Hisajo in the Light of English
Haikai Movement
Installment 2: Chapter 1: Who Introduced Hisajo
(Installment 1:
Prologue: My Courtesy Visit—October
Sketchbook)
How Hisajo endeavored, but while she was
alive, she could not embrace her ku-shu, or a published booklet
of her best haiku. I am going into details and the why’s of this
plight in my later chapters. However, it is most important to
confirm that Hisajo had her haiku for ku-shu ready for
publication, but that she thought her ku-shu had to start with
Kyoshi’s introduction.
She had the completed manuscript
ready for publication for some time and carried it with her
every time she had to leave home—once to visit married Masako in
Kamakura by taking a long distance train trip and many times to
the shelter in her Kokura city to avoid air-raids. This
manuscript in Hisajo’s awesome sumi-calligraphy is now in a
shrine in Kokura where Hisajo composed her famous blossom haiku.
If the Atomic bomb had been dropped on Kokura on August 9, 1945,
as was originally planned, we could never have been able to
fathom into Hisajo’s life through her haiku. The A-bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki city, Kokura being too cloudy on that day…
Hisajo’s ku-shu, not in Hisajo’s
edit, was published in 1952 with an introduction obtained from Takahama Kyoshi. He was known as an excellent introduction
writer for a number of haijin who learned haiku under him. Yet,
he had never compiled with Hisajo’s wishes and request for his
introduction. As a special favor in response to the humblest
request by a daughter of the late Hisajo, this Giant of the
Japanese Haiku World finally wrote it. By then, Kyoshi was
immensely influential even outside the haiku circles. In fact,
Masako had her husband and Kawabata Yasunari, their neighbor,
visit Kyoshi with her request. They all lived in small Kamakura
city and as you might have recognized, Kawabata Yasunari, the
novelist, turned out to be a Nobel Laureate later in his life.
Masako was not at all in the position to protest some of the
paragraphs in the introduction text. Kyoshi, on the other hand,
was in the position to be able to cunningly mix the truth and
“some” fiction.
This introduction along with
Kyoshi’s novel titled “Kuniko’s letters” triggered a sensational
interest. Other writers including Yoshiya Nobuko and Matsumoto
Seicho, both of whom were so-called best-seller writers, wrote
another “Hisajo-based stories” and another even wrote and
performed a drama on the theme, all of which made Hisajo’s case
a social phenomenon. Even today some call it Hisajo legend. It
hurts to imagine what pain and sorrow Unai, Masako and
all other bereaved family members had to go through over the
years. (Let’s say from 1952 when her ku-syu was published to
1975 when a former student of Unai published a sensible book
titled Hisajo Notes).
Now let me translate citings on
Hisajo from two Dictionaries of Japanese Literature. Both are
from the most respected publishers and the editors of both
dictionaries include those with highest authority. One was
published in 1968, the other in 1995.
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Shincho Nihon Bungaku Sho-Jiten:
*first published in 1968. The eighth edition that I possess was
published in 1979.
(the text on Hisajo was written by
Inoue Muneo)
Sugita Hisajo (1890~1946)
Haijin. Maiden Name; Akabori Hisako
She was born in Kagoshima prefecture where her parents lived
since the government transfered her father, a high-ranking
government officer. She graduated from Ochanomizu Girls’ High School
in Tokyo and married with Sugita Unai, the painter. Unai took
the job of art teacher in Kokura city, Kyushu Island. Hisajo
followed him. She started writing haiku in 1916. Takahama Kyoshi,
the editor of Hototogisu, admired several haiku she sent. In a
few years, she became known as an excellent woman haijin along
with Hasegawa Kanajo. Hisajo with her passionate and outgoing
character did not make peace with her educator husband, who was
sincere and disciplined. She stopped writing haiku because of
domestic conflicts as well as of her illness, but came back to
Hototogisu in 1927 and also started her own haiku magazine named
‘Hanagoromo.” (which was terminated in the 5th issue). She was
admitted to Hototogisu as an honored full member in 1932 but was
expelled in 1936 as her individuality and strong attachment to
haiku caused her to behave in an eccentric way. She showed
symptoms of schizophrenia later and died in the detached quarter
of Kyushu University Hospital. Her poetry is supported by the
Romantic Spirit and her haiku has got grand and spirit-inspiring
qualities. Her passionate haiku stands out from those called
“Kitchen Haiku”. Her kushu was published in 1952. Three haiku of
hers:
kodamashite yamahototogisu hoshii
mama Hisajo 1930
(one of the first prize winners out of more than 100,000
submissions)
over these mountains
cuckoos’ trill echoes
as free as it wishes
(translated by ey in 2008)
hanagoromo nuguya matsuwaru himo
iroiro Hisajo 1919
blossoom kimono—
on untying the obi
assorted strings now cling
(translated by ey in 2008)
tabi tsuguya Nora tomo narazu kyoshi
tsuma Hisajo 1922
mending tabi socks
a teacher’s wife who
has not become
a Nora
(translated by ey in 2005)
Hai Bungaku Dai-Jiten:
published by Kadokawa Gakujutsu Shuppan; *first published in
1995. The paper-back edition that I possess was published in
2008.
