This is an excerpt from my next book, tentatively titled Nature is my Muse, and currently in the editing process.

A Note on Haiban

The 17th century Haiku poet, Matsuo Basho (1644 to 1694), popularized haiban in his travel journals, most notably Narrow Road to the Interior. The form looks like a hybrid, and I have found examples of haiban in poetry journals and also in at least one collection of essays. As published in contemporary American poetry journals, the form is usually a short prose piece followed by a haiku.

The haiban in Basho’s journals took a form somewhat different from this. Basho used the haiku as a conclusion for one section and immediately began another narrative. They almost serve as punctuation. Copies of the journals are readily available in both print and eBook format.

Aside from popularizing haiban, Basho is noted for formalizing haiku. He wrote thousands of haiku during his lifetime and some scholars say that haiku began and ended with Basho. His stand alone haiku are noted as the best of the genre, and his poem “Old Pond,” is often cited as the model haiku:

Old pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water
- Matsuo Basho

He also presented haiku in other diverse formats. His drawings and calligraphy are superb, and he often combined poems written in exquisite calligraphy with a visual image on the same page. The form of combining Haiku with visual art is known as haiga. Examples appear in The Art of Haiku by Stephen Addiss. The author also addresses the lesser known (at least in the west) form of linked haiku, another form at which Basho excelled.

Later masters of Haiku, including Buson, Issa and Shiki also combined their Haiku with visual images. Issa wrote at least one haiban journal. Addiss states that Haiku has become the most popular poetic form world-wide.

My reviews of The Art of Haiku and Narrow Road to the Interior appear on my blog at rayzimmerman.weebly.com and on my Goodreads page.