BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HAIKU Haiku is one of the world's oldest, consistently composed forms of poetry; its known roots go back over a thousand years. One historical account reports that in Japanese culture between 700-1100 AD, it was part of society’s rules to know and recite poetry. To aid in this, a poetry style was created that was easy to memorize - the short poem. It was agreed that the form should have a specific syllable count and was traditionally written in one line. It has been described as conveying the immediate and the elegant. The short poem’s influence was widespread, and its form can be seen in the works of Shakespeare.
Several variations were created over time. In the 1600’s a version of the short poem with a three line, 5/7/5 syllable count was called hokku. Matsuo Basho was an important hokku writer in the 17th century, introducing a lightness to the style and often breaking the rules of syllable count. A hundred years after his death he was named The Saint of the Haiku by the Imperial Court of Japan and Shinto leaders. He became the most famous poet in Japan. Lightning flash– what I thought were faces are plumes of pampas grass. -Matsuo Basho 1644-1694 In the late 1800’s, Masaoka Shiki named the style haiku and revived the rule of the 5/7/5 syllable count. A hollyhock shot up to meet the summer solstice. -Masaoka Shiki 1867-1902 (Note: these haiku were originally written in Japanese - their translations not reflecting their original syllable count.) Haiku was virtually unknown in the United States until the 1950s. In the late forties and early fifties, three collections of haiku were published and these got the attention of Beat Poets Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac.