Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
|
|
Visual Arts |
Foreign Language
|
|
Japanese |
History and Social Studies
|
|
World History - Asia/Far East |
Literature and Language Arts
|
|
Poetry |
|
World |
|
Time Required |
| Three to four class periods
|
|
Skills |
| reading literary texts
literary interpretation
visual art analysis
drawing inferences and comparisons
critical thinking
creative writing
Internet skills
|
|
Date Posted |
| 4/11/2002 |
|
Feedback |
|
Send us your thoughts about this lesson! |
|
Email this Lesson |
|
Send this lesson to friends or colleagues |
|
Special Features |
|
|
|
|
The World of Haiku
Introduction
In
this lesson, students explore the traditions and conventions of haiku, comparing
this classic form of Japanese poetry to a related genre of Japanese visual art
and composing haiku of their own.
Learning Objectives
(1) To learn about the history and poetic conventions of
Japanese haiku. (2) To read and interpret classic examples of haiku. (3) To compare
the world of haiku with the world portrayed in Japanese woodblock prints. (4)
To practice writing haiku in English.
Guiding Question: What
can we learn about Japanese culture by studying haiku?
1
Begin
by having students read some classic examples of Japanese haiku in English translation.
Divide the class into small groups and have students read several haiku aloud
to one another. To help sharpen their critical responsiveness, have each group
reach a consensus about the poem they like best and agree on three reasons why
it is superior. Two collections of traditional haiku are accessible through EDSITEment
at the AskAsia website: - Haiku
by Basho
(http://www.columbia.edu/itc/eacp/asiasite/topics/index.html?topic=Haiku+subtopic=Intro)
An interactive introduction to this seventeenth century master who pioneered the
haiku tradition. Click the "Class
Materials" button for a collection of student readings that includes six haiku
by Basho. - Haiku
for People!
(http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku/) A
website celebrating the history of haiku and its development into a form of poetry
practiced around the world. Scroll down for a broad selection of haiku by many
classic Japanese poets, including
Basho, Buson, and Issa.
2 Have
a spokesperson read each group's preferred haiku aloud to the class and explain
the group's reasons for its choice. List these reasons on the chalkboard, noting
where groups have identified similar characteristics or registered a similar impression.
Keep this list on view for later reference.
3 To
enrich students' appreciation for the art of the haiku, provide them with a brief
outline of its history and development, drawing on the background available at
Haiku
by Basho and Haiku for People!:
- Explain that the haiku tradition dates back to the late
seventeenth century, the Tokugawa Period, when Japanese society was emerging from
the aristocratic culture of the samurai and developing a middle-class culture
based on trade, commerce, and mass education. Traditional haiku reflect this shift
in their subject matter, focusing on everyday occurrences and ordinary people
instead of legendary figures and royal intrigues. It is poetry intended for a
popular audience and remains the most popular form of poetry in Japan today.
- Use the Class
Materials available at Haiku
by Basho to show students how haiku developed from haikai, a longer poetic
form made up of linked verses that were contributed by different writers. The
first verse in this chain, called a hokku (literally "starting verse"), became
the model for haiku, setting the pattern for its metrical structure, its focus
on a specific time and place, and its thought-provoking, open-ended quality.
- Point out that haiku became an independent verse form
in the 1890s when the poet Masaoka Shiki formalized this centuries-old tradition
by setting down rules for writing haiku.
4 Provide
students with a list of the three main rules for writing haiku, as explained on
the Haiku
by Basho and Haiku for People!
websites: - A haiku is a three-line poem
in which the first line has five syllables, the second line seven syllables, and
the final line five syllables. These syllable counts are strictly observed in
Japanese but can be loosely observed when haiku are written in other languages.
The Haiku
by Basho website provides examples of haiku in transliterated Japanese and
in English which illustrate this point. For example:
kirishigure
Fuji wo minu hi zo omoshiroki in the misty rain Mount Fuji is veiled
all day-- how intriguing! (From Makoto Ueda, Basho and
His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary [Stanford University Press,
1991] p. 102.) - A haiku should contain
a kigo, a word that gives the reader a clue to the season. The kigo anchors
the haiku at a specific moment in time, setting the experience it describes in
a poetic here and now. The kigo can be the name of the season (autumn, winter)
or a subtler clue, such as a reference to the harvest or new fallen snow. Through
the years, certain signs of the seasons have become conventional in Japanese haiku:
cherry blossoms are a kigo for spring, mosquitoes a kigo for summer. Sometimes,
too, the kigo may refer to a specific moment -- the dawn or moonrise -- without
reference to a specific season.
- Finally,
a haiku has two parts. The poem divides after the first or second line, so that
it seems to make two separate statements that are related in some unexpected or
implicit way. As Professor Haruo Shirane explains on the Haiku
by Basho website, this structure "leaves the poem open for the reader to complete,"
creating "an open space which the reader...is supposed to enter into." The two-part
structure can also make reading a haiku feel like discovering something hidden
that suddenly becomes very clear. In Japanese, the dividing point between the
two parts of a haiku is marked by what haiku poets call a "cutting word" (kireji).
In English, the division is often marked with a colon, a dash, or an elipsis.
5 Return
to the list of reasons students gave for choosing their favorite haiku and explore
similarities between what they had to say about this form of poetry and what the
literary tradition tells us about it. For example: Were they attracted by the
everyday subject matter that distinguishes haiku from "high class" styles of poetry?
