Haibun (俳文, literally, haikai writings) is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem,[1] short story and travel journal.

History

The term "haibun" was first used by the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, in a letter to his disciple Kyorai in 1690.[2] Bashō was a prominent early writer of haibun, then a new genre combining classical prototypes, Chinese prose genres and vernacular subject matter and language.[2] He wrote some haibun as travel accounts during his various journeys, the most famous of which is Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Interior).

Bashō's shorter haibun include compositions devoted to travel and others focusing on character sketches, landscape scenes, anecdotal vignettes and occasional writings written to honor a specific patron or event. His Hut of the Phantom Dwelling can be classified as an essay while, in Saga Nikki (Saga Diary), he documents his day-to-day activities with his disciples on a summer retreat.

Traditional haibun typically took the form of a short description of a place, person or object, or a diary of a journey or other series of events in the poet's life.[3] Haibun continued to be written by later haikai poets such as Yosa Buson,[4] Kobayashi Issa[5] and Masaoka Shiki.[3]

In English

Haibun is no longer confined to Japan, and has established itself as a genre in world literature[6][7] that has gained momentum in recent years.[8]

In the Haiku Society of America 25th anniversary book of its history, A Haiku Path, Elizabeth Lamb noted that the first English-language haibun, titled "Paris," was published in 1964 by Canadian writer Jack Cain.[9] However, an earlier example is Carolyn Kizer's "A Month in Summer," an extended haibun with 21 haiku and one tanka, published in 1962. Her piece (identified as a haibun) first appeared in Kenyon Review.[10]

James Merrill's "Prose of Departure", from The Inner Room (1988), is a later example.

The first contest for English-language haibun took place in 1996,[11] organized by poet and editor Michael Dylan Welch, and judged by Tom Lynch and Cor van den Heuvel. Anita Virgil won first prize, and honorable mentions (in alphabetical order) went to Sydney Bougy, David Cobb, and John Stevenson. The contest resulted in the publication of Wedge of Light (Press Here) in 1999. As credited by Welch,[12] the first anthology of English-language haibun was Bruce Ross's Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun (Tuttle), published in 1998.[13][non-primary source needed]

Jim Kacian and Bruce Ross edited the inaugural number of the annual anthology American Haibun & Haiga (Red Moon Press) in 1999; that series, which continues to this day, changed its name to Contemporary Haibun in 2003 and sponsored the parallel creation in 2005 of Contemporary Haibun Online, a quarterly journal that added Welsh haibun author Ken Jones to the founding editorial team of Kacian and Ross.

Characteristics

A haibun may record a scene, or a special moment, in a highly descriptive and objective manner or may occupy a wholly fictional or dream-like space.[citation needed] The accompanying haiku may have a direct or subtle relationship with the prose and encompass or hint at the gist of what is recorded in the prose sections.

Several distinct schools of English haibun have been described,[14] including Reportage narrative mode such as Robert Wilson's Vietnam Ruminations, Haibunic prose, and the Templum effect.

Contemporary practice of haibun composition in English is continually evolving.[15] Generally, a haibun consists of one or more paragraphs of prose written in a concise, imagistic haikai style, and one or more haiku. However, there may be considerable variation of form, as described by editor and practitioner Jeffrey Woodward.[16]

Modern English-language haibun writers (aka, practitioners) include Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross, Mark Nowak, John Richard Parsons, Sheila Murphy, Nobuyuki Yuasa,[17] Lynne Reese,[18] Peter Butler,[19] Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick,[20] and David Cobb, founder of the British Haiku Society in 1990 and author of Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore, a 5,000-word haibun which has been considered seminal for the English form of kikōbun (i.e., travel diary).[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Keene, Donald, 1999. Dawn to the West: A History of Japanese Literature, Volume 4 (Japanese Literature of the Modern Era - Poetry, Drama, Criticism), p.233. New York: Columbia University Press.
  2. ^ a b Shirane, Haruo. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashō. Stanford University Press, 1998. ISBN 9780804730990. p212
  3. ^ a b Ross, Bruce. "North American Versions of Haibun and Postmodern American Culture" in Hakutani, Yoshinobu, ed. Postmodernity and Cross-Culturalism. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 2002. ISBN 9780838639085. p169
  4. ^ Shirane, Haruo. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900. Columbia University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780231144155. p553
  5. ^ Ueda, Makoto. Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa. Brill, 2004. ISBN 9789004137233. p. 15
  6. ^ Yuasa, Nobuyuki in the preface to Yuasa, Nobuyuki and Stephen Gill, eds. Kikakuza Haibun Contest: Decorated Works 2009-2011. Book Works Hibiki, 2011. ISBN 9784990485023. p. 5
  7. ^ Ross, Bruce. Venturing Upon Dizzy Heights: Lectures and Essays on Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. ISBN 978-1433102875. pp. 96-97
  8. ^ Yuasa, Nobuyuki in "Judges' Comments" in Yuasa and Gill, 2011 p43
  9. ^ HSA Editorial Committee, eds., A Haiku Path: The Haiku Society of America 1968–1988 (New York: Haiku Society of America, 1994), page 12.
  10. ^ Kenyon Review 24:3, Summer 1962, pages 551 to 559
  11. ^ Wedge of Light. Tom Lynch, Cor van den Heuvel, and Michael Dylan Welch, editors. Foster City, California: Press Here, 1999.
  12. ^ High, Graham. "Postscript to Travelling Light" in Haibun Today, 4:2, June 2010: paragraph 7.
  13. ^ Ross, Bruce. Venturing Upon Dizzy Heights: Lectures and Essays on Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. ISBN 978-1433102875. p95
  14. ^ Haibun and Realism I:Some Thoughts upon the Developing Schools of Haibun - Jamie Edgecombe in Blithe Spirit (Journal of the British Haiku Society) Vol 16 No.1, March 2006
  15. ^ Jones, Ken. "Haibun: Some Concerns," in Haibun Today 9:2, June 2015.
  16. ^ Woodward, Jeffrey. "Form in Haibun: An Outline" in Haibun Today 4:4, December 2010.
  17. ^ Yuasa and Gill, 2011 pp71-76
  18. ^ Lucky, Bob. "On Lynne Reese's Forgiving the Rain" in Haibun Today, 7:4, December 2013.
  19. ^ Jessup, Ryan. "On Peter Butler's A Piece of Shrapnel" in Haibun Today, 7:1, March 2013.
  20. ^ Sherwood, Justin. "Haiku as Queer Tourism: From Bashō to David Trinidad" in New Criticals, 11 December 2013, p. 10.
  21. ^ Haiku International Association, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Symposium, January 2014.

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