Japanese perspectives on nature in modern haiku

Japanese Thought and Nature in Modern Haiku

Japanese culture is known for its ability to make superb use of space. Japanese architecture melds form with function to keep Tokyo and other urban centers populous but workable, Japanese cuisine creatively utilizes spices and textures to stay fresh and interesting, and Japanese poetry exudes feeling and emotion with a minimal number of words. Centuries old, haiku is a structured and sparse form of poetry with strict rules regarding form. However, the form is only sparse in its word structure; the poems themselves portray significantly larger emotions and images than their size would suggest.

Haiku is highly structured; a haiku poem contains only three lines of seven, five, and seven syllables apiece. (Kawamoto 711) From such a confining format, Japanese writers have produced innumerable poems that vividly depict scenes from reality; these stanzas elicit substantially longer reactions than their physical length, in terms of both emotional response as well as in the images which they inspire on to picture. A significant part of many haiku poems is that the work refers to nature, or something that occurs in the natural world: seasons, weather, living things. Some scholars would call the subject matter and its relation to the natural world a requisite for haiku; these scholars distinguish between waka, which "had extremely strict rules and conventions governing its diction, topics and word associations," and haiku, which they define as simply being "unlike waka" (Kawamoto 711).

These distinctions are important; however, they do not detract from the poetic and cultural importance of haiku. Through the evolution and literary history of haiku, one can witness the trends in Japanese thought and culture. For the purposes of this essay, poems that follow the traditionally prescribed syllabic format will be considered haiku, regardless of their subject matter. However, it is to be noted that the majority of traditional haiku did treat nature as their primary topic; interpretations regarding other meanings were secondary to the prima facie verse. Of course, readers and intellectuals alike have always found "deeper" meanings in the sparse language of the haiku, whether it was to compare changing moods to seasons, or to transfer a depiction of aging to humans from nature, but these meanings were shaped by the reader, not elaborated upon by the author.

Modern haiku treats a plethora of subjects besides nature. It can be argued, however, that all trace back to nature-haiku regarding medical science, for example (Gardels 2). While technologically advanced and performed primarily indoors, in laboratories, modern medical science does relate to natural things: to humans, the biological world, and to the ways that man's environment affects him. Scientific studies regarding creativity have used haiku composition as a criterion (Domino 17-25). Another subject in modern haiku that might not be considered traditional "nature" is William Heyen's treatment of Auschwitz in the format; his stark images do not call to mind any nature scenes, but are a reminder of man's nature and of the physical body (Heyen 73-74).

Even among all of these modern influences about which to write, haiku poets still find new ways to look at the traditional themes of nature and the natural world. Through their work, Japanese culture and thought is recorded and essentialized. However, I will argue that this exploration of Japanese thought via haiku can be achieved without limiting the poems' subject to "nature," that is to say, that modern haiku can also encompass subjects not normally associated with the natural world-like psychological studies or concentration camps, as in the above examples. In the modern world, it is not that haiku no longer addresses nature, but that nature is personified in more ways that it has ever been in history. Nature can be seen in DNA, or in urban sprawl, or in a description of genocide-all subjects addressed by modern haiku but not done so traditionally. I will argue that these topics are all related to nature in the sense that they stem from man and his nature and growth. First, however, I will examine the effects of the haiku on man and on Japanese thought.

The relationship between haiku and Japanese thought is a long-standing one. As mentioned in the introduction to this piece, simplicity has long been a major part of Japanese culture. From the design and cuisine to poetry forms and religious traditions, simplicity can be seen in almost every aspect of Japanese thought. Zen Buddhism emphasizes the need for the removal of material desires and physical cravings; the belief system stresses giving up unnecessary items (Ueda 2). This emphasis on giving up the extra, the nonessential, is simple to see in haiku-nonessential words are eliminated through the strict limits on form. Zen Buddhism has both influenced and been influenced by haiku-its emphasis on simplicity and the removal of non-necessities, to name two major similarities between the two (Ueda 4).

One scholar has delineated four major ways in which haiku is interpreted through the lens of Japanese culture and thought; this interaction is termed "blending" (Hiraga 463). They are defined as 1) literal and "pragmatic" knowledge of the context, 2) folk models as learned from myth and folklore, 3) generally understood metaphors, and 4) "kanji, "Chinese ideograms, which link form and meaning" (ibid.) These linkages between cultural understandings in everyday Japanese thought with the words and images used in haiku give an excellent starting point for examining the ways in which the two influence one another. In the following paragraphs, I will examine each of these factors and at the same time, I will begin addressing how subjects that do not address nature on their face can be construed and interpreted to be about the natural world, which will also include the human experience.

The first method of blending is also the most straightforward. A literal, practical knowledge of the subject is one's first source of interpretive information; a reference to rain will most likely inspire thoughts of dampness and moisture. A reference to sun reminds the reader of warmth and light. These literal interpretations of verse are simple and straightforward, and depend mainly on the most simple definition of the words utilized in the haiku. Since there are not alternative literal translations of words, the interpretive qualities associated with this first method of assessing meaning are few.

