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39-576: Unlike the coastal Tōkaidō , the Nakasendō traveled inland, hence its name, which can be translated as "中 = central; 山 = mountain; 道 = route" (as opposed to the Tōkaidō, which roughly meant "eastern sea route"). Because it was such a well-developed road, many famous persons, including the haiku master Matsuo Bashō , traveled the road. In the late 1830s Hiroshige also walked the Nakasendo, contributing 46 designs to

78-401: A kireji , or cutting word, typically appears at the end of one of the verse's three phrases. A kireji fills a role analogous to that of a caesura in classical Western poetry or to a volta in sonnets . A kireji helps mark rhythmic divisions. Depending on which kireji is chosen and its position within the verse, it may briefly cut the stream of thought, suggesting a parallel between

117-409: A kind of nature sketch in words, an approach called shasei ( 写生 , sketching from life) . He popularized his views by verse columns and essays in newspapers . Hokku up to the time of Shiki, even when appearing independently, were written in the context of renku. Shiki formally separated his new style of verse from the context of collaborative poetry. Being agnostic , he also separated it from

156-512: A phrase with a sentence-ending particle ( 終助詞 , shūjoshi ) . However, renku typically employ kireji . In English, since kireji have no direct equivalent, poets sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis, or an implied break to create a juxtaposition intended to prompt the reader to reflect on the relationship between the two parts. The kireji in the Bashō examples "old pond" and "the wind of Mt Fuji" are both "ya" ( や ). Neither

195-556: A saint of poetry in Japan, and is the one name from classical Japanese literature that is familiar throughout the world. The next famous style of haikai to arise was that of Yosa Buson (1716–1784) and others such as Kitō, called the Tenmei style after the Tenmei Era (1781–1789) in which it was created. Buson is recognized as one of the greatest masters of haiga (an art form where the painting

234-452: A series of 69 views of the Nakasendo, which was later completed by Keisai Eisen. Many people preferred traveling along the Nakasendō because it did not require travelers to ford any rivers. In Gunma Prefecture, the Nakasendō is featured on the 'na' card in Jomo Karuta . Around the beginning of the seventh century, during the beginning of Ritsuryō , the area that would eventually make up

273-615: A severe blow to renku and surviving haikai schools. The term "hokku" is now used chiefly in its original sense of the opening verse of a renku, and rarely to distinguish haiku written before Shiki's time. The earliest Westerner known to have written haiku was the Dutchman Hendrik Doeff (1764–1837), who was the Dutch commissioner in the Dejima trading post in Nagasaki during the first years of

312-557: A single syllable, comprises two on : the short vowel o and the moraic nasal n . This is illustrated by the Issa haiku below, which contains 17 on but only 15 syllables. Conversely, some sounds , such as "kyo" ( きょ ) may look like two syllables to English speakers but are in fact a single on (as well as a single syllable) in Japanese. In 1973, the Haiku Society of America noted that

351-492: Is combined with haiku or haikai prose). His affection for painting can be seen in the painterly style of his haiku. No new popular style followed Buson. However, a very individualistic, and at the same time humanistic, approach to writing haiku was demonstrated by the poet Kobayashi Issa (1763–1827), whose miserable childhood, poverty, sad life, and devotion to the Pure Land sect of Buddhism are evident in his poetry. Issa made

390-493: Is known as haibun . His best-known work, Oku no Hosomichi , or Narrow Roads to the Interior , is counted as one of the classics of Japanese literature and has been translated into English extensively. Bashō was deified by both the imperial government and Shinto religious headquarters one hundred years after his death because he raised the haikai genre from a playful game of wit to sublime poetry. He continues to be revered as

429-525: Is regarded as a classical study of haiku. Today Blyth is best known as a major interpreter of haiku to English speakers. His works have stimulated the writing of haiku in English. The Japanese-Italian translator and poet Harukichi Shimoi introduced haiku to Italy in the 1920s, through his work with the magazine Sakura as well as his close personal relationships within the Italian literati. Two notable influences are

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468-551: Is the first verse of the collaborative haikai or renku , but its position as the opening verse made it the most important, setting the tone for the whole composition. Even though hokku had sometimes appeared individually, they were always understood in the context of renku . The Bashō school promoted standalone hokku by including many in their anthologies, thus giving birth to what is now called "haiku". Bashō also used his hokku as torque points within his short prose sketches and longer travel diaries. This subgenre of haikai

507-421: Is the opening stanza of an orthodox collaborative linked poem, or renga , and of its later derivative, renku (or haikai no renga ). By the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the hokku had begun to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in haibun (a combination of prose and hokku), and haiga (a combination of painting with hokku). In the late 19th century, Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) renamed

