This article then will be about a number of Basho’s Haiku that I feel have a particular Zen flavour or that have inspired me as a Buddhist myself. Even though Haiku are normally associated with Zen Buddhism in popular culture, it should be noted that they aren’t specifically a ‘Buddhist form of poetry’ and anyone can write a Haiku, whether they are Buddhist or not as a great post here that states, poetry and Haiku are universal.īasho though, was a Zen Buddhist and a lay monk, and did incorporate many Buddhist themes into his poetry and some can be read as inspiring through a Buddhist lens, whether they were meant to be read that way or not. Haikus are short Japanese poems, traditionally composed of three lines in a 5-7-5 seventeen syllable format. He is the undisputed master of the now world-famous Haiku form of poetry. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) is regarded as among the greatest poets - not only in Japanese literature, but worldwide. He also specialised in the short-form version of the genre which is known as tanka poetry.Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694, painted by Kamimura Hakuo.
He was one of the earlier exponents of the modern version of haiku poetry and is considered, by some students of the art, to be one of the four great haiku masters. In his short life beset by illness, Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) nevertheless succeeded in rescuing haiku from the degradation it had suffered since the death of Buson. Not all his poems are great, but his best ones are unsurpassed in beauty and pure delight.
His poems are often filled with humour and pathos, the willingness to be silly and downright funny.
In his love and astute observations of nature, Issa’s haiku have been described as Whitman in miniature. His poems teem with references to nature, even to the smallest of creatures such as flies, crickets, fleas, bedbugs, lice and butterflies. He is better known simply as Issa, which means “a cup of tea”. He also travelled widely and was much influenced by the poetry of Basho as well as Chinese poetry.Ī prolific poet, Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) is a much-loved poet who wrote hundreds of haikus, many of them classics. A fine painter with an eye for color and drama, for much of his life, he made his living from the brush. He was born near Osaka, the son of a farmer. Some years after Basho’s death, there was a haiku revival led by Yosa Buson (1716-83), especially after he settled in Kyoto in 1751. Basho is regarded as the most accomplished haiku poet of the Edo period in Japan (1603 – 1868). Basho led an austere life, and from the early 1680s, made several journeys on foot, writing prose, poetry and diaries along the way, the most famous of which is The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He decided to become a master poet and moved to Kyoto and later to Edo (Tokyo) where he attracted a following of devoted students. As a young man, he participated in renga gatherings with his lord’s son ( renga is a form of Japanese-linked verse). Matsuo Basho (1644-94) was born in Ueno, in Igar province, the son of a low-ranked samurai. Mochizuki Gyokuzen IV (1814-1913), Skylark Rising from Barley, hanging scroll, ink, colors and gold on silk. Here’s a selection of haiku from the masters of the form. By doing so, as Buson (1716 – 1783) noted, haiku uses “the commonplace to escape the commonplace.” A good haiku evokes images of nature that are fresh and clear. In Zen Buddhism, the term for this experience is ‘spontaneity’. Focusing on nature also allows the poet to convey the experience of being at one with earth’s seasonal cycles. The seasons, the landscape and living things in it ground a haiku in time and place. Another thing about haiku is its love of nature. The spare form of haiku may be difficult to conceptualize in our modern complex world, but this is also the reason for its charm. He transformed haiku into the spare yet forceful lyric we recognize today during the last decade of his life while traveling through Japan. Basho (1644-1694) was the founder of haiku. What marks the form is its sheer economy – you express your thoughts in just three lines, packed into a 5-7-5 syllable structure if you are a traditionalist. Haiku, like all good verse, is a way of seeing.
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