DOCSLIB.ORG

Masaoka Shiki

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Masaoka Shiki PllliSMif -TlV ' m; r; ... ||pillp»si 5 W-m Eft •t n !E?C3ft fit; I ^ifc;bIB m HItMsm.. III K=s : mm ■ ■ i :.i-! ■Si* ■ iv'; V iartit inaatttu&u*t =‘! its“ '■:3. " L’iV:i: MV - si i i ! •o- mH tesiM mf 3 ttmpse • 3 •- 1 i®£ . ■ ...M j:- 'V/-"?-vr::i 33 3 1' IgjSpllSI 1 iufiisiiliffiilSiiS lfil^i|l*il®fflr ' : pip" a 5 i'.it’rr.frH iV***-?: • r* ; : fv fb fccy a~33 fauJ#bo t ^-3 $0'? 3 Masaoka Shiki Twayne’s World Authors Series Ray E. Teele, Editor University of Texas, Austin * MASAOKA SHIKI (1867-1902) Masaoka Shiki By Janine Beichman University of Library• and Information Science Twayne Publishers • Boston Masaoka Shiki | Janine Beichman Copyright ©1982 by G. K. Hall & Co. All Rights Reserved Published by Twaync Publishers A Division of G. K. Hall & Company 70 Lincoln Street Boston, Massachusetts 02111 Printed on permanent / durable acid-free paper and bound in The United States of America. Book production by Mame B. Sultz Book design by Barbara Anderson library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data : Beichman, Janine. Masaoka Shiki. (Twayne's world authors series; TWAS 661) Bibliography: p. 156 Includes index. 1. Masaoka, Shiki, 1867-1902—Criticism 1 and interpretation. I. Tide. H. Series. PL811.A83Z57 895.6'14 82-3116 ISBN 0-8057-6504-2 AACR2 For Aya ' I ■r i Contents About the Author Preface Acknowledgments Chronology Chapter One Life: From Samurai to Poet 1 Chapter Two Haiku: From Infinite Ambition to the Zero Wish 31 Chapter Three Tanka: The Consecration of the Everyday 74 Chapter Pour Prose: "The Little Garden Is My Universe” 104 Chapter Five Diaries: "I Feel the Pain and See the Beauty” 116 Notes and References 143 Selected Bibliography 136 Index 166 About the Author Janine Beichman is visiting professor of literature at the University of Library and Information Science in Tsukuba Academic City, Japan, and lecturer in Japanese literature at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. She was born and educated in the United States, and received her doctorate in East Asian Studies from Columbia University in 1973; she has lived in Japan since 1969". She studied No chanting for three years, has written a No play which will be produced in Japan in 1982, and has published tanka as well as critical articles in Japanese. Her publications in English include translations, articles, and reviews in such journals as Monumenta Nipponica, Japan Quarterly, The Japan Interpreter, Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan, and Proceedings of the National Institute of Japanese Literature. Preface Japanese critics like to refer to Masaoka Shiki as "the father of the modern haiku.” By this they mean two things: first, that Shiki was the earliest to write haiku that were modern in both theme and subject; and second, that all the major currents of contemporary haiku have their beginnings in him. Both views are true, but too much emphasis on them tends to obscure other facets of Shiki that may be of even more interest to non-Japanese readers. The popular image of Shiki is as a haiku poet, but in fact his allegiance from the beginning of his career was never to the haiku alone but to literature as a whole, that new cultural category spawned by the Meiji period. He wrote much tanka criticism and poetry and gave birth to a new school of tanka poetry. In the last few years of his life, Shiki also wrote a series of diaries and essays which became central in the development of the language and diction of modern Japanese prose. Shiki was one of the first modern Japanese authors to write seriously in several different genres with no sense of contradiction. Many of his contemporaries also did so: Tsubouchi Shoyo wrote plays, novels, and literary criticism; Shiki’s friend Yosano Tekkan wrote tanka, free verse, and poetic criticism, and also translated poetry; both Kunikida Doppo and Shimazaki Toson began as poets but moved on to fiction; Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai, also friends of Shiki, both wrote extensively in several different genres of prose and verse. Shiki, while part of this trend, was also one of its creators, one of the first litterateurs (bungakusha) of modern Japan. Born just one year before the Meiji Restoration, Shiki was in many ways a transitional figure, his writings standing midway between the premodern and the modern periods, his character and life partaking of both. Had he lived longer, perhaps the paradoxes of his thought would have been resolved as the tensions engendered by the interaction of