The 575-syllable senryû, like the
hokku, derives from the longer verse form of renga. Unlike
the hokku, however, which normally deals with natural or
seasonal phenomena, the senryû is expected to deal
with matters of human and social nature, often in a playful,
satirical, or knowing manner. The hokkucalled haiku
todaycarries a seasonal reference; the senryû
does not have to.
The distinction between the two genres has been tenuous,
however, from early on. In recent years the blurring of
the differences has become such that Ônishi Yasuyo
has said, If someone asks me how senryû differ
from haiku, I tell the inquirer that the only distinction
that can be made is by authors namethat
is, if the author is known to write haiku, the pieces he
or she writes are haiku; if the author is known to write
senryû, the pieces she or he writes are senryû.
Ônishi herself is sometimes listed as a senryû
poet, sometimes as a haiku poet.
Modern senryû, which dates from about the time of
the haiku reform efforts of Masaoka Shiki (18671902),
has taken such divergent perspectives as idealism, proletarianism,
social realism, and individualism.
One senryû observer has noted that if the period
of 250 years since the senryû was established as a
genre were to be divided into five ages, this would be the
fifth, and women writers have dominated it. In the early
part of the 20th century, women senryû writers were,
the pioneering Inoue Nobuko said, fewer than the stars
at daybreak.
What follows is a brief survey of senryû by women.
Most of the selection is made from Taira Sôseis
anthology, Ryôran josei senryû (Midori Shobô,
1997). These translations by Hiroaki Sato are excerpted
from his White Dew, Dreams, & This World, an
anthology of Japanese women poets from ancient to modern
times; publication is forthcoming.
Sakai Sobaijo (?1952)
The mother of seven children, Sobaijo became a pioneering
woman senryû writer. Her husband was Sakai Kuraki
(18691945), a leader in the Meiji senryû revival,
among whose senryû is Kuraki has become a fool
called a teacher, which is a twist on an anonymous
senryû, Hes not such a fool as to be called
a teacher.
At every command he gives the second lieutenant
jumps up
In a sudden shower a woman covers her obi
first
Unable to compose a single piece on plum
flowers she comes home
She says sheeee! to a burglar
thinking hes a rat
Itô Masajo (1882?)
A woman experiences frustrations, Masajo said,
as an old woman, a little girl, a bride, a second
wife, and a widow. She must capture such weaknesses
in her senryû. She was prolific and once turned Chinas
classical novel The Water Margin into a sequence of 285
senryû. She had disappeared from the senryû
world by 1920.
Cupid often runs out of arrows and is lost
Deep deeper into the night O O atop the
waves
Shimoyama Kyôko (active in the early 1900s)
Welcomed by the Tokyo senryû world as a genius
in 1904, Kyôko helped found a senryû association
in Osaka in 1909. Later she apparently faded away.
The powder peeled off from her face the
summer Fuji
Out of a wildly hairy shawl a human head
In thin rain atop a guillotine a crow caws
Inoue Nobuko (18691958)
Married to Inoue Kenkabô (18701934), the first
giant in modern senryû, Nobuko established
in 1929 an association of women senryû writers, the
first of its kind. A nurse during the Russo-Japanese War,
she protected and promoted the proletarian, antiwar senryû
writer Tsuru Akira (19091938) at the risk of government
persecution. When he was jailed in 1937, she also was arrested.
The moment it blooms with full force its
cut
I open it I close it but my hands
still empty
The evening primroses stack up the light
of the moon
No matter how I sit I only see myself the
way I am
Kataoka Hiroko (18901975)
Admired by her fellow senryû writers as the
Venus of Okayama (Okayama being the prefecture where
she was born and spent her life), Hiroko was praised by
Inoue Nobuko for the wide range of poetic sensibilities
and for lack of sentimentality she showed in her work.
The last poem in the following selection has to do with
her husband, a fellow senryû writer, on his deathbed.
Days continue with my heart like a wasps
nest
For sharing joy this mosquito net is too
small
Making not the slightest move my nerves
sharpen
In a hospital ward just the two of us the
night the rain
Mikasa Shizuko (18821932)
Shizukos work was regarded as representative of the
Shinkô (Newly Rising) senryû movement.
Today too darkens bringing the day well
meet closer
The heart wanting to be loved presses on
my loneliness
In secrecy I touch something I shouldnt
be touching
Ive preserved the redness of my lips
today as well
Yoshida Shigeko (active around 1930)
Married to the adopted son of the famous patriot Yoshida
Shôin (18301859), Shikeko was a devout Buddhist.
Deprived of all their possessions a winter
stand of trees
Holding loneliness in her arms shes
left behind
Keeping quiet she is inside all sorts of
partitions
Taking one off taking two off like a human
being
Ôishi Tsuruko (born 1907)
Tsuriko was the daughter of Inoue Nobuko and Kenkabô.
