Poetry of Haiku poet Chiyo
Chiyo-jo or Chiyo-ni: woman, maker, and nun (1703-1775)
Names of the poet
Chiyo, her given name from her parents, is a well-wishing that she might influence
"one thousand generation"). Born 1703 into a scroll-making family, she worked professionally
as a scroll maker (1733-1743); Nun 1754-1775. She used several names including:
- Kaga no Chiyo (after the Kaga region where she was born) as used by
Addiss (2012),
- Matto no Chiyo (for her birth town of Matto),
- Chiyo-jo ("the woman Chiyo" as used by her
Museum (2017),
Ueda (2012), Sato (1981), and elsewhere),
- Chiyo-ni ("the nun Chiyo") as used by Donegan (1998), and
- Soen (the name she took as a nun).
Haiku written
Quantities for Chiyo-jo compared with Yosa Buson (from Trumbull, 2017):
| Poet
| # of haiku written | Translations in Trumbull's database | # of haiku translated
|
|
Chiyo-jo (aka Chiyo-ni, Kaga no Chiyo, Matto no Chiyo) | ~ 1,700 | 927 | 300
|
|
Yosa Buson (1716-1783) | ~ 10,000 | 6,100 | ~ 2,100
|
While Buson has about six times the known haiku that Chiyo-jo has, for each poet fewer than about 20%
of their haiku are translated; and they each average about three translations per haiku.
The 1996 Yamane-Donegan-Ishibashi work (on line from the the museum) has 271 of Chiyo-jo's haiku.
"Ranko, author of the afterword to her collection Chiyo-jo Kusho [1764], wrote that Kihaku,
the editor, had originally decided to collect Chiyo-jo's haiku because she was true to Basho's ... style"
whose "fundamentals usually include" (Donegan, 1998, p. 77):
| detached loneliness
| oneness with nature | slenderness, sparseness
|
|
elegance | simplicity | spontaneity
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objectivity | sincerity | tenderness
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"Roughly ninety percent of her haiku are about things in nature rather than the social realm"
(Donegan, 1998, p. 78). Chiyo-jo sees nature as transient (p.47) and often juxtaposes
the permanent and the transient.
Reichhold Rules especially relevant for a "Chiyo Practice"
"24. Just write about ordinary things in an ordinary way using ordinary language."
"39. Use only images from nature. (No mention of humanity.)"
"21. Study the order in which the images are presented. First the wide-angle view, medium range,
and zoomed in close-up." Or, of course, vice versa.
on the road
today's rain
the seed for clear water (Donegan (1998), p. 79)
Butterfly poems of Chiyo-jo
Chiyo-jo is thought to have found herself symbolized by the small spring butterfly.
This is a sample of 12 such poems, some with multiple translations.
Trumbull (2017) has 61 butterfly haiku by Chiyo-jo.
12 Butterfly ku (spring kigo; symbol for Chiyo-jo). [Trumbull (2017) sent 61 butterfly translations]
the butterfly is standing on tip-toes at the ebb-tide [32nd poem in Museum's spring haiku]
and Donegan (1998) p. 120.
butterfly what's it dreaming fanning its wings? [33] and Donegan (1998), p. 113.
Butterfly: what's it dreaming of, moving its wings that way (Sato, 1981)
butterfly you also get mad some days [34] and Donegan (1998), p. 85 and 127.
a butterfly in front and back of the woman's path [35] and Donegan (1998), p. 114.
as she walks
butterflies in front
and behind her (Addiss, p.146, 2012)
Butterfly: now in front, now in back of a woman along a path (Sato, 1981)
the butterfly
behind, before, behind
a woman on the road (Ueda, p. 39, 2012)
till his hat fades into a butterfly I yearned for him [36]
even the butterfly voiceless--Buddhist ceremony [71]
even the butterfly
voiceless--
Buddhist service (Donegan, p. 127, 1998)
By its own wind, a small butterfly blows itself down (Sato, 1981)
A butterfly blows herself down with her own wind (Trumbull, 2017, attributes this to "The Age of
Haikai and Kanshi" chapter in Hiroaki Sato, ed., Japanese Women Poets (2008), p.167).
