ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the evolution of the “New Rising Haiku” movement (shinkō haiku undō), examining events as they unfolded throughout the extensive wartime period, an era important to an understanding of the evolution of the “modern haiku movement,” that is, gendai haiku in Japan. In his 1985 book, My Postwar Haiku History, the acclaimed leader of the postwar haiku movement Kaneko Tohta (1919–2018) wrote, “When discussing the history of postwar haiku, many scholars tend to begin their discussion from the end of World War II. However, this perspective represents a rather stereotypical viewpoint. It is preferable that a discussion of postwar haiku history start from the midst of the war, or from the beginning of the ‘Fifteen Years War (1931–1945)’.” The wartime era was a dark age for haiku; nonetheless it was through the ensuing persecutions and bitterness that gendai haiku evolved – an evolution which continues today. The two predominant schools or “approaches” to contemporary Japanese haiku are: 1) gendai haiku (literally: “modern haiku”) and 2) traditional (dentō) haiku, a style signally represented by the Hototogisu circle and its journal of the same name. To avoid confusion, the term “modern haiku” (in English) will indicate contemporary (1920s–on) haiku in general, while “gendai haiku” refers to the progressive movement and its ideas and activities.
