Laughter in Japanese Haiku, page 1

It is generally accepted today that laughter belongs to the domain of senryu, and that even a smile is merely accidental in haiku. There is indeed a great deal to be said in defence of this common view. Haiku grew out of hokku, the initial poem in a linked verse, which required more dignity and depth than the rest of the poems in the chain, while senryu grew out of hiraku, the rank and file stanzas comprising the main body of the chain, where more freedom of wit and imagination was expected. Two things, therefore, have generally been regarded as essential in haiku: kigo, a ‘seasonal word’, which gives elegance to the poem, and kireji, a ‘cutting word’, which elevates the status of the poem by giving it syntactical independence and emotional power. Neither of these is required in senryu. Moreover, the characteristic traits of senryu are said to be in the depiction of jinji, human affairs, usually of a comic sort, and in the frank use of zokugo, vulgar terms.

Having said this, however, I cannot help questioning this traditional view. When, in the Muromachi Period, haikai no renga was started by Yamazaki Sokan (1460-1540) and Arakida Moritake (1473-1549), it was obviously intended as a rebellion against the elegant tradition of waka and renga. This is suggested by the very title of the anthology Sokan edited, Inu Tsukuba Shu, for ‘inu’ means ‘dog’, and ‘Tsukuba’ is not only a metaphor for waka, but also the title of the anthology of renga compiled by Nijo Yoshimoto (1320-1388). An example from Sokan’s anthology will easily convince us of the ‘dogginess’ of its poetry:

Susure nao hana a kaman ma kaminazuki

Sip your snivel –
Nothing to blow your nose with
In this Godless Month.

In the original Japanese, since both ‘Godless’ and ‘Paperless’ are pronounced identically, a pun is effected, impressing the reader with its wittiness. By today’s standard, this is surely senryu, rather than haiku. Yet this was chosen for his anthology by the poet who is usually regarded as the father of the haiku tradition. The same spirit can be seen in the following poem by Sokan himself:

Tsuki ni e o sashitaraba yoki uchiwa kana

Into the full moon
Thrust a handle, and it will
Form a superb fan.

This poem is iconoclastic in the sense that the full moon, traditionally regarded as the epitome of elegant beauty, is brought down from the sky to the earth. Yet, the poem is not without some beauty because the moon and fan enhance the coolness of the evening.

Now, an example by Moritake:

Aoyagi no mayu kaku kishi no hitai kana

The green willow tree
Paints an eyebrow on the face
Of an embankment.

This poem, I think, is more traditional than Sokan’s in that it depicts a beautiful spring scene, but the bold use of a metaphor distinguishes it from traditional poetry. The poem reads like a double exposure, for behind the willow tree we see the face of a woman with beautiful eyebrows.

This overtly comic tradition started by Sokan and Moritake was somewhat revised in the early years of the Edo Period by Matsunaga Teitoku (1571-1653), who tried to elevate haikai no renga from the level of childish rebellion. He says in Tensui Sho that since haikai is a form of waka, it should not be despised as vulgar poetry. But Teitoku did not deny laughter. Instead, he tried to refine it. One of his disciples, Saito Tokugen (1559-1647), compared renga to Noh, and haikai to kyogen (comic interludes performed between Noh plays), saying that anything ‘lower’, such as kabuki, should be excluded. Here is a poem by Teitoku, which shows the difference between him and the earlier poets:

Hana yori mo dango ya arite kaeru kani

Dumplings to flowers
They seem to prefer, all those
Wild geese going home.

Teitoku often provokes laughter by using a proverbial expression in an unexpected place. In this poem, the popular proverb, ‘Dumplings rather than flowers’, is used to explain why wild geese return home to the North when spring arrives in Japan.

Teitoku certainly succeeded in expelling vulgarity from haikai. On the other hand, it is undeniable that his poetry became somewhat bookish: more learned, but less imaginative than his predecessors’. This tendency was sharply attacked by Nishiyama Soin (1605-1682). He and his followers formed a group called Danrin, which means a ‘talkative forest’. The name itself suggested that this group was more in touch with the life of common people. As a result, they moved away from the bookishness of Teitoku, infusing a spirit of greater freedom into their poetry. Here is a poem by Soin:

Nagamu tote hana nimo itashi kubi no hone

Having seen them long,
I hold the flowers dear, but ah,
The pain in my neck.

Behind this poem, we see the following tanka by Saigyo:

Nagamu tote hana nimo itaku narenureba
Chiru wakare koso kanashi karikere

Having seen them long,
I hold the flowers so dear
That when they scatter
I find it all the more sad
To bid them my last farewell.

We must thus admit that, to some extent, Soin’s poem is iconoclastic, but his iconoclasm is of a different quality from that of Sokan. Sokan’s aim, as we have seen, was to destroy the elegant world of waka, while Soin’s was rather to present a humorous picture. I believe we could say that Soin was the first poet to discover the legitimacy of laughter in haikai no renga. I think this is what Okanishi Ichu (1639-1711) had in mind when he said in Haikai Mokyu that the essence of haikai is laughter (kokkei). According to him, haikai should be written "without rhyme or reason", that is to say, with "words that come out of the mouth spontaneously to please the listener".

editors' note:

This essay is being reprinted from Rediscovering Basho - A 300th Anniversary Celebration, Stephen Henry Gill & C. Andrew Gerstle ed., Global Oriental, 1999, ISBN 1-901903-15-X).

We are grateful to Professor Yuasa and to the publisher, Global Books Ltd., for their very kind permission to reprint the essay. Paul Norbury at Global Books was particularly helpful to us.

This is but one part of a collection of essays detailing Basho's effects on haiku today. We hope that you will consider purchasing this book for your own library.

The division into four sections is our own doing to lower download times per page.

page 1 - beginnings - Ihara Saikaku (pre-Basho)
page 2 - Ihara Saikaku - Matsuo Basho (Basho)
page 3 - Takarai Kikaku - Kobayashi Issa (from Basho to Issa)
page 4 - Masaoka Shiki - today (Shiki and beyond)