Symbolism of Japan, Haiku

Symbolism of Japan, Haiku 

TANAKA Akio 
4 July 2012



                                        

Haiku is the traditional Japanese literature since the Meiji Period some 140 years ago, the ancestor of which was called Haikai that was began in the Muromachi Period some 500 years ago.

I have made Haiku since age 20s. My Haiku's teacher is SAEKI Shoichi, one of the modern Haiku writers in Japan. SAEKI's teacher is probably ISHIDA Hakyo, famous Haiku writer in the Showa Period. Thus the tradition of the literature has been inherited to me.

One of my youth age's Haiku, at Tokyo, February 1970, is the following.

Japanese

パンタグラフ冷たい隙間で発光す

Romanized Japanese

Pantagurafu tsumetai sukimade hakkosu

English translation

Pantograph
At the coldest clink
Radiates light for me