The second method, however, gives more opportunities to utilize a more interpretive approach to haiku. Knowledge of Japanese culture and customs can be used in determining secondary meanings of words used in haiku. Folklore and myth play a significant role in affecting the way that we interpret things and may even affect the ways that certain words affect us. Hiraga cites Basho's haiku, "a clam separates from flesh as autumn departs" (Hiraga 467). The Japanese word futami can be translated as referring to the lid of the clam, or it can be taken to mean a proper name of a town (ibid.) The dual meanings reflect a duality of interpretation -- the separation can be the literal, physical removal of the clam from its shell, or it can be understood as a reference to a specific town in Japanese culture, a meaning that might not be immediately and literally obvious (ibid.)

The knowledge of folk lore is also relevant in the interpretation of another Basho haiku, "departing spring: birds cry, and in the eyes of fish, tears," (Hiraga 468). The folk interpretation of the word spring is relevant to giving the verse secondary meaning. Spring has many interpretations, a significant one being, in Hiraga's words, "the season of beginning or new life...warmth, birth, and new life...the staring point of progress and prosperity in folk beliefs." (Hiraga 469) Blending of meaning is most evident in the third method of interpretation, the use of metaphors for words in the verse. "Spring" and "autumn" are "natural events seen as human action...that of a traveler who is departing" (Hiraga 467). In the spring Basho haiku, the idea of spring leaving is based on the generally understood metaphor that the departure of a season is symbolic that "time (season) moves" (Hiraga 469). This immediate association that the individual makes with a certain word or phrase will be discussed in detail in a few paragraphs. For now, the understanding that the literal meaning of a word-for example, "spring" or "autumn"-is not the only manner in which a haiku can be understood, and that the metaphors inherent in many common words also contribute to the meaning of the verse.

The final method of interpretation is the idea of kanji, which links form and meaning with words. In the haiku verses above, this linkage can be seen with the connection that a reader will make between seasons and time passing, in the pun between the physical town and the clamshell, and in the ways that the reader's mind jumps from the literal reading to secondary meanings to metaphorical meanings. These linkages add not only meanings to the haiku, but add depth and allow the reader to identify more strongly with the images of the verse; a person will respond more readily to a phrase or lyric that he interprets of several levels and in more detail than a shallow, single-issue verse. The multiple interpretations of simple words and phrases used in modern haiku give the reader a more participatory role in their reading; instead of being literature alone, the haiku that inspires varied meanings becomes art and involves the reader in its interpretation.

Another instance of these multiple interpretations contributing to a deeper understanding of the haiku is seen in the aggregate definition of "mountain village." The term can be personified as "either the unbearable loneliness of a life lived in seclusion or the bliss of living at one's ease from the maddening crowd," (Kawamoto 714). These choices of interpretation allow the haiku to take on its own meaning, above nature, above literal interpretations of the words, and to resonate more deeply with the reader.

It is this concept of "blending" interpretations of haiku, Hiraga says, that allows the haiku to take on a deeper meaning than its literal interpretation may allow. For example, in the spring haiku, Hiraga says, the underlying blend of the departure of the traveler, the end of spring, and the sadness of the fish and birds all combine to create the idea that "the departure is fused with the end phase of spring, leading us to interpret the sadness of farewell as identical to the sadness of that season's fading" (Hiraga 470).

These multiple interpretations, different levels of meaning and "blending" of interpretations all combine to create a deeper and more meaningful verse, as opposed to simply accepting the first type of interpretation only, that of the literal meaning of the words. Hiraga notes that haiku are "rich in cultural implications" (Hiraga 478) and that the blending technique of interpretation can lead to new and more significant levels of discerning the meaning of a selection.

It should be noted that the basic simplicity of haiku's format and its structural restrictions "require the form itself to participate in giving images, concepts, and feelings" (Hiroga 479). If the only method of interpretation was the literal sense, that is to say that if the only subjects encompassed by haiku really were nature subjects, the genre would not have held the interest of writers and readers for so many centuries. The layers of meaning are what give haiku its timelessness, and the applicability of a word that may mean one thing literally to another thing psychically and emotionally is a vital part of haiku. The ability of the reader to assign different meanings to the literal words enhances the experience of haiku significantly; one author noted that "setting one idea (or word picture) on top of another" (Kawamoto 710). This layering contributes to interpretation and the meaning of a verse to an individual significantly more than taking each verse as a literal, limited thought.

With this concept of interpretation on many levels in mind, we can begin to examine the influences of haiku on Japanese thought and vice versa. The influence of the genre on Zen Buddhism and the effects of Buddhism on the development of haiku has already been mentioned. This influence is one that captures the reciprocal relationship in Japanese thought between the literary expression in haiku and the culture itself.

Buddhism's emphasis on the need to see reality in a manner as unclouded as possible lends credence to the need to define and consider as many interpretations of a haiku as possible. As one Buddhist scholar noted, "any reality we perceive is a reality that is interpreted through language," (Ueda 1). This lens of interpretation -- the first step of language-puts us, in the view of Zen Buddhism, one layer away from "reality" to begin with. The Buddhist emphasis on seeing things as they are and on discerning the true meaning of a thing coincides with haiku's multiple interpretations and the blending of these interpretations.

It is these interpretations that lead us back to the question of whether or not a haiku, as defined, must only be on its face about nature. That question requires that we define nature as well, and that is where the nature of haiku must be considered. Haiku, as demonstrated above, may be interpreted on many levels-literally, as understood in lore and myth, as a direct metaphor or allegory for another thing, and by using a blend of these interpretive methods. This variety of interpretations results in the definition of nature becoming very, very flexible -- the nature of man? Of beast? Of seasons, or emotions, or of the physical world (like DNA or engineering)?