A HISTORY OF HAIKU, Volume One; From the Beginnings up to Issa.

by R.H. Blyth

Of all forms of poetry and literature, haiku is likely the least amenable to chronological treatment. Haiku comprises moments of vision, and a “history of moments” is hardly achievable. If we were to choose one for such a task, however, a strong case could be made for Reginald Horace Blyth (1898–1964). Best known for his acclaimed four-volume haiku anthology, Blyth’s appreciation and understanding of haiku and its motives are perhaps unequaled by any Westerner. In selecting the outstanding works of as many poets as possible, Blyth presents readers with a true vision of the history of haiku, taking care to highlight its ups and downs, its masters and its failures, but more than anything, its unique ability to communicate the incommunicable.The first of two volumes, this book introduces the reader to the major themes of haiku, as well as illustrating its development from other styles such as hokku and renga. The reader is then guided through the poetry of the greatest haiku masters, including Bashō, Buson, and Issa. Together with its companion volume, this is a superb introduction to this ever ancient, ever new poetic form.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Reginald Horace Blyth was an English author, interpreter, translator, devotee of Japanese culture and English Professor, having lived in Japan for eighteen years.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The structure and content of this book is extremely similar to R.H. Blyth's Haiku series: Haiku, Volume 1: Eastern Culture, Haiku, Volume 2: Spring, Haiku, Volume 3: Summer-Autumn, and Haiku, Volume 4: Autumn-Winter. The main difference with set of volumes is within in the title itself, A History of Haiku. While the Haiku series focuses more on the use of seasonal words (kigo) and functions as a haiku almanac for the use of these words (saijiki), Blyth uses this series to focus more on the progression of Japanese poetry to the form of haiku as we know it today, and this is mainly done by examining the poets themselves. The focus is not only on the poets we eventually have come to label as the masters of haiku, but also on the forms of poetry that preceded haiku. As the subtitle states, Volume I focuses on the "beginnings up to Issa."

Blyth begins most of his books with an introduction that expounds on the variables that are most influential and prevalent in haiku, and this volume is no different. The first portion of the introduction is focused on the Zen aspect of haiku. Though the influence of Zen within haiku is great, Blyth makes a point that the separation of Zen and haiku are mainly in the selectiveness of haiku as an artform while Zen is described as non-selective. “Zen includes, haiku excludes.” He also speaks on what is believed to be a "defect" within haiku in that interpersonal sexuality is hardly a topic while senryu (the more human nature based form of haiku) has "overcompensated" for this. A large quote by Bernard Phillips is included in this section to describe Zen as a state where there is no separation (implied to be in a spiritual sense) between doer and deed, a term coined as "entering in." Blyth then goes into the aspects of English poetry that focus on rhythm, sound, and intonation, and then gives his one statements on his theory on poetry as a whole:

The theory of the matter [poetry] is that a thing is not really a thing until it has a word, a spoken word, as its own expression; and a word is not really a word, that is, is not a poetic word, unless it is part of a thing, the extension of it, the thing heard, the thing speaking. Things without words, and words in a dictionary, have no existence. The are either dead or not yet born. A (real) word does not express a thing. No thing can express another. A (real) thing is a thought- thing, a thing thinking, a thing wording.

We are given this schema based on the above theory:
• Zen: Doer is deed
• Poetry: Word is thing
• Haiku: Meaning is sensation
• Senryu: Enlightenment is illusion

The following sections in the introduction focus on aspects of poetry/haiku that Blyth finds important to have a full understanding of before going forward with the rest of the volume. The second section of the introduction is focused on animism: “The essence of all nature poetry is animism (more exactly, animatism), the experience that each thing is ‘alive,’ not merely animate or inanimate.” This aspect of poetry is meant to show the animism of all things, not just the understanding of life a biological sense, but that things are alive in that they have a direction, purpose, and will. The last sections in the introduction are "Nature in Japanese Literature," "The English View on Nature," and "Haiku in English Literature," with the last being examples of haiku-like English poetry.

The "beginning" of haiku in this series is that of renga, which is the linked verse form written in collaboration with multiple poets and is the focus of the first chapter of this volume. A historic poetry book called the Manyōshū contained three kinds of poetic verse: chōka (5,7,5,7,5…7), tanka (5,7,5;7,7), and sedōka (5,7,5;5,7,5); tanka (also known as waka) was the form that eventually evolved into renga. From here, a history of the types of poets and schools that taught this form of poetry is given. This is the only chapter in this volume that focuses on a poetic form rather than focusing on a specific poet or list of poets from a time period.

The next six chapters focus on many influential people in the form of renga, with their influence ranging from the standardization of seasonal focus in the writing of renga (Sōgi), the use of serious and humorous forms of renga (Sōkan and Moritake, respectively), the creation of a reverant renga school (Teitoku and the Teimon School) and of a more free-form, non-reverant renga school (Sōin and the Danrin School), and even of a renga poet that the author describes as the first true writer of haiku and a contemporary of Bashō (Onitsura).