546-446: Is usually fixed verse that consists of 17 on , in three phrases of five, seven, and five on , respectively. Among modern poems, traditionalist haiku continue to use the 5-7-5 pattern while free form haiku do not. However, one of the examples below illustrates that traditional haiku masters were not always constrained by the 5-7-5 pattern either. The free form haiku was advocated for by Ogiwara Seisensui and his disciples. Although

585-572: The Kisoji route's eleven post towns all become part of the Nakasendō (from Niekawa-juku to Magome-juku ). Prior to the Edo period, the route had been called both "Sandō" (山道 "mountain route") and " Tōsandō " ("eastern mountain route"). During the Edo period, the name was changed to Nakasendō and was written as both 中山道 and 中仙道, but the Tokugawa shogunate established 中山道 as the official name in 1716. Although much of

624-404: The 17- on pattern and sometimes do not contain a kireji . Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as senryū . Haiku originated as an opening part of a larger Japanese genre of poetry called renga . These haiku written as an opening stanza were known as hokku and over time they began to be written as stand-alone poems. Haiku was given its current name by

663-456: The 18th century (in regard to this period of haikai , it came to mean 'trite' and 'hackneyed'). Shiki also sometimes criticized Bashō. Like the Japanese intellectual world in general at that time, Shiki was strongly influenced by Western culture. He favored the painterly style of Buson and particularly the European concept of plein-air painting , which he adapted to create a style of haiku as

702-510: The 19th century. One of his haiku is the following: 稲妻の 腕を借らん 草枕 inazuma no kaina wo karan kusamakura lend me your arms, fast as thunderbolts, for a pillow on my journey. Although there were further attempts outside Japan to imitate the "hokku" in the early 20th century, there was little understanding of its principles. Early Western scholars such as Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) and William George Aston were mostly dismissive of hokku's poetic value. R. H. Blyth

741-542: The Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century. Originally from Japan, haiku today are written by authors worldwide. Haiku in English and haiku in other languages have different styles and traditions while still incorporating aspects of the traditional haiku form. Non-Japanese language haiku vary widely on how closely they follow traditional elements. Additionally, a minority movement within modern Japanese haiku ( 現代俳句 , gendai-haiku ) , supported by Ogiwara Seisensui and his disciples, has varied from

780-516: The Nakasendō no longer exists in its historic form, its route is now roughly followed by modern roads. In order, they are: Portions of the following railway lines approximately follow the path of the former Nakasendō: Although there has been much modern development along the Nakasendō, a few stretches remain in its original form. Three sections in Nagano Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture have been accorded National Historic Site of Japan status by

819-660: The Nakasendō was developed to connect Kinai (modern-day Kansai region , which included the former capital of Japan) with the provinces of the Tōsandō (part of the gokishichidō ) that lie to the east. During the Sengoku period , which lasted from the 15th to 17th centuries, the Tōsandō was controlled by the Takeda ( Kai Province ), Ogasawara ( Shinano Province ), Kanamori ( Hida Province ) and Oda ( Mino Province ) clans . In order to connect

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858-542: The Tōsandō with the Tōkaidō (and Takeda's troops with Oda's), a road system was developed. This route is generally followed by the modern day national highways numbered 52 , 151 , 153 , and 22 . In the early years of the Edo period , many political, legal, cultural and intellectual changes took place. Among them was the rejuvenation of Japan's thousand-year-old highway system. Five roads were formally nominated as official routes for

897-452: The central government in 1987. These include the section between Wada-shuku and Wada Pass, the section between Shiojiri-juku and Midono-juku , and the section between Tsumago-juku and Magome-juku . The most well-known section lies in the Kiso Valley , between Tsumago-juku and Magome-juku . The area was first made famous by the early 20th-century writer Shimazaki Tōson , who chronicled

936-538: The effects of the Meiji Restoration on the valley in his landmark novel Before the Dawn . This eight-kilometer section of the Nakasendō can still be travelled along comfortably by foot, and both Tsumago-juku and Magome-juku have preserved and restored the traditional architecture. The walk between the historical post towns requires two to three hours to walk, with forests, restored paving and fine views of waterfalls along

975-451: The first cold shower even the monkey seems to want a little coat of straw As another example, this haiku by Bashō illustrates that he was not always constrained to a 5-7-5 on pattern. It contains 18 on in the pattern 6-7-5 ("ō" or おう is treated as two on ). 富士の風や扇にのせて江戸土産      ふじのかぜやおうぎにのせてえどみやげ          Fuji no kaze ya ōgi ni nosete Edo miyage Translated:

1014-409: The genre immediately accessible to wider audiences. Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) was a reformer and modernizer. A prolific writer, even though chronically ill during a significant part of his life, Shiki disliked the 'stereotype' of haikai writers of the 19th century who were known by the deprecatory term tsukinami , meaning 'monthly', after the monthly or twice-monthly haikai gatherings of the end of