foreign and indigenous cultures worked themselves out. Or perhaps MASAOKA SHIKI they would not have, for Shiki seems to have enjoyed paradox, ambiguity, and irony. At any rate, he was quite unperturbed even when aware of the logical inconsistencies in which they sometimes involved him. His decision to devote his life to the haiku and the tanka, although he believed that both forms would be extinct by the end of the Meiji period, is a case in point. He was aware of the contradiction between his actions and his belief, but in a letter to his friend and disciple Kawahigashi Hekigoto in 1892, he remarked that as an artist he ignored such theories and thought that Hekigoto should, too. In the same way, he sought a justification for Japan’s traditional poetic forms (the haiku and the tanka) in Western ideas (Herbert Spencer’s), but did not feel free to pursue literature as a vocation until he could make it conform to the rationalism and scholarly approach of the Confucian tradition. In other words, he felt a need to justify traditional poetry in modern terms, and a modern vocation in traditional terms. In his poetry, too, one often finds a delicate balance of such opposing elements as realism and fantasy, objective description and subjective expression. The theme of several of his most moving writings in prose and verse was the coexistence of two other sorts of opposites—himself dying and the living natural world around him. In his diaries as well he tended to perceive the world itself as a series of dualities, reminiscent of the parallelisms of the Sino-Japanese prose he had studied as a child. The ability to balance conflicting elements, to hold two opposites in ? the mind at once—what I would call "dual-consciousness”—was I characteristic of Shiki. He himself, at least as a haiku poet, may be seen as a moment in time when such conflicting currents existed in harmony, in a precarious balance of tension, much like a brief peace between warring powers, or the undifferentiated chaos at the beginning of the world (a metaphor suggested by the image of Shiki as a poetic progenitor). After Shiki’s death, his two chief haiku disciples, Kawa­ higashi Hekigoto and Takahama Kyoshi, split into two separate groups. From Hekigoto and his followers came the free-meter haiku, which did away with syllabic rules and gave rise to some of the most I innovative modern poets, such as Nakazuka Ippekiro. From Kyoshi i came the more conservative current, which conceived of the haiku as ! Preface realistic descriptions of nature and from which emerged such poets as Mizuhara Shuoshi and Nakamura Kusadao.1 In the tanka, the development of Shiki’s ideas proceeded in more of a straight line. His stress on observation and his ideas on the sketch from life were later elaborated into a coherent aesthetic theory by Saito Mokichi and others, while in his short tanka and haiku sequences we can see the beginnings of the longer modern tanka and haiku sequences. Most of Shiki’s writing was autobiographical. In general, literature in Japan tends to be more overtly autobiographical than in Europe and North America. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions would probably have been considered an autobiographical novel {watakushi sbosetsu) had it been written in Japanese. It may seem an example of the biographical fallacy to assume that the "I” of Shiki’s writings was identical with Shiki himself, but I have done so because Shiki himself wrote as if he meant us to take them that way, and also because it is virtually impossible to distinguish between the real Shiki and the Active Shiki. In fact, in the last few years of his life, the Active Shiki seems to me to have been necessary to the existence of the real Shiki and vice versa: at a certain point in his life, when he could no longer leave his bed, Shiki’s life ceased to exist except in and through words; here, the literature and the life became one and indistinguishable. Although this book is the Arst critical biography of Shiki in English, I have been preceded by numerous Japanese scholars and am heavily indebted to them. In matters that are beyond dispute, such as the factual details of Shiki’s life, I have not felt it necessary to give speciAc attribution. Where I am indebted for interpretations, this is so indicated either in note or in text. Unless otherwise indicated, however, I am responsible for all interpretations of Shiki’s poems, ideas, and broader matters. Some of my main points concern areas that have not been, to my knowledge, explored by Japanese scholars. For example, in Chapters 4 and 5, I try to place Shiki’s diaries within the context of traditional literature, particularly the poetic diary2 and classical haiku prose. I also trace, in Chapter 3, a common theme in the haiku, tanka, and prose of Shiki’s last years. Again, at least one example of the duality of MASAOKA SHIKI consciousness which I feel is central to Shiki, will be found in every chapter.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Haiku Attunement & the “Aha” Moment