(text on Hisajo was written by Ueno Sachiko)
Sugita Hisajo (1890~1946)
Haijin: regular name: Hisako Maiden
Family Name: Akabori Died at 57 years old.
She spent her childhood in Okinawa and in Formosa where her
father, a government official was transferred. She went up to
Tokyo to enter Ochanomizu Girls High School which was attached
to the Women’s Education College of Tokyo. In 1909 she got
married to Sugita Unai, a graduate of The Art College in Ueno,
Tokyo. With her husband who became an art teacher at Kokura High
school, she started to live in Kokura. Hisajo was dreaming of
the day when Unai would become a professional artist, but Unai,
the eldest son of the old family in a county in Aichi
prefecture, was so conservative and disciplined that he stayed
with the same position all his life. Gessen, elder brother of
Hisajo, was a haijin first affiliated with Kyoshi, then with
Watanabe Mizuha.
In 1916, Hisajo started to read
Hototogisu brought to her by Gessen. Influenced, she started not
only making haiku but also writing essays, and some time later
both got included in Hototogisu.
In 1919 her short novel titled
‘Living by the River’ received an honorable mention in a novel
contest run by Osaka-Mainichi Newspaper Company. She, however,
stopped trying to become a novelist. In the same year her haiku
on blossom kimono (hanagoromo nuguya matsuwaru himo iroiro) won
the highest praise from Kyoshi and since that time her finely
chisled haiku that emit pure brilliance kept on appearing on
Hototogisu.
In 1930 she entered her haiku in The
Haiku Contest on New Scenic Places of Japan, which was run by
both Osaka-Mainichi & Tokyo Nichichi Newspaper companies and was
judged by Kyoshi Takahama. Her haiku on Mount Ehiko (kodamashite
yamahototogisu hoshiimama) won the most honored Prize of
Landscape Institute.
In 1932, she started to edit and
publish “Hanagoromo”, a haiku magazine for women, to which women
haijin such as Abe Midorijo, Takeshita Shizunojo, Nakamura Teijo,
and Hashimoto Takako contributed. Hisajo herself painted cover
pictures. In spite of her vigor and enthusiasm Hanagoromo was
terminated in the 5th issue. The social restriction imposed on
the wife of a high school teacher was not negligiable in those
days. In the same year when Hanagoromo was terminated, i.e, in
1936 Hisajo was expelled from Hototogisu along with Hino Sojo
and Yoshioka Zenjido. The impact of Kyoshi’s sudden announcement
of expulsion shocked Hisajo a great deal. Kyoshoi being her one
and only absolute teacher, she could not consider entering
another kessha, thus, she wrote less and less haiku. However,
the brilliance emitted from this forerunner of modern women’s
haiku is still striking; her haiku having been the jewel
sublimated into art through her immense talent and through her
conflicts with her husband and with people surrounding her.
*Sugita Hisajo Ku-shu
(text also by Ueno Sachiko)
Published by Kadokawa in 1952. 175 pages. 180 yen. Including
1388 haiku composed from 1918 to 1946. On the first page are
Kyoshi’s haiku to mourn Hisajo and his introduction. Postscript
and Hisajo’s abbreviated personal history by Ishi Masako,
Hisajo’s daughter. Her haiku are dignified as well as elegant.
The whole text of this kushu was later included in the grand
series of Modern Haiku Anthology. In 1969 a new
Hisajo Ku-shu, 325 pages, that included 1626 haiku was published
by Kadokawa.
Her Haiku: kaze ni otsu
youkihi-sakura fusanomama
dropped in the wind
a yan-gui-fei sakura
still just as full
/ey
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I believe careful comparison of the
above can help us find and clarify what must be addressed as
issues. In other words, in my next installment I will have to
give how the re-evaluation of Hisajo was materialized and yet
why Masako was still not content.
The reason why I desire to introduce Hisajo in the light of
English Haikai Movement must also be explained. I write the
following paragraph as a preview to my next installment.
Haiku was born from the tradition of renga, a unique poetry
genre in which composing with collaborators is most cardinal.
Today, many Japanese haijin who hardly write renku belong to a
kessha, or poets’ club with codes and hierarchy that are rarely
explained. In Japan Renku and Haiku are called Literature of “Za”,
or togetherness in one sitting. How do English language haiku
poets find a living balance between Japanese tradition of Za and
Western tradition of Indivudual Voice? Didn't Hisajo suffer from
this dilemma many years before you and me even though she may
not have seen the nature of her plight in this light.....
