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Section 1: Japan’s Cultural Flowering Japan’s Golden Age History and Literature ChapterSection and Haiku by Basho The poetic form called haiku was one of the great gifts of Japan’s golden age. Haiku Support is defined today as a 17-syllable unrhymed poem, made of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Since earliest times, there has been confusion among three related terms: haiku, hokku, and haika. The term hokku means “starting verse.” Hokku was the first part of a much longer chain of verses known as haika. The hokku set the tone for the rest of the haika. It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that the opening element of a longer poem gained independence as a work of art by itself. This new form of poetry was called haiku. Basho was the master poet of this form in the Edo period. Strictly speaking, however, Basho’s verses were not haiku but hokku. One of the requirements of traditional hokku is that each starting verse must contain a kigo, a season word. Sometimes, the kigo is actually the name of a season. More often, however, it is just something that indicates a season. Read these hokku by Basho. The first soft snow! Harvest moon: Enough to bend the leaves around the pond I wander of the jonquil low. and night is gone.

In the cicada’s cry Temple bells die out. no sign can foretell The fragrant blossoms remain. how soon it must die. A perfect evening!

1. Which season or seasons are evoked by these four verses? ______2. Identify the kigo in each of these hokku. ______3. Why are these verses correctly called hokku and not haiku? ______4. Each of these verses is meant to create a quick image. Which image do you think is most effective, and why? ______

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