausuto no maagaretto ni mata ai-shi

Margaret
from Faust, I met her
once again

(English version by ST)

During the day, Tsubaki had been admiring Margaret flowers in the hotel’s garden when one of the participants -- the famous haijin, Kyogoku Kiyo -- told her about a scene from Faust. Kyoshi selected this haiku and praised it. Tsubaki was overcome by a mixture of bashfulness and a sense of pride. Nearly 50 years later, visiting the same hotel, she returned to the garden where she found a single Margaret which had survived fierce winds long after the flower’s season was over. Tsubaki says that her experience at the Otaru ginko might well have been the decisive moment when she embarked on her way of haiku in earnest.

Tsubaki holds the same belief of makoto ("sincerity, honesty and truth") which has been handed down from Basho. She talks about kokoro ni ukabu koto wo shoujiki ni toro suru ("one must relate honestly what comes to one’s mind and heart without concealment or embellishment").

---

Read: Tasting Vintage Haiku: The Poetry of Hoshino Tsubaki

Read: Sea Grass and Wild Flowers  (Meeting Hoshino Tsubaki, Hoshino Takashi and Tamamo) by D.W. Bender

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