Chapter 8 is on the first haiku master, Bashō, with a very short history on his life and development accompanied by multiple examples of his haiku translated and commented on by Blyth. The next four chapters are all on disciples of Bashō and other haiku poets in Bashō's time with short comments on who they are, the time that they were alive, and examples of their work.

Now the next section is where this book shows a bit of its age. Chapter 13 is titled "Women in Haiku," and does give names of women poets of the time period, but not with some commentary that can be seen as dated. Blyth begins this chapter by stating that that men lean toward intellectuality while women lead toward sentimentality, “both foes of poetry.” He then states that women who can “avoid her womanly ‘feelings,’ like Jane Austen, or who can think, like Emily Dickinson, or who expresses her emotions without asking for our sympathy, like Christina Rossetti, has something that a man can hardly attain to.” It is best to look past the archaic narrative given here and instead focus on the (attempted) objective review of women haiku poets and their work.

After one more chapter on poets in the time period between the first two haiku masters, the book dedicates Chapter 15 to the second haiku master, Buson. Blyth spent a lot of the chapters dedicated to Bashō to express how his dedication and reverence to Zen and the "love of all things" as what made his haiku last. He does not say the same for Buson. Instead, Buson is credited with artistic realism in the form of poetic intent and sensibility, which Bashō is not credited for displaying this skill in his poetry. Buson is called a great poet because of both his objective observational haiku and his subjective relational haiku. Many examples of his haiku are given with a great focus on his artistic expression through the senses. Two chapters are dedicated to his work alone. Chapter 17 is dedicated to the haiku poet Taigi, which Blyth describes as arguably the fifth haiku master when looking at his best works. The next two chapters are focused on poets that were writing in Buson's time.

The last four chapters are dedicated to the third haiku master, Issa, with Chapter 20 being dedicated to his early work, Chapter 21 focusing on his work from 1812-1822, Chapter 22 focusing on his haiku from 1818-1822 specifically, and the last chapter being on his work from the last years of his life, 1822-1826. It may seem odd that Issa has more chapters dedicated to him specifically than Bashō and Buson combined, but he does have more translated work than both of them as well. Much of Issa's story is sad with the loss of loved ones and personal property, but Blyth refutes that Issa would consider his own life pitiable. Blyth states that Issa is more in line with Bashō's style of writing with his Zen background, but states that a big difference in Bashō and Issa is the amount of disciples and school following that Bashō and Buson both had compared to Issa. Because of this, Issa's work had the chance to have its own individualistic depth not available to someone being followed by so many. As Blyth puts it, “Breadth must always sacrifice depth.” He also stated that Issa's strength as a writer was in his ability to feel greatly the little things (including living things) around him. “Bashō is concerned with the religious meaning of things, Buson with their beauty and strangeness, Issa with their (comical) thinginess.”

The volume ends after giving multiple translated examples and comments on Issa's haiku, and we are left to pick up A History of Haiku, Volume 2: From Issa up to the Present to finish Blyth's commentary on the evolution of haiku to what we know it to be today (at least as modern as 1963). Overall, this book works well as a study of the history of haiku, filled with commentaries, translations, histories, and theories on the poetry form that the series is dedicated to. I gave the book three stars because I find it to be a valuable resource for study and understanding of haiku, but it is not without its flaws. To make my thoughts on this book as a whole clearer, I have listed the pros and cons that I believe this book offers.

Pros
Blyth is truly dedicated to the poetry and poets that have worked to develop haiku into what it is today. There are many comments and examples given for every haiku poet in this volume, not just the three masters that have their own dedicated chapters (Bashō, Buson, and Issa). The commentary for each haiku is excellent and brimming with passion and consideration to these historic works. This book not being limited to only the history of the writers make this a good volume to return to for a read rather than just using it as a reference when looking up information on these poets.

Cons
I hate to say it, but there are a lot of things that I was hoping from this book that were just not there. The history for each poet is limited, even the masters. There is some theory given on the different forms of poetry in this volume (tanka/waka, renga, hokku, haikai, etc.), but not enough for this to be a good book for a true beginner to haiku. Blyth is hardly objective in what he believes makes a valuable haiku, and there are times where it feels like we are listening to a Zen sermon rather than experiencing haiku with him, a criticism I have had on his Haiku series as well. The version of this volume that I read (published by Greenpoint Books in 2022) does not have any kind of index for authors, poetic forms, seasons, topics, etc., which would have been very helpful for a book on this subject. Update: the index for both volumes of the A History of Haiku series is at the end of A History of Haiku, Volume 2: From Issa up to the Present; is that common practice for multi-volume works? I am not a fan of this. As good a work as it is, especially with how limited the information on haiku was for English readers at the time, there is so much more that could have been done with this book.

The above criticism is mainly on what the book could have been, not what it is, and my rating of three stars is based on what it is, not what it should have been. I recommend this book to any haiku enthusiast, but not over any of the books in Blyth's Haiku series.

[Ad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the first volume of a 2-volume series.

