Rosa Clement: Why was it decided that kigo should be present in a haiku? How did this requirement start?
Jane Reichhold: "When the oldest poets were putting together the imperial anthologies of tanka, (800 A.D.) they used the seasons as divisions. Because tanka were often very season orientated this was fairly easy to do. Yet not all tanka had seasonal references, so they did also use other signifiers such as "travel", "lamentations", and of course "love". As you know, the five-phrase tanka was then broken in half with two persons writing the upper and lower portions which developed into the genre known as renga. Here, the seasons became so much more important as the even shorter verses were grouped in sets of 2 or 4-links for a season. Because it made the short verses boring to always have to indicate the season by name, it became necessary to know if a spider was a spring or an autumn animal. As long as poets were in command of the genre, they learned this information from their teachers (which Basho was). As the practice of renga (not renku as some will have you believe) spread beyond poets to the 'common person' this hermatic information was no longer passed along person to person but through the use of dictionaries of subjects called 'saijiki'."
Rosa Clement: What relation did the seasons have to haiku?
Jane Reichhold: "As haiku became even more popular and more separated from renga, the rule-makers still attached great importance to the use of the season word. In fact, a 'haiku' without a season word is, in Japan, not considered a haiku at all but called a 'senryu'. Even the most marvelous, sensitive, religious verse without a season word is technically 'only' a senryu. Harsh, but the way it is. However, in English this step was by-passed. I am including a small story with the hope it helps you!
In addition, I wish to say, that Japan, as with many other countries is very long, physically spanning several latitudes, so that the seasons arrive and leave differently in its north and south sections. However, for consistancy, the seasons are considered ONLY as they are in Tokyo! the capital! For those of us in other countries, and especially for those of you in other hemispheres, these season words become very distorted. Thus, when writing haiku in languages other than Japanese, this is an issue we have to confront. Do we want to accept Tokyo's designations or must we make new ones for ourselves or do we drop this facet entirely? I believe that we the poets of this age will make this decision with our work."
Thanks to Jane Reichold
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