The book has a very good introduction to Haiku and its development with a time line chronology of the Japanese time periods. It follows the early masters and the changes to the form from its origin. It discusses how Haiku has been defined, traditionalized and takes us on a journey back to the lesser known type of haiku: the more original type of collaborative witty-linked verses that were common from 1600-1912: "haikai no renga no ku" that were written as word games. The first verse was the "hokku" and that is where more modern haiku stem from. Even Basho wrote these. Information on the schools of Haiku, the senryu, and how it became popular form. The rest of the book is a series of these haiku with an appendix of interpretation.

Poets who love haiku and may want to learn more of the detailed history of the form. I would not recommend for beginners as it can be quite overwhelming if you just want a more how to write haiku manual.

I liked the added information for interpreting the haiku in the book as one has to understand the time, symbols, experiences of the time in which they were written.
The detail in the intro explained a lot and showed me why it is a controversial form.

It was not quite what I expected. While I enjoyed the study..I thought there would be more on how to write Haiku and/or more wide selection of haiku through time.
Still a valueable resource.

Adam L. Kern has a PHD in Eastern Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard and is a Professor of Japanese Literature.

If you want to know more indepth about the form I recommend it but if you want to learn more about writing Haiku, I don't.

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Created Feb 26, 2019 at 8:44pm • Submit your own review...