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WHAT IS A HAIKU?Haiku is one of the most important forms of traditional Japanese poetry. A Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Since early days, there has been confusion between the three related terms "Haiku", "Hokku" and "Haikai". The term "Hokku" literally means "starting verse", and was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known as a "Haikai". Because the Hokku set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, it enjoyed a privileged position in Haikai poetry, and it was not uncommon for a poet to compose a Hokku by itself without following up with the rest of the chain. Largely through the efforts of Masaoka Shiki, this independence was formally established in the 1890s through the creation of the term "Haiku". This new form of poetry was to be written, read and understood as an independent poem, complete in itself, rather than part of a longer chain. Strictly speaking, then, the history of Haiku begins only in the last years of the 19th century. The famous verses of such Edo-period (1600-1868) masters as Basho, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa are properly referred to as "Hokku" and must be placed in the perspective of the history of Haikai even though they are now generally read as independent Haiku. The distinction between "Hokku" and "Haiku" can be handled by using the terms "Classical Haiku" and "Modern Haiku". |
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