    Special Article Haiku Attunement & the “Aha” Moment By Edward Levinson Author Edward Levinson As a photographer and writer living, working, and creating in Japan spring rain for 40 years, I like to think I know it well. However, since I am not an washing heart academic, the way I understand and interpret the culture is spirit’s kiss intrinsically visual. Smells and sounds also play a big part in creating my experiences and memories. In essence, my relationship with Later this haiku certainly surprised a Japanese TV reporter who Japan is conducted making use of all the senses. And this is the was covering a “Haiku in English” meeting in Tokyo where I read it. perfect starting point for composing haiku. Later it appeared on the evening news, an odd place to share my Attunement to one’s surroundings is important when making inner life. photographs, both as art and for my editorial projects on Japanese PHOTO 1: Author @Edward Levinson culture and travel. The power of the senses influences my essays and poetry as well. In haiku, with its short three-line form, the key to success is to capture and share the sensual nature of life, both physical and philosophical. For me, the so-called “aha” moment is the main ingredient for making a meaningful haiku. People often comment that my photos and haiku create a feeling of nostalgia. An accomplished Japanese poet and friend living in Hokkaido, Noriko Nagaya, excitedly telephoned me one morning after reading my haiku book. Her insight was that my haiku visions were similar to the way I must see at the exact moment I take a photo.
    [Show full text]
  • Soseki's Botchan Dango ' Label Tamanoyu Kaminoyu Yojyoyu , The
    "Botchan" Exhibition List of Works the 30 June - the 2nd September 2018/The Museum of Arts, Ehime ※Exhibition Period First Half: the 30th Jun sat.-the 29th July sun/Latter Half: the 31th July Tue.- 2nd Sep. Sun Artist Title Piblisher Year Collection Credit ※ Portrait of NATSUME Soseki 1912 SOBUE Shin UME Kayo Botchans' 2017 ASADA Masashi Botchan Eye 2018' 2018 ASADA Masashi Cats at Dogo 2018 SOBUE Shin Botchan Bon' 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Cat 2018-01 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Drawing - Portrait of Soseki 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - White Heron 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Camellia 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Portrait of Soseki 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Portrait of Soseki 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Sabi-Neko in Green 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Sabi -Neko at Night 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Sabi -Neko with Blue Sky 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Turner Island 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Pegasus 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Drawing - Sabi -Neko 1 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Drawing - Sabi -Neko 2 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Painting - Sabi -Neko in White 2018 MISAWA Atsuhiko Cat 2013-03 2013 MISAWA Atsuhiko Cat 2002-02 2002 Takahashi Collection MISAWA Atsuhiko Cat 2014-02 2014 MISAWA Atsuhiko Cat 2006-04 2006 Private ASADA Masashi 'Botchan Eye 2018' Collaboration Materials 1 Yen Bill (2 Bills) Bank of Japan c.1916 SOBUE Shin 1 Yen Silver Coin (3 Coins) Bank of Japan c.1906 SOBUE Shin Iyotetsu Railway Ticket (Copy) Iyotetsu Original:1899 Iyotetsu Group From Mitsu to Matsuyama, Lower Class, Fare Matsuyama City Matsuyama City Dogo Onsen after 1950 3sen 5rin , 28th Oct.,1888 Tourism Office Natsume Soseki, Botchan 's Inn Yamashiroya is Iwanami Shoten, Publishers.