Donald Keene's Japan (Pt. 57): Appreciating Masaoka Shiki, reviver of classical haiku poetry

TOKYO -- Among the Japanese literary figures Donald Keene admired was Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), who was the subject of a serial he carried in the Shincho magazine during 2011. Keene credited Shiki with reviving and modernizing classical haiku and tanka poetry, which were in decline at the time. The following passage is from the preface of Keene's biography on Shiki, which was written exclusively for the English edition. Keene must have wanted to share Shiki's achievements especially with overseas readers.

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The influence of Shiki's haiku and haiku criticism was immense and long lasting. It is hard to imagine any serious haiku poet reverting to the style of haiku prevalent before Shiki's revolution. For Shiki, as for all modern haiku poets, there was no subject that could not be treated in a poem.

The haiku and tanka were all but dead when Shiki began to write his poetry and criticism. The best poets of the time had lost interest in short poems. Shiki and his disciples, finding new possibilities of expression within the traditional forms, preserved them. The millions of Japanese (and many non-Japanese) who compose haiku and tanka today belong to the School of Shiki, and even poets who write entirely different forms of poetry have learned from him. He was the founder of truly modern Japanese poetry.

[The Winter Sun Shines In -- A Life of Masaoka Shiki]

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Shiki was also known for his efforts to spread baseball, which was introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912). In his biography, Keene introduced the following account by poet Kawahigashi Hekigoto, who later became Shiki's disciple.

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I learned about baseball from Shiki. At the time it was known only to the students of the First Higher Middle School. I recall it was in the summer of 1880, when I had just turned sixteen. An older brother who was studying in Tokyo told me about an interesting game called baseball and urged me to meet Masaoka, then back in Matsuyama. He said he had borrowed a ball and a bat. It wasn't poetry or literature that made close friends of Shiki and myself, it was baseball. And that's how it happened baseball came so early to a place in the sticks like Matsuyama. I took a strange pride in being one of the founders of baseball in Matsuyama.

[The Winter Sun Shines In -- A Life of Masaoka Shiki]

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Keene spent his childhood in Brooklyn, New York, where the baseball team Dodgers was based before moving its base to Los Angeles. Keene seemed to show a bit of interest in baseball like other boys his age, but recalls his bitter memories of the sport in an autobiography below.

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An even more painful factor in my unhappiness was caused by my being clumsy in sports. Unlike the boys in the films, sports gave me no pleasure. I halfheartedly attempted to join other boys playing baseball, but once they discovered how badly I batted and ran, they did not want me on their team. My mother sometimes bribed the boys to include me in their games, but this never lasted for long.

I resigned myself to being a failure. My hope was that when I became an adult (I imagined this would be when I was eighteen), nobody would expect me to throw or hit a ball. Other boys who were poor at sports overcame their inferiority by sheer determination, but I never really tried, sure that nothing would ever improve my ability.

[Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan]

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Keene, who was in good health well into his later years until he passed away at 96, often joked that the secret to a long life was to "eat well, sleep well, and not exercise." On the other hand, Shiki suffered poor health from childhood, and succumbed to illness at age 34, which may have strengthened Keene's sympathy for him. Following a description of Shiki's life, the biography is concluded with Shiki's literary and historical achievements, as follows.

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When Shiki began his work as a poet and critic, there was only a waning interest in haiku and not one poet who is still remembered. Shiki's importance can be measured in terms of the extraordinary popularity that the haiku has enjoyed ever since he began his work. Today more than a million Japanese regularly compose haiku in groups guided by a professional poet. Each group publishes a magazine of haiku composed by members. The newspapers every week devote pages to haiku by amateurs whose works are judged and awarded prizes by recognized poets. Interest in haiku is not confined to the Japanese. Thousands outside Japan compose haiku in their own language, observing the rules to the degree that their language permits. The art of composing "haiku" is taught in many American schools, and children who would be unable to compose sonnets or other Western poetic forms are encouraged to develop their poetic instincts in the haiku. Before translations of Shiki's haiku began to appear, foreign students of Japan tended to dismiss haiku as epigrams, but they have come to recognize that the haiku (and tanka) can be poetry.

Shiki's early death was a tragedy, but he had changed the nature of haiku and tanka. His disregard of conventionally admired sights of nature did not, however, fundamentally change Japanese aesthetic preferences. The scent of plum blossoms and the clouds of cherry blossoms still delight the Japanese, today as in the Heian period, and many thousands, if not millions, of Japanese travel long distances to see the red autumn leaves; but poets hardly mention them any longer, preferring to compose haiku or tanka to describe the experience of living in a modern world. This was Shiki's achievement.

[The Winter Sun Shines In -- A Life of Masaoka Shiki]

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Not only did Shiki appreciate and critique classical haiku and tanka poetry, but he also reformed it into a cultural activity tied closely to people's lives. Furthermore, his disciples, like poet Takahama Kyoshi, made it possible for people around the world to enjoy the activity of composing haiku. It was probably out of gratitude for this that he chose to feature Shiki in the biography.

Keene frequently visited Ehime Prefecture's Matsuyama, the hometown of Shiki, also known as the "haiku capital." This reporter also joined a lecture Keene gave there in 2009. Around this time, Keene had apparently been gathering material for his serial on Shiki. I recall him closely observing the exhibit in the Shiki Museum. In 2014, Keene held a talk with writer Man Arai, and created a haiku poem impromptu, along with an English translation:

The red leaves

of Matsuyama castle

Shiki saw them too

Keene had a poetic instinct, and could compose pieces on the spot whenever asked.

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This series navigates the past century by following the life of the late scholar Donald Keene, who contributed to the elevation of Japanese culture and literature in the world. News from The Mainichi that made headlines in Keene's time is introduced alongside Keene's personal history. The series began in 2022, the 100th anniversary of Keene's birth -- also the centennial of The Mainichi.

(This is Part 57 of a series. The next "Donald Keene's Japan" story will be published on May 21.)

(Japanese original by Tadahiko Mori, The Mainichi Staff Writer and Donald Keene Memorial Foundation director)