Floating weed though a butterfly presses it down (Trumbull, 2017, attributes to Sato (2008), p.169).
waterweed
floating away, despite
the butterfly's weight on it (Ueda, p. 45, 2012)
duckweed -
the butterfly tries
to press it down (Trumbull, 2017, attributes this to the 1996 translations by Patricia Donegan
and Yoshie Ishibashi (p. 210) preceding and not included in their 1998 book.)
These last four haiku have an extra kigo besides "butterfly":
the dandelion sometimes wakes the butterfly from its dream [29]
Dandelion: from time to time, it awakens a butterfly from dreams (Sato, 1981)
a dandelion [dandelion = spring kigo]
now and then interrupting
the butterfly's dream (Ueda, p. 46, 2012)
the butterfly sometimes appears from the mist [31] [mist or haze = spring kigo]
From time to time, a butterfly fans itself out of the haze (Sato, 1981)
entangled in the willowy cherry blossoms the butterfly naps [59] [cherry blossoms also kigo]
the butterfly can say nothing--spring's ending [62] [spring = kigo]
First batch of exercises
- A description of some action by a butterfly.
- An "aisatsu" poem of greeting and welcome
just for now
I spread the morning snow
over the dust Donegan (1998)
or one of farewell:
till his hat faded into a butterfly I yearned for him [tenses as on site]
Museum
- A "magical" haiku to invoke a change, such as for a governor's
ailing cherry tree (the tree got better):
spring will come again —
without flowers
you'll be firewood Donegan (1998)
- A projection of your personality on to the butterfly
Styles or techniques that appear often in Chiyo-jo's haiku
While these are not her innovations, they are techniques she often used:
- Karumi (lightness and simplicity) as taught by Basho.
- Emptiness/purity/clarity.
- Aisatsu (greeting) appears in solitary poems as well as in hokku to open a renga.
Terry Ann Carter explored this in "Chiyo-jo and Aisatsu: The Poetry of Greeting",
A Hundred Gourds 4.4 (2015).
http://ahundredgourds.com/ahg44/exposition01.html . Phrases in the poems Carter quotes include such phrases as
"just before knocking" and "opening the door".
Carter folds in poems of "saying goodbye".
- Invocation or "magical" haiku, e.g., to cure an ailing cherry tree (Donegan, p. 75, 1998):
spring will come again - / without flowers / you'll be firewood
- Haibun: often have only one, two, or three lines of prose.
- Haiga: her delicate and sweeping lines are immensely attractive.
Favored season words:
Preferred season words reported by Donegan for Chiyo-jo in approximately 1,700 haiku:
- 98 sakura (Japanese native cherry) ~ 5.5%.
- 47 plum (Chinese native).
- 41 willow (a symbol for women's beauty) ~ 2.5%.
- 35 water ~2%.
- 28 asagao (morning glory) ~1.6%.
- 19 firefly ~1%.
Preferred season words that occur in the 100 haiku in Donegan's Chiyo-jo: Woman Haiku Master:
- 12% (12 of 100 haiku in Donegan's book) include "moon," often qualified to move it out of autumn.
- 9% (9 of 100 haiku in Donegan's book) include "snow."
- 5% (5 of 100 haiku in Donegan's book) include "butterfly" (which Chiyo-jo often used as a symbol for herself); one use is moved from spring to autumn by another kigo.
Criticism
Kagami Shiko (1665-1731), a controversial follower of Basho, praised Chiyo-jo highly.
She was of his "rustic school". Though she met him only once, she received his advice in letters.
Yosa Buson (1716-83) "headed a rival school" and criticized Shiko's style as "over-simplified"
and "too common". But Buson had Chiyo-jo write the preface to the anthology
The Collection of Watergrass. Published in 1774, it assembles 449 haiku written
by 118 deceased female poets. It became the best-known book of its kind in pre-modern Japan (Ueda, 2012).
Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) praised five female poets of the past: one of them was Chiyo-jo.
Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959) criticized Chiyo-jo as "too subjective" and as using personification.