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Lyric Forms of the Literati Mind: Yosa Buson, Ema Saikō, Masaoka Shiki and Natsume Sōseki Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/97g9d23n Author Mewhinney, Matthew Stanhope Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Lyric Forms of the Literati Mind: Yosa Buson, Ema Saikō, Masaoka Shiki and Natsume Sōseki By Matthew Stanhope Mewhinney A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Language in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Alan Tansman, Chair Professor H. Mack Horton Professor Daniel C. O’Neill Professor Anne-Lise François Summer 2018 © 2018 Matthew Stanhope Mewhinney All Rights Reserved Abstract The Lyric Forms of the Literati Mind: Yosa Buson, Ema Saikō, Masaoka Shiki and Natsume Sōseki by Matthew Stanhope Mewhinney Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Language University of California, Berkeley Professor Alan Tansman, Chair This dissertation examines the transformation of lyric thinking in Japanese literati (bunjin) culture from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. I examine four poet- painters associated with the Japanese literati tradition in the Edo (1603-1867) and Meiji (1867- 1912) periods: Yosa Buson (1716-83), Ema Saikō (1787-1861), Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) and Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916). Each artist fashions a lyric subjectivity constituted by the kinds of blending found in literati painting and poetry. I argue that each artist’s thoughts and feelings emerge in the tensions generated in the process of blending forms, genres, and the ideas (aesthetic, philosophical, social, cultural, and historical) that they carry with them.
    [Show full text]
  • Shiki and Modernism
    Anita Virgil JAPAN AND THE WEST: SHIKI AND MODERNISM Alone In the editorial department: Summer rain falling. Shiki 1 In the years between Issa’s death and Shiki’s birth, enormous change had wracked Japan politically, socially and culturally. At mid-19th century, after more than 200 years of isolation, Japan was torn by economic problems and beleaguered from without by foreigners seeking to open Japan to trade with the West. Her farmers and samurai were financially depleted, her merchants could not function without access to markets. Dissolute factions within the country jockeyed for dominance over the crumbling Tokugawa Shogunate to the extent that some Japanese called for restoration of the Emperor. The appearance of the Black Ships of Russia, England and America heightened the anxiety of an already troubled nation. Change was inevitable and necessary for the survival of Japan. With the arrival of Commodore Perry in Edo Bay in 1853, Japan was eventually forced into the modern world. It did not take long for the Japanese to recognize their defenselessness in the face of the military and technological superiority of the West. With dispatch, they sent emissaries abroad to obtain firsthand knowledge of their enemy, the “barbarians.” The result: the Japanese people were awash in a flood of ideas that conflicted with their ancient traditions. On September 17, 1867 in this time of ferment and cross-cultural exchange, Masaoka Tsunenori was born in Matusuyama on the island of Shikoku. (Later in his life, as was customary among Japanese poets, he adopted the name Shiki.) His father, Masaoka Hayata, was a samurai of lower rank who died of alcoholism.
    [Show full text]
  • Revue Francophone De Haïku Janvier-Mars 2013 N°38
    38 REVUE FRANCOPHONE DE HAÏKU JANVIER-MARS 2013 N°38 38 2 38 3 IL ÉTAIT UNE FOIS… MARTIGUES C hers adhérents et amis haijins, À l’entrée de l’hiver, ce numéro de GONG, épais et résonnant, devrait vous apporter un peu de chaleur et d’énergie. Soit que vous ayez participé au festival de Martigues et vous revivrez alors tous les moments forts de l’événe- ment. Soit que vous n’ayez pu vous y rendre et nous espérons alors que ce GONG, en majeure partie consacré au festival, le reflète fidèlement et vous associe aux découvertes, aux joies et aux surprises qu’il nous a offertes. U n peu différent des précédents, ce festival ? Oui, mais en quoi ? Tout d’abord parce qu’il était parrainé par le Consulat du Japon de Mar- seille. A noter que le Consul Général, Monsieur Sato, avait pris ses fonctions le 1er octobre et que notre festival a été sa première sortie officielle. Je ga- ge qu’il n’oubliera pas la soirée Japon, à laquelle il a assisté dans sa totalité. Ensuite, parce que nous avons bénéficié d’une contribution inestimable de la Mairie de Martigues qui a mis à notre disposition des salles équipées, des équipes techniques et qui a fait la promotion de notre festival par voie d’af- fiches et de flyers et réglé le protocole pour la visite de Monsieur le Consul Général du Japon. Enfin, parce que, du fait de notre ténacité et grâce à quelques précieuses ouvertures au Conseil Général, ainsi qu’un épais dossier bien ficelé – lequel a voyagé dans les services du Conseil Général ! – nous avons fini par obtenir la subvention à laquelle nous prétendions.
