The Haiku: Matsuo Basho

Spring is slowly giving way to summer and before that happens I would like to capture the essence of spring, present and passing, while welcoming the warm summer months. This being said, I am going to dedicate the month of May to the Haiku. Definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary:

 haiku |ˈhīˌkoō; ˌhīˈkoō|

noun ( pl. same or -kus )a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.• an English imitation of this.ORIGIN Japanese, contracted form of haikai no ku ‘light verse.’

Matsuo Basho, Autumn. Source:
http://montanawriter.com/2010/12/31/poetry-review-matsuo-basho/

I find the Haiku beautifully expresses nature in a concise and vivid form. Every couple of days during this month I will share a Haiku ranging from Matsuo Basho and his school to the late Tokugawa period or Edo period (1603-1867) in Japanese history. All of the works featured will be taken from my Anthology of Japanese Literature compiled and edited by Donald Keene. Since I have both the english translation and the romanized japanese words, I will be included both, the english and the japanese. The first is going to be by Matsuo Basho, one of the most famous and iconic Haiku masters. 



A village where they ring                     Kane tsukanuno bells! –oh, what do they do             mura wa nani wo kaat dusk in spring?                                haru no kure.–How very cool it feels:                        Hiya-hiya to taking a noonday nap, to have           kabe wo fumaetethis wall against my heels.                 hirune kana.

Matsuo Basho. Source:
http://petrumihaisacu.blogspot.com/2012/03/basho-haiku-o-primavara-nevazuta-de.html

Joruri, The Art of the Puppet Theatre

http://ynt.yafjp.org/en/performing-arts/
Bunraku "Gionsaireishinkoki" (KIRITAKE Kanjuro) National Theater Collection

A few weeks have passed and Junichiro's words still resonate in my mind. Hence, going along with the first post I made this year and with the theme of Japanese tradition, I am sharing a brief essay I read on my anthology of Japanese literature, Chikamatsu on the Art of the Puppet Stage.


Chikamatsu (1653-1725) is a Japanese playwright who wrote for the Bunraku, or puppet theatre as well as the Kabuki. As opposed to Kabuki,  the art of living actors, Joruri seeks to give life to inanimate objects. Therefore, the plays should resound clearly and expressively in the written word, and likewise, should transfer unto a stage in the same vivid manner. The aim is to compel in the audience specific emotions. According to Chikamatsu, Joruri creates a sphere where, for the sake of art, words and facts are communicated that would have, in any other form, remained silent. Much like the evocative power of poetry. This art form, being centered on inanimate objects, allows the writer and the audience to journey through uncharted waters of the psyche, it enables hidden truths to shine through that would not have otherwise been seen in daily life. The essay also delves into the pathos in theatre, how it is a matter of restraint. Of containing the emotions while pulling the audience in.

While speaking of the puppet theatre and playwriting, Chikamatsu firmly resides within the territory of art. Postulating the question, what is art? According to him, it is about playing with light and shadow, the real and the unreal, and molding these elements with stylization so as to compel and delight minds.
Even though this essay is about theatre and those elements that create Bunraku, it reveals much more to the reader, especially if said reader has artistic inclinations. It speaks about the aesthetics on appealing to a public, and on another spectrum, reveals aspects of Japanese tradition that retains value within the realm of this post-modern era.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/culture/AJ2011101411068
A scene from the bunraku classic Hirakana Seisuiki at the National Theater in September.
(Provided by the National Theater)

"Art is something which lies in the slender margin between the real and the unreal."

If the subject is of interest see these other sites for further info.
YokoHama Noh Theatre
Blog on Japanese culture
Bunraku at Princeton
On Chikamatsu

Every worm to his taste: Junichiro Tanizaki

http://booktrek.blogspot.com/2010/07/some-prefer-nettles-tanizaki-junichiro

I went to New York City. It was during thanksgiving and the weather was lovely. While there, as always, I bought quite a few books. On my last full day there I was walking down 4th ave. and I stumbled upon a bookseller with a nice selection of classics. Rummaging through the boxes I found a Junichiro Tanizaki novel and I knew I had to have it. At the moment I didn't have cash so I did the next best thing, I put the book back and walked away, hoping to find an atm. I did, a few blocks down. Money in hand, I hurried back to the bookseller, hoping to find the book still there. Thankfully, the gods were in my favor that day, or maybe there just isn't a surplus of Japanese literature aficionados. Whichever. I bought the book.
I read the novel as soon as I returned to this small island I currently live in, and it is beautiful.
"Some Prefer Nettles" is a book of contrasts. Traditions versus change and modernity. Old versus new. It presents these contrasts through the microscopic view on the demise of a marriage. An introspective panorama on the effects of disappearing traditions and the melancholic consequences these changes can have on a marriage. Misako and Kanama, the married couple, are worlds apart residing in the same house with a child in the middle. The interesting aspect of the narrative is that both are aware of their lost love and connection, both openly entertain outside lovers, yet neither of the two want to face the implications of a divorce. In the background of the story is staged the transcendental tradition of the puppet theatre, given as a backdrop to the underlying theme of the novel.
Tanizaki weaves a story of poetic nostalgia of things past, and the quality residing in those elements of traditional culture. He clearly reveals the effects a foreign culture has on a native culture. His perspective is clearly for the conservation of custom and the beauty of customs, but he presents his perspective in a non-biased manner, portraying the full spectrum of sides, the outside and the domestic. Customs as they are, sometimes gritty. There is also a very interesting comparison between the crumbling marriage and Misako's father and his mistress O-hisa, who is 30 years her senior.
Living in the globalized world we all reside it is important to grapple with these questions of what is native and what isn't. To be able to see and understand the full scope of implications of losing or conserving one's traditions as this world continues to strive for globalization. It is important to be able to know and appreciate one's indigenous historical background as well as to be able to sift through the mire of modernity that is thrown in one's way continually, so as to be able to retain the useful and discard the degenerative.
It is for all these reasons that I found Tanizaki's work beautiful and relevant besides that fact that the portrayal of the traditional Japanese puppet theatre is magnificent.

http://visualabstracts.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/some-prefer-nettles-junichiro-tanizaki-1955/

Green

Being that Christmas approaches and the holiday makes itself more present with each passing day I began to ponder on what topic I could write about as my next post. My first thought was of color and the first color that consequently sprang to mind was green. From there, I thought of literature that in some weird associative way related to the color green. I looked at my bookcase and the first book that pops out is "Yeats's Poetry, Drama, and Prose". I've read my share of Yeats's poetry, drama and some of his critical writings, and for some reason I find, in specific, his poetry verdant. Therefore, I will write about Yeats.
Now, I won't be sharing one of his poems nor one of his plays, instead I will talk about his work, "The Celtic Twilight". I begin with the preface, which I find is beautifully eloquent. In it Yeats invokes the muse Art, which is "the daughter of hope and memory", as he  commends himself as the the voice of the peasantry, of "faeries and dhouls". He presents himself as the unbiased weaver of the stories that waft among the Irish people.
He does exactly as professed, narrating small clusters of stories where magic, the celtic lore, faeries, and ghouls are present as retold and passed on through generations. From Belief and Unbelief, Drumcliff and Roses, Enchanted Woods, By the Roadside, etc., a picturesque landscape is painted and the beliefs of the Irish are portrayed in a loving manner. There are stories of love, beauty, faeries, green pastures, wicked deeds, and so forth. Also, the stories encapsulate anecdotes and lessons for the reader to heed.
I highly recommend Yeats to everyone, he is an author of substance who combines folkoric elements in a great number of his works.
And I end with an excerpt from the preface:
"The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best."