(Ueda, 2012, p. xxiii). He "repeatedly condemned her poetry as conceited and phony" (Ueda, p.38).
Ebara Taizo (1894-1948), an "eminent haiku scholar", "found her work emotionally shallow" (Ueda, 2012, p.38).
Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson in their 1981 From the Country of Eight Islands, Chiyo-jo is the first poet for whom the editors group the hokku/haiku by season words.
Fay Aoyagi (November 2016, personal communication: "Chiyo-ni is not very interesting for me."
Mariko Kitakubo (2017, personal communication): "Chiyo-ni was my grandmother's favorite poet."
Willow poems by Chiyo-jo
Donegan (1998): Chiyo-jo's approximately 1,700 haiku include about 41 (2.5%) that include "willow", a spring kigo that is also a symbol for women's beauty:
starting to leave Kyoto--the willow tree [40]
to tie or untie the willow--it's up to the wind [60]
Same words as the 3-line version in Donegan, p. 119, 1998.
To tangle or untangle a willow, it's up to the wind (Sato, 1981)
one more sleep till 100 years-- the willow [64]
A green willow's quiet, wherever you plant it (Sato, 1981)
The willow flows away and returns again to its trunk (Sato, 1981)
Women's explicit body poems
moonflowers in bloom
when a woman's skin
gleams through the dusk (Ueda, p. 40, 2012)
moon flowers!
when a woman's skin
is revealed
(Donegan, p. 141, 1998)
it made me forget
about the rouge on my lips--
a crystalline stream (Ueda, p. 41, 2012)
Also:
rouged lips
forgotten --
clear springwater (Donegan (1998), p. 142)
woman's desire
deeply rooted --
the wild violets (Donegan (1998), p. 118)
the coolness
of the bottom of her kimono
in the bamboo grove (Donegan (1998), p. 134)
cool breeze
enclosed in my kimono sleeves
till falling asleep (Donegan (1998), p. 136)
Second batch of exercises
- The gracefulness of the willow, as a symbol of beauty.
- An explicit body poem.
- Being distracted from a task by something in nature.
References
Addiss (2012). The Art of Haiku: Its History Through Poems and Paintings by Japanese Masters
by Stephen Addiss. pp. 143-147. [Addis calls her "Kaga no Chiyo" then "Chiyo".]
Donegan (1998). Chiyo-ni: Woman Haiku Master
translated and introduced by Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi.
Donegan (2004). "Chiyo-ni's Haiku Style" by Patricia Donegan.
Simply Haiku 2.3. http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv2n3/reprints/Patricia_Donegan.html
Museum (2017). Chiyo-jo Haiku Museum (in Matto, Japan - Chiyo-jo's birth place) website in Japanese
and English (http://haikukan.city.hakusan.ishikawa.jp/english/about/index.html);
the quoted translations are from
Chiyojo's Haiku Seasons (1996) commentary by Tadashi Yamane,
translations by Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi.
A number in square brackets [#]
shows the ordinal number of the poem in the Museum's page of Chyo-jo's spring haiku:
http://haikukan.city.hakusan.ishikawa.jp/english/chiyojo/spring/list_index.html
, retrieved February 4, 2017.
Sato (1981). From the Country of Eight Islands
translated and edited by Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson; pp. 333-334. [Sato calls her "Chiyojo".]
Trumbull (2017). Personal communication by email from Charles Trumbull.
Ueda (2012). Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women
edited by Makoto Ueda. [Ueda calls her "Chiyojo".]
Other Books on Haiku
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The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa
edited by Robert Hass.
The past-poet laureate of the U.S.A has compiled this enthralling collection of
his own essays in which he summarizes the lives of three masters and inventors
of the haiku tradition in Japan, and
presents the lives, the prose, and 300 of the poems of:
- Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the ascetic and seeker,
- Yosa Buson (1716-83), the artist, and
- Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), the humanist.
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The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World
by William J. Higginson.
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Related pages:
 Books of Poetry Form.
Alphabetic list of poetry forms and related topics.
How to Write Poetry.
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Copyright
© 2010-2017 by J. Zimmerman.
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