    [Show full text]
  • Paul D. Talcott Independent Scholar the Spread of Market Mechanisms
    Paul D. Talcott Mary Evelyn Tucker Independent Scholar Yale, Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar The spread of market mechanisms in health care policy in Religion and ecology; Book Thomas Berry and the Arc of Japan and East Asia; the relationship between economic History (2019) development, democracy, and the introduction of market [email protected] principles into social insurance systems [email protected] Timothy J. Van Compernolle Amherst, Prof. of Japanese Wako Tawa The creative exchanges between literature and cinema in Amherst, Prof. of Asian Languages and Civilizations; interwar Japan Director of Language Study [email protected] Japanese grammar for learners of Japanese as a foreign language Floris van Swet [email protected] Northumbria, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Social and political consequences of attainder in early Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis Tokugawa Japan BU, Prof. Emerita for Japanese Art; [email protected] Received start-up grant to construct middle-school curriculum on immigration from China and Japan which she Elena Varshavskaya taught at Birches School Rhode Island School of Design, Senior Lecturer [email protected] ukiyo-e prints as historic documents [email protected] Sarah Thompson MFA, Curator of Japanese Art Alexander M. Vesey Japanese prints in the MFA collection, especially ukiyo-e Meiji Gakuin, Assoc. Prof. of Global & Transcultural Studies woodblock prints Early modern Japanese Buddhist social history [email protected] [email protected] R. Kenji Tierney James Keith Vincent SUNY New Paltz, Lecturer. of Anthropology BU, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese and Comparative Literature Sumo; Food; Globalization; Sports; The Body; Japan Natsume Soseki and Masaoka Shiki; haiku and the novel [email protected] [email protected] Maria Toyoda Louise E.
    [Show full text]
  • Santoka's Shikoku
    Santōka’s Shikoku An introduction to and translation of the opening sections of the Shikoku Henro Diary of Japanese free-verse haiku poet and itinerant Buddhist priest Taneda Santōka (1882-1940) Ronald S. Green, Coastal Carolina University Of the many literary figures associated with Shikoku, Japan and the Buddhist pilgrimage to the 88 temples around the perimeter of that island, Taneda Santōka is the most visible to pilgrims and the one most associated with their sentiments. According to the newspaper Asahi Shinbun, each year 150,000 people embark on the Shikoku pilgrimage by bus, train, automobile, bicycles, or walking. Among these, nearly all the foreign visitors make the journey on foot, spending weeks or months on the pilgrimage. Those walking are likely to encounter the most poetry steles (kuhi) that display the works of Taneda Santōka (1882-1940) and commemorate his life and pilgrimage in Shikoku. This is because some of the kuhi are located halfway up steep stairway ascents to temples or at entrances to narrow mountain paths, places Santōka loved. This paper introduces English readers to Santōka’s deep connection with Shikoku. This will become increasingly important as the Shikoku pilgrimage moves closer to becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site and the prefectures eventually achieve that goal. Santōka was an itinerant Buddhist priest, remembered mostly for his gentle nature that comes through to readers of his free-verse haiku. Santōka is also known for his fondness of Japanese sake, which eventually contributed to his death in Shikoku at the age of 58. Santōka lived at a time when Masaoka Shiki was innovating haiku by untying it from some of the classical rules that young poets were finding to be a hindrance to their expressions.