Walking side by side the warmth on the side
where you are
I break the wall I break history
Miura Ikuyo (born 1912)
Ikuyo uses punctuation, including dashes and spaces. She
also ignores syllabic count often enough that some call
her pieces one-line poems rather than senryû.
Distant whistlea hag lives alone under
the River of Heaven
The moonlit night I hung my slough on your
treetop
I plant a cactus in my eyes and give up
Dangling from a liars throat an emergency
exit
Kondô Toshiko (born 1915)
When Toshiko was fourteen, her mother was murdered by a
passer-by. It was after this incident, she said, that she
was drawn to senryû.
The loneliness of knowing today too I read
books
You walk you run and youre still on
the earth
Worm-infested the flower cant help
but bloom
My life a single drop of love between heaven
and earth
Usui Kanojo (born 1925)
Arriving at senryû at age twenty-five, she has served
as a permanent judge at the Tokyo Senryû Association
since 1988. She often ignores syllabic count and employs
punctuation.
Ill trust this man for now I take
off my tabi
His lies were his only truth eternal sleep
The nails, feeling the autumn white
I keep hugging my self thats different
from my age
Kuwano Akiko (born 1925)
From 1973 to 1980 Akiko was the senryû judge for
the Hokkaidô edition of the Daily Yomiuri. In 1988
she won the senryû Ze Prize.
The snows falling the snows
falling these two breasts
Lightly lightly a butterfly lies dead on
the canvas of snow
My skull squeaks right in the midst of ecstasy
Hayashi Fujio (19261959)
A war widow, Fujio was active in senryû for only
about three years before she died of stomach ulcer, but
she has greatly influenced those who have come after her.
I close my eyes I drop into sex the bottomless
swamp
I submit to a single male the males
arrogance
With the tip of my tongue I roll the delightful
evil
The whole thing the whole of it slips in
I slip in
Saigô Kanojo (born 1928)
Kanojo started writing senryû in 1953 and has remained
active since. She once headed a group to study the genre.
The light falling on her aslant shes
an ordinary woman
He leaves and I put away the lonesome sound
Tokizane Shinko (born 1929)
Compared to Yosano Akiko in tanka, Shinko has been the
most influential senryû writer for the past few decades,
her liberating boldness attracting many admirers.
So I hate him to the very end I dress to
kill
Love achieved at 4 oclock the 4-oclock
train leaves
Savage loves what I want I say smoke-stack
Since I became again a wife who laughs often
winter
Morinaka Emiko (born 1930)
In 1981 she became a senryû judge for the national
broadcasting corporation, NHK, and now works as an instructor
at NHK Academy of Distance Learning.
The pale moon whose are these tiny breasts?
On a promise not to bear a child we meet
snow ceaseless
The bell insect dies the bell insects
food remains
I like humans Im being drunk with
humans
Kodama Yoshiko (born 1934)
Yoshiko learned about senryû in 1952 while in a sanatorium.
Since 1988 she has been independent, not associating with
any group.
Im in the shadow of countless prostitutes
Conflict at the base of this silvery night
Mayumi Akiko (born 1934)
Akiko won the Fukushima Prefecture Senryû Prize in
1983.
Though hugging each other my back suddenly
feels cold
Let me eat you you eat me to become nothingness
Though lying close to each other two separate
snails
Kino Yukiko (born 1936)
Arriving at senryû at twenty-nine, Yukiko became
the founder and president of the Bangasa Kikyô Senryû
Association in 1982 and the executive director of the All
Japan Senryû Association in 1991.
In too much sorrow I sleep with my mask
on
Matsuda Kyômi (born 1942)
Arriving at senryû at thirty-seven, Kyômi has
won a variety of prizes, among them NHKs Kyûshû
Contest Special Prize.
Suppressing yawns suppressing myself I remain
wife
Combing my hair in love I scatter and spill
sparks
Having my lover unbutton me early summer
Every time I weep I rise to my feet like
a man
Ônishi Yasuyo (born 1949)
Yasuyo is at the forefront of New Wave senryû
writers. She teaches at Kansai Gakuin University while running
a restaurant.
My bones and cherries are in full bloom
Lifelong I count dandelions count clouds
In Clothes Doubled my reproductive organ
dies beautifully
The metaphysical elephant drinks water from
time to time
Seino Chisato (born 1948)
In 1986 Chisato created senryû performances
to stress what she termed the physicality and eroticism
of senryû and staged one-woman shows in Himeji, Okayama,
Tokyo, and Kyoto.
The night I meet my younger brother Im
a Klimt woman
I bought at a kiosk and brought home as
the sound of waves
Running down the giraffes neck the
orgasm
Seeking love just as a Javanese lizard calls
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