Reginald Horace Blyth (1898–1964) was the great pioneer of Japanese haiku. Born in Britain, he was a conscientious objector during WWI, a life-long vegetarian, flute player and devotee of the music of Bach. From 1925 to 1935 he lived in Korea (then occupied by Japan) where he studied Chinese, Japanese and Zen Buddhism. In 1940 he moved to Japan with his second wife who was Japanese. After interment by the Japanese during WWII, after the war he was Professor of English at Gakushuin University and became private tutor to the Crown Prince (later emperor) Akihito until 1964, the time of his (Blyth's) death. In these years, he did much to popularize Zen philosophy and Japanese poetry (particularly haiku) in the West.

Blyth wrote six books on haiku (1949–52, 1963–64) and two books on senryu (1949, 1960), as well as seven books on Zen. Nearly all of his books were published in Japan, by Hokuseido Press, Tokyo. On haiku, Blyth first published his four-volume series divided according to the seasons (1949–52); later followed the two-volume History of Haiku (1963–64).

Blyth opened up the world of haiku to readers of English and he fully deserves the fame of trailblazer. Many contemporary Western writers of haiku were introduced to the genre through his work, such as Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and Allen Ginsberg. Many members of the international "haiku community" also got their first views of haiku from Blyth's books, including James W. Hackett, William J. Higginson, and Jane Reichhold.

However, there are some serious problems with Blyth's interpretations of haiku. First and for all his strong bias regarding a direct connection between haiku and Zen. He saw haiku in fact as Zen poetry, and this mistaken view has influenced generations of followers of haiku in the West, putting them on a wrong footing. Hereby Blyth shows that he was a friend and disciple of D.T. Suzuki, who also saw Japanese culture wrongly through the lens of Zen.

No, haiku is not Zen poetry - when you want to read real Zen religious poetry, read Ikkyu, who (besides some too often quoted sexy poems) wrote heavy doctrinal verse in Chinese. Moreover, some of the greatest haiku poets, like Buson, Issa and Chiyo-ni were Pure Land (Jodo) Buddhists - the Jodo stance is especially clear in the haiku of Issa. And Basho, who did practice Zen Buddhism, seems to have felt that his devotion to haiku on the contrary prevented him from realizing enlightenment, instead of being in some way conducive to it). Today, no serious scholar in Japan or in the West sees haiku as "Zen poetry."

The other problems are that Blyth downplayed the contribution of women to haiku, and that he had very little interest in modern haiku.

Now to the present "History of Haiku." The problem here is that it is not a history of the genre at all! Blyth just quotes a number of haiku arranged by author, in chronological order. There is almost no information about those authors, and background information about how haiku functioned in the various periods, how it was written and consumed, something like a reception history, is totally lacking. Of course, the biographical approach was the traditional one in academics about 60-70 years ago - even Donald Keene suffers from it in his history of Japanese literature. But Blyth's books are even less than that: just a handful of haiku translated by author, and interpreted in Blyth's habitual way, via what he regarded as Zen. In other words, these two volumes are useless as a history of haiku...

Why I still give four stars to this book? Because Blyth presents many, many haiku, and always gives the Japanese text, a transliteration, and a translation. So for finding great haiku, his six books on haiku are a true treasure trove - many students and translators, also in other languages than English, have profited from that. But a history of haiku? No - such a history unfortunately still has to be written, 60 years after the death of Blyth.

Also see the articles about haiku on my website, such as: https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/p/...

[Liam Hines · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will write a more detailed review when I've finished reading this, but it's obvious from the first few pages that the scholarship in this book is not for those with serious, critical interest. The translations read well and I think it will suffice for a rough intro to the history of Haiku. A special warning to anyone who avoids outdated misogynistic and nationalistic concepts etched in to their literature.

Update, 100 pages in: I'm not sure I've ever hated an author more.

A direct quote from the introduction to Basho:

"Until 1686, when Basho was 41, he had only written mediocre verses, and only for eight or nine years, the last years of his life, did he write real poetry. In this respect he is the opposite of Wordsworth..."

That pretty much captures the essence of this book (minus a characteristically shitty comment about "woman poets")

Having these translations of the pre-basho stuff is handy, but the author/translator's stench is all over them and adds very little. I hope you've read Yeats, Keat, and Wordsworth because this book is actually about English poets.

I have encountered some neat haiku/pre-haiku poets through this book, but it's a steep trade off, since I feel like I actually have to try hard to avoid getting a poorer idea of the modus operandi of these famous writers.

[Rick Jackofsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love R.H. Blyth’s translations of Japanese haiku. I’m hoping to someday find an affordable copy of his four volume set “Haiku.” This book traces the history of haiku from 12th century renga to up the 18th/19th century poet Issa. Blyth's analysis of the poems and poets is sometimes insightful and other times a bit too subjective and judgmental. I thought his attempts to establish an equivalency between certain Japanese poems and and the work of western writers was interesting but was often a bit of a reach. Overall this is an excellent book, a treasure trove of information for anyone interested in the history of Japanese haiku.