Were they impressed by the immediacy of haiku, its sharp focus on a specific time
and place as signaled by the kigo? Were they drawn in by the haiku's two-part
structure -- surprised by a sudden turn of thought or shift of perspective? Were
they inspired by their favorite haiku, prompted to respond with a thought of their
own, like a hakai poet of the seventeenth century? Work with the class in this
way to extend and sharpen their list of critical insights into haiku, eliciting
student comments on characteristic haiku moods and themes (e.g., travel, transitional
moments, juxtapositions of the sublime and mundane).
6 To
broaden students' perspective on Japanese culture, have them compare the types
of scenes evoked by haiku with the scenes portrayed in ukiyo-e woodblock
prints, which also became popular during the Tokugawa period. Like haiku, this
was an art rooted in everyday experience, as indicated by its name, "ukiyo-e,"
which means "pictures of the floating world." Ukiyo-e captured the ephemeral aspect
of life, finding a timeless beauty in the here and now that has made it the best
known style of Japanese art today. Background
on ukiyo-e is available through EDSITEment at the Teaching
(and Learning) About Japan website, which provides links to several online
galleries: - The
Ukiyo-e Museum of the Nagoya Broadcast Network.
A collection of characteristic examples of ukiyo-e organized into thematic
galleries. For images that bear comparison to the world of haiku, direct students
to the galleries called "Rain
and Snow," "Sightseeing
in the Town of Edo" (Edo is present-day Tokyo), and "A
Sense of Journey." In each gallery, click on the small image to view a larger
version with an interpretative caption, then click the larger version to view
the image at maximum size.
- Ukiyo-e:
The Pictures of the Floating World
(http://www.bahnhof.se/~secutor/ukiyo-e/)
A collection organized for art collectors, with galleries devoted to individual
ukiyo-e artists and characteristic visual themes. Click "Guide
to ukiyo-e websites" on this site's homepage and scroll down to the Hiroshige
heading for a link to "Fifty
Three Stations of the Tokaido," a website that leads visitors through the
most famous series of ukiyo-e prints, Hiroshige's "Fifty-three Stations of the
Tokaido" (1833), which depicts scenes along the highway connecting Edo, the Tokugawa
capital, with Kyoto, Japan's ancient imperial city. The captions in this exhibit
provide background on Japanese history and geography, and include a question that
must be answered correctly to continue the journey, making this site an effective
online learning tool as well as a resource for comparing the world of ukiyo-e
with the world of haiku. - A
Visual Literacy Exercise
(http://www.csuohio.edu/history/japan/japan01c.html)
A special presentation of the Teaching
(and Learning) About Japan website, which can be accessed by clicking the
third small picture (an architectural detail) on the site's homepage. This online
learning exercise leads visitors through a series of fifteen ukiyo-e images, many
from Hiroshige's Toakaido series, allowing one first to look at the images without
explanation, then providing background and pointing out focal points for each
one.
7 Have
students examine a selection of ukiyo-e prints in small groups, listing points
of comparison between these images of everyday life and the scenes called to mind
by haiku. Students might notice, for example, that ukiyo-e frequently convey a
sense of season and seem to capture a specific time and place. Likewise, these
pictures typically draw a viewer into the situation and open a fresh perspective
by including a "cutting" detail, such as a person whose posture or facial expression
at first seems out of place, or a tiny human figure who at first seems lost in
the landscape. Encourage students to note other similarities and differences,
then share observations in a class discussion. Ask students what conclusions one
might draw about the relationship between ukiyo-e and haiku, and how one might
substantiate (or refute) those conclusions through further research.
8 Close
this discussion by asking students what these two art forms reveal about Japanese
culture and society in the Tokugawa period. Direct students' attention first to
physical aspects of the culture portrayed in traditional haiku and ukiyo-e: What
does Japan look like to the Japanese? How do they respond to the weather and climate?
How do they perceive their country's landscape, vegetation, and wildlife? What
is their attitude toward nature, country life, and the urban scene? Probe more
deeply by asking what haiku and ukiyo-e might reveal about Japanese social relationships,
gender roles, class divisions, and cultural values. Note students' observations
on the chalkboard and encourage them to range widely in this discussion, aiming
to open their eyes to the wealth of information concentrated in these popular
art forms. Be alert at the same time, however, to guard against sweeping generalizations
by reminding students that haiku and ukiyo-e are only a tiny part of Japanese
culture.
9 Conclude
this lesson by having students write two or three haiku based on their own everyday
experiences. Be sure to emphasize that a haiku can be funny, serious, or even
just a "snapshot" of a moment or a scene. Allow no more than 15 or 20 minutes
for this assignment, then have students share their best poems in their groups
or with the class.
Extending the Lesson
- Encourage students to submit their haiku to the
Mainichi Daily News, which publishes a monthly selection of Haiku
in English from writers around the world. At the paper's English-language
website, students can also read a wide selection of present-day haiku, including
recent winners of the Mainichi Haiku Contest. Haiku can be submitted by email
to mdn@mainichi.co.jp. (To access this
resource through EDSITEment, click "Information/News" on the AskAsia
website's homepage, then click "New Site Links" and select "Asian Newspapers."
Scroll down to the section for Japan and click "Mainichi Shimbun," then look in
the extreme lower right-hand corner of this Japanese-language webpage for a link
to "Mainichi Daily News." Scroll down to the lower right-hand corner of this English-language
webpage and click "Haiku
in English" under the Features heading.)
- Haiku
can serve as a doorway into Japanese history. For an in-depth overview, have students
visit the Teaching (and
Learning) About Japan website, which offers a series of illustrated online
lectures exploring The
Cultural History of Japan. (To find this resource, click the third small picture
on the site's homepage, then click the "series of five illustrated lectures" link.)
The lecture titled "The
Floating World" provides a detailed overview of the Tokugawa period (1600-1868),
when haiku and ukiuyo-e developed into Japan's most popular arts.
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
|