Japanese Haiku

form will be, I do not know. It may be two lines or three or four; it may be rimed or unrimed. But I am sure that whatever it is, it will be a definite form, for a haiku is a poem and not a dribble of prose.”3

Kiyoshi Takahama, the greatest living haiku poet today,

art grows out of its society as an expression of the deepest qualities and motives in it,

Hekigodo—the class system or the system of equality and the liberal ideal

rhythm of 5-7-5 is surely one of the greatest elements in haiku.

a haiku re-creates the true image of beauty in the mind of the reader, as it was experienced by the poet. Thus the length of a line may be expressed by the number of syllables that can be uttered in a breath during the state of “ah-ness.”

“When we are dealing with nature, the more immediate the feeling, the greater the degree to which haiku can keep an eternal freshness and give to the reader and the poet a true and everlasting delight.”

“All art originates in an act of intuition, or vision. . . . This act of vision or intuition is, physically, a state of concentration or tension in the mind. . . . [The words which express this vision] are arranged or composed in a sequence or rhythm which is sustained until the mental state of tension in the poet is exhausted or released by this

At the instant when our mental activity almost merges into an unconscious state—i.e., when the relationship between the subject and object is forgotten—we can experience the most aesthetic moment. This is what is implied when it is said that one goes into the heart of created things and becomes one with nature.1

Those who compose haiku without grasping anything are merely exercising their ingenuity. The ingenious become only selectors of words and cannot create new experiences from themselves.9