on haiga

— first the haiku —

 

"Haiku show us what we knew all the time but did not know we knew:

it shows us that we are poets in so far as we live at all." —R.H. Blyth

 

 

...sketch the scene - suggest a narrative - deliver the experience...

 

Unfortunately, many still labor under the false impression that haiku are defined chiefly by a relationship to the number of syllables (17)  in their construct.  This notion is a result of an inadequate  understanding of the "jion" (sound-symbol) in Japanese, as opposed to its presumed counterpart: phoneme or syllable  in English. They are not equitable, nor interchangeable.

 

Form is only the shape of something, a replica. Authenticity and art lie in the content. This is not to say that there are no terrific haiku written in the English syllabic style of 5-7-5. There are indeed, but taste and balance and adherence to three words (sketch, suggest and deliver) must take precedence to truly haiku -

 

 

— as for haiga —

 

Just as haiku often internally juxtapose two images, haiga may also contain a juxtaposition between the haiku itself and the art work. The art work does not necessarily directly represent the images presented in the haiku.

 

Stylistically, haiga vary widely based on the preferences and training of the individual painter, but generally show influences of formal Kanō, school painting, minimalist Zen painting, and Ōtsu-e, while sharing much of the aesthetic attitudes of the nanga tradition. Some were reproduced as woodblock prints. The subjects painted likewise vary widely, but are generally elements mentioned in the calligraphy, or poetic images which add meaning or depth to that expressed by the poem.

 

The moon is a common subject in these poems and paintings, sometimes represented by the Zen circle "enso", which evokes several other meanings, including that of the void. Other subjects, ranging from insects to rooftops, are frequently represented with a minimum of brushstrokes, thus evoking elegance and beauty in simplicity."

 

—brett brady

 

 

"the intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality... is the highest act of wisdom” —D.T. Suzuki