    [Show full text]
  • Extending the Notion of Home Through the Language of Poetry
    ASIATIC, VOLUME 4, NUMBER 1, JUNE 2010 Extending the Notion of Home Through the Language of Poetry David Farrah1 Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan Abstract This essay will offer a personalised, critical consideration of how the notion of “home”, while remaining central to my vision as a poet, has evolved from the provincial to the international to the universal through the medium of landscape. It will accordingly ask the following question: how do we find a way to express ourselves through the features of a landscape we might not initially consider to be “home”, in the language of poetry? In answer to that question, the Japanese concept of “shakkei” or “borrowed landscape” will be explored as it relates to both literary history and the more contemporary concern for the expression and cultivation of the individual self. In particular, the technique of “ikedori”, or the “capturing alive” of a landscape will be examined. And finally, this essay will suggest that “shakkei” and poetry are much more than just metaphors for each other. Rather, they are organically and artistically linked mediums through which creative wonder is formalised, personalised and expressed. Keywords Landscape, gardening, poetry, shakkei, Japanese, expatriate, home But our native country is less an expanse of territory than a substance; it’s a rock or a soil or an aridity or a water or a light. It’s the place where our dreams materialize; it’s through that place that our dreams take on their proper form…. Dreaming beside the river, I gave my imagination to the water…. Gaston Bachelard, L’Eau et les Rêves.
    [Show full text]
  • La Revue Du Haïku
    La revue du haïku N° 48 – Décembre 2013 Association pour la promotion du haïku www.100pour100haiku.fr SOMMAIRE 1. Préambule par Christian Faure 5 2. « Kigo or not kigo ? » - texte issu d’un entretien avec Seegan MABESOONE 7 3. Le Haïku en mouvement au Japon depuis l’an 2000, texte de Katsuhiro HORIKI 12 4. “ Mon Kigo préféré ” 19 5. “ Les instants choisis ” 20 6. “ Les compositions des auteurs ” 24 Ploc¡ la revue du haïku Numéro réalisé par Christian Faure, Damien Gabriel 1. PRÉAMBULE Christian FAURE Un cycle se termine et un autre commence : voilà ce que nous enseigne le passage à l’année nouvelle. Quant au temps cyclique, il se révèle dans le haïku. La période du nouvel an reste le moment du renouvellement virginal (cf ploc 38 - kigos du renouveau), occasion pour s’interroger sur soi-même et se promettre de bonnes résolutions. Vous trouverez ici de nouvelles fenêtres sur le Japon sous formes d’interrogations : la composition sans kigo est-elle concevable (entretien avec Laurent Seegan Mabesoone) et le monde du haïku évolue-t-il (Katsuhiro Horikiri) ? Ensuite nous retrouverons les compositions de nos auteurs et leurs kigos préférés. Enfin, nous vous proposerons de composer deux haïkus maximum dans le rythme 575 pour le prochain numéro du « projet kigo » : - sur des mots de saison de l’hiver en relation avec les fêtes (noël, jour de l’an, la Saint-Sylvestre, le champagne, le premier vin [de l’année], les premières fois [Cf n°38 de Ploc –les kigos du renouveau, etc..) - et/ou des kigos libres de printemps.
    [Show full text]
  • Shiki - Haiku Reformation
    Shiki - Haiku Reformation Shiki Masaoka Was a Fighter and Radical Banned from Public Speaking at 15; Failed College by 1892 by Don Baird When studying Shiki (1867-1902), his Japan, and its relationship to the rest of the world, the Tokugawa policy of seclusion (known as sakoku) must be considered, as it not only barred nearly all international trade, it also forbade the Japanese to leave Japan. The Tokugawa period of isolation lasted some 200 years (1630s-1850s). This context forms an important basis of an old-world, some would say feudal, culture, and mindset stemming from such isolation. It is likewise important to remember that Shiki's grandfather, Ōhara Kanzan, was a Confucian scholar, Samurai, and Shiki's first teacher, who was a significant, influential aspect of Shiki's psychological foundation. Kanzan was outspoken and unwavering against the onset of western civilization: Kanzan was adamantly opposed to the new world of the Meji period. He refused, for example, to study any Western languages. In the last line of a Chinese poem which he had Shiki copy out, he expressed his disgust for languages which were written horizontally instead of, like Japanese, vertically: "Never in your life read that writing which sidles sideways like a crab across the page." (Beichman, Cheng & Tsu Company, 2002, p. 3) By 1892, Shiki having failed an exam, dropped out of college. "You must have heard I received the honor of failing," he wrote. (Beichman, p. 16) Following this, he intensified his studies of haiku — reading every hokku he could find. He blamed his failure at the University on that fact that he could not think of anything but haiku — he was obsessed, or as he wrote, "Bewitched by the goddess of haiku." (ibid) Once out of college, he zealously pursued his haiku ideals and concepts.
    [Show full text]
  • Kanshi, Haiku and Media in Meiji Japan, 1870-1900
    The Poetry of Dialogue: Kanshi, Haiku and Media in Meiji Japan, 1870-1900 Robert James Tuck Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2012 © 2012 Robert Tuck All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The Poetry of Dialogue: Kanshi, Haiku and Media in Meiji Japan, 1870-1900 Robert Tuck This dissertation examines the influence of ‘poetic sociality’ during Japan’s Meiji period (1867-1912). ‘Poetic sociality’ denotes a range of practices within poetic composition that depend upon social interaction among individuals, most importantly the tendency to practice poetry as a group activity, pedagogical practices such as mutual critique and the master-disciple relationship, and the exchange among individual poets of textually linked forms of verse. Under the influence of modern European notions of literature, during the late Meiji period both prose fiction and the idea of literature as originating in the subjectivity of the individual assumed hegemonic status. Although often noted as a major characteristic of pre-modern poetry, poetic sociality continued to be enormously influential in the literary and social activities of 19th century Japanese intellectuals despite the rise of prose fiction during late Meiji, and was fundamental to the way in which poetry was written, discussed and circulated. One reason for this was the growth of a mass-circulation print media from early Meiji onward, which provided new venues for the publication of poetry and enabled the expression of poetic sociality across distance and outside of face-to-face gatherings. With poetic exchange increasingly taking place through newspapers and literary journals, poetic sociality acquired a new and openly political aspect.
    [Show full text]
  • If\{TET?F\{ a Tiof\{ at HAIKU Cotvvef\{Tiof\{ MASAOKASHIKI If\{TET?F\{ a Tiof\{ at HAIKU AWAT?DS
    If\{TET?f\{ A TIOf\{ At HAIKU COtVVEf\{TIOf\{ MASAOKASHIKI If\{TET?f\{ A TIOf\{ At HAIKU AWAT?DS / CONTENTS MASAOKA SHIKI INTERNATIONAL HAIKU AWARDS··· 03 Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards ......................... ··04 Recipients··································································08 Congratulatory message to Yves Bonnefoy from the president of France ···09 Memorial Lecture by Yves Bonnefoy(French) ....................... ·14 (English translation) ........... ·25 Acceptance Speech by Bart Mesotten ............................... ··35 Acceptance Speech by Robert Spiess .................................. ··39 INTERNATIONAL HAIKU CONVENTION .......................... ·41 International Haiku Symposium ...................................... ·44 The Matsuyama Message 2000··········································59 International Haiku Workshop··········································62 Workshop at venue 1 ............................................... ·63 Theme: The Poetices of Haiku - The Prospect of Haiku in the 21st Century Workshop at venue 2 ............................................... ·69 Theme: In Search of the potential of Haiku Translation Commentators and moderator····································70 Handout by Lee Gurga and Emiko Miyashita ··················72 Handout by William J.Higginson ······························77 David Burleigh's Comment·······································82 Published in Japan in 2001 by EHIME CULTURE FOUNDATION, 4-4-2, Ichiban-cho, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan. Copyright© 2001,
    [Show full text]