1053-522: The haiku of his close friend Gabriele d'Annunzio , and to a lesser extent, those of Ezra Pound , to whom he was introduced in the early 1930s. An early example of his work appears in the 1919 novella La guerra italiana vista da un giapponese , which features a haiku by the Japanese feminist poet Yosano Akiko : Shimazaki T%C5%8Dson Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

1092-460: The influence of Buddhism. Further, he discarded the term "hokku" and proposed the term haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase " haikai no ku " meaning a verse of haikai , although the term predates Shiki by some two centuries, when it was used to mean any verse of haikai. Since then, "haiku" has been the term usually applied in both Japanese and English to all independent haiku, irrespective of their date of composition. Shiki's revisionism dealt

1131-479: The norm for writers of haiku in English was to use 17 syllables, but they also noted a trend toward shorter haiku. According to the society, about 12 syllables in English approximates the duration of 17 Japanese on . A haiku traditionally contains a kigo , a word or phrase that symbolizes or implies the season of the poem and is drawn from a saijiki , an extensive but prescriptive list of such words. Season words are evocative of images that are associated with

1170-427: The preceding and following phrases, or it may provide a dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense of closure. The kireji lends the verse structural support, allowing it to stand as an independent poem. The use of kireji distinguishes haiku and hokku from second and subsequent verses of renku ; which may employ semantic and syntactic disjuncture, even to the point of occasionally end-stopping

1209-442: The remaining Bashō example nor the Issa example contain a kireji . However, they do both balance a fragment in the first five on against a phrase in the remaining 12 on (it may not be apparent from the English translation of the Issa that the first five on mean "Edo's rain"). In comparison with English verse typically characterized by syllabic meter , Japanese verse counts sound units known as on or morae . Traditional haiku

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1248-751: The same time of year, making it a kind of logopoeia . Kigo are not always included in non-Japanese haiku or by modern writers of Japanese free-form haiku. One of the best-known Japanese haiku is Matsuo Bashō 's "old pond": 古池や蛙飛び込む水の音      ふるいけやかわずとびこむみずのおと          furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto Translated: old pond frog leaps in water's sound This separates into on as: fu-ru-i-ke ya (5) ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7) mi-zu-no-o-to (5) Another haiku by Bashō: 初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也      はつしぐれさるもこみのをほしげなり          hatsu shigure saru mo komino o hoshige nari Translated:

1287-443: The standalone hokku to haiku. The latter term is now generally applied retrospectively to all hokku appearing independently of renku or renga, irrespective of when they were written, and the use of the term hokku to describe a stand-alone poem is considered obsolete. In the 17th century, two masters arose who elevated haikai and gave it a new popularity. They were Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) and Uejima Onitsura (1661–1738). Hokku

1326-399: The tradition of 17 on as well as taking nature as their subject. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed as a single line, while haiku in English often appear as three lines, although variations exist. There are several other forms of Japanese poetry related to haiku, such as tanka , as well as other art forms that incorporate haiku, such as haibun and haiga . In Japanese haiku,

1365-547: The use of the shōgun and the other daimyō and to provide the Tokugawa shogunate with the communications network that it needed to stabilize and rule the country. One of these five roads was the Nakasendō, which stretched from Edo , from where the shogun wielded the real power, through the central mountain ranges of Honshu and on to Kyoto. Until the establishment of these formal trade routes, many shorter routes had existed, connecting towns over various distances. For example,

1404-598: The way. Haiku Haiku ( 俳句 , listen ) is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan , and can be traced back from the influence of traditional Chinese poetry . Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 morae (called on in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a kireji , or "cutting word"; and a kigo , or seasonal reference. However, haiku by classical Japanese poets, such as Matsuo Bashō , also deviate from

1443-553: The wind of Fuji I've brought on my fan a gift from Edo This separates into on as: fu-ji no ka-ze ya (6) o-u-gi ni no-se-te (7) e-do mi-ya-ge (5) This haiku example was written by Kobayashi Issa : 江戸の雨何石呑んだ時鳥      えどのあめなんごくのんだほととぎす          Edo no ame nan goku nonda hototogisu Translated: of Edo's rain how many mouthful did you drink, cuckoo? This separates into on as, e-do no a-me (5) na-n go-ku no-n-da (7) ho-to-to-gi-su (5) Hokku

1482-421: The word on is sometimes translated as "syllable", the true meaning is more nuanced. One on in Japanese is counted for a short syllable, two for an elongated vowel or doubled consonant , and one for an "n" at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word "haibun", though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four on in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n); and the word " on " itself, which English-speakers would view as

1521-469: Was an Englishman who lived in Japan. He produced a series of works on Zen , haiku, senryū, and on other forms of Japanese and Asian literature. In 1949, with the publication in Japan of the first volume of Haiku , the four-volume work by Blyth, haiku were introduced to the post-war English-speaking world. This four-volume series (1949–52) described haiku from the pre-modern period up to and including Shiki . Blyth's History of Haiku (1964) in two volumes

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