27 Haiku

Originally called hokku, the familiar 3-line verse began as the opening of a group improvisation called renga which evolved in Japan in the middle ages. Often creating spontaneously, one poet would speak the first three lines, another poet would add the next two, another the next three and so on until a longer composition had evolved. This creative collaboration was an important social, creative, and intellectual pastime. Eventually the opening three line groups (whose lines commonly had syllables of 5, 7, and 5 respectively) achieved a life of their own and became the haiku (a merging of hokku and hakai (playful) that we know today. The poetry used in this collection waswritten by the most famous Japanese haiku masters, of whom Basho (1644–94) is considered their founding father. His deep humanity and intense observation of the natural and human world combined to elevate the haiku tradition to its epitome. The poet and painter Buson (1716–84) and the beloved Issa (1762–1826) carried on the tradition and instructed and inspired future generations. Through their work and the work of their compatriots, the impressions of the world around them were distilled into poetic “glimpses,” brief moments of casual acknowledgement, profound beauty, or gentle sadness. The steady references to the seasons, trees and flowers, the small creatures of nature, the intensity of human relationships as well as those quiet moments spent in thoughtful reflection, give us an impression of their world and their relationship to it.