Haiku

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.2.2: Japanese Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Mats Arne Karlsson (University of Sydney), Roy Anthony Starrs (University of Otago)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1500

Places

Japan (Location)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

A Japanese verse-form dating from the sixteenth century which traditionally comprises lines of five, seven and five syllables. The name comes from two Japanese words meaning “sportive” or “pleasantry”, and the form evolved from the

hokku

which stood at the beginning of longer poems and set their tone, eventually becoming an independent form in its own right. Its early masters were Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), whose work is often found in English translations, Yosa Buson (1716-84) and Issa Kobayashi (1762-1826).

Here a famous example by Basho:

No one travels Along this road but IThis autumn evening.

Haiku use extreme economy to convey emotions such as longing or loss, or comic surprise, and are

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

351 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Haiku". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001; last revised 30 August 2005. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=494, accessed 24 November 2024.]

Haiku

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback