Kigo

For the radio station in Saint Anthony, Idaho, United States, see KIGO.
Cherry trees from Japan around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC.

Kigo (季語 "season word"?) (plural kigo) is a word or phrase associated with a particular season, used in Japanese poetry. Kigo are used in the collaborative linked-verse forms renga and renku, as well as in haiku, to indicate the season referenced in the stanza. They are valuable in providing economy of expression.

Contents

History of kigo

Representation of and reference to the seasons has always been important in Japanese culture and poetry. The earliest anthology of Japanese poetry, the mid 8th century Man'yōshū, contained several sections devoted to the seasons. By the time of the first imperial Japanese anthology, the Kokinshū a century and a half later (AD 905), the seasonal sections had become a much larger part of that anthology. Both of these anthologies also had sections for other categories, such as love poems and miscellaneous (zō) poems.

The writing of the linked verses of renga started in the middle of Heian period (roughly 1000) and developed through the medieval era. By the 13th century there were very set rules for the writing of renga, and the formal structure of renga specified that about half of the stanzas should include a reference to a specific season depending upon their place in the renga. According to these rules, the hokku (the opening stanza of the renga) must include a reference to the season in which the renga was written.

A lighter form of renga called haikai no renga ("playful" linked verse) was introduced near the end of the 15th century; thus haikai was the linked verse practice followed and elevated by Matsuo Bashō and others until the Meiji Era (1867-1912). Near the end of the 19th century, the hokku, the opening verse, was completely separated from the context of haikai no renga by Masaoka Shiki and revised and written as an entirely independent verse form, though retaining the kigo. In the Taishō Era (1912-1925) a movement began to drop the kigo entirely. Today, however, most Japanese haiku still contain a kigo, although some may omit it. Many haiku written in languages other than Japanese omit kigo.

Kigo and seasons

A jack-o'-lantern lit by a candle inside.

Kigo are words or phrases strongly associated with a particular season, though sometimes the association may be more subtle. Pumpkins (kabocha), for example, are a winter squash that is associated with the autumn harvest. Furthermore, pumpkins are also associated with the Jack-o'-lanterns of Halloween. A little later in the year pumpkins are also associated with the pumpkin pies that are often part of the US Thanksgiving Day dinner along with turkey and cranberries.

The full moon as photographed by the Galileo spacecraft.

But why is the moon (tsuki) an autumn kigo since it is up in the sky all year long? Autumn is when the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer but are still warm enough to stay outside, so you are more likely to notice the moon. Often the night sky will be free of clouds so that also helps with noticing the moon. Autumn is also the time when the full moon can help farmers work under the moonlight to harvest their crops (see harvest moon). [For more on the moon as a kigo see below].

Japanese seasons

In the Japanese calendar, seasons traditionally followed the lunisolar calendar with the solstices and equinoxes at the middle of a season. Having the seasons centered on the solstices and equinoxes also used to be the European tradition with midsummer equivalent to the summer solstice (usually 21 June), and Midsummer Day (24 June) as a quarter day in England, Wales, and Ireland. (The astronomical definition of seasons, however, has the seasons beginning at a solstice or equinox.) The traditional Japanese seasons are:

Cherry blossoms (sakura), often simply called blossoms (hana) are a common spring kigo.
Spring: 4 February—5 May
Summer: 6 May—7 August
Autumn: 8 August—6 November
Winter: 7 November—3 February

For kigo, each season is then divided into early, mid, and late periods, as follows:[1]

Early Spring: 4 February—5 March
Mid-Spring: 6 March—4 April
Late Spring: 5 April—5 May
Early Summer: 6 May—5 June
Mid-Summer: 6 June—6 July
Late Summer: 7 July—7 August
Early Autumn: 8 August—7 September
Mid-Autumn: 8 September—7 October
Late Autumn: 8 October—6 November
Early Winter: 7 November—6 December
Mid-Winter: 7 December—4 January
Late Winter: 5 January—3 February

Saijiki

A sunflower, a typical sign of summer.
The A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima was near ground zero in August 1945.

Japanese haiku poets often use a book called a saijiki, which is like a dictionary or almanac for kigo. An entry in a saijiki usually includes a description of the kigo itself, plus a list of similar or related words, and then a few examples of haiku that include that kigo. The saijiki are divided into the four seasons (and modern saijiki usually include a section for the New Year and another section for Seasonless (Muki) words). Those sections are divided into a standard set of categories, and then the kigo are sorted within their proper category. The most common categories (with some examples of both Japanese and international summer kigo) would be:

Summer

Notice that although haiku are often thought of as poems about nature, that two of the seven categories are primarily about human activities (Humanity and Observances).

Common kigo in Japanese haiku

Japan is long from north to south, so the seasonal features vary from place to place. The sense of season in kigo is however based on Kyoto and its vicinity, since the classical literature of Japan developed mainly in this area, especially up to the early part of the Edo period (the early 17th century). [For a larger list of both Japanese and International kigo, see the List of kigo article.]

[note: An asterisk (*) after the Japanese name for the kigo denotes an external link to a saijiki entry for the kigo with example haiku that is part of the "Japanese haiku: a topical dictionary" website.]

Spring

The cicada (semi) is a common late summer kigo.

Summer

koinobori - ornament of Tango no sekku. Early summer.

Autumn

Grapes (budō) are a fruit typically harvested in Autumn.
scarecrow in early autumn paddy field.

Winter

Fallen leaves (ochiba), a symbol of winter.

New year

This group of kigo is a modern invention. Before Japan began using the Gregorian calendar (in 1873), the Japanese New Year was at the beginning of spring.

Dispute on attribution

Switching from the old Japanese calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1873 brought about numerous changes in life in Japan. Even traditional events have been affected by this change. Since kigo are affiliated with seasonal events, several modern haiku poets have had to reconsider the construction of kigo and their attribution to season. One of biggest changes was the creation of a "New Year" part as a seasonal sectioning of kigo.

One typical example is the case of Tanabata. Traditionally the date of Tanabata is 7th day of the 7th month of the Japanese calendar, therefore in August of the Gregorian one. Today in many places it is celebrated on 7 July, hence there is a dispute as to whether Tanabata should be treated as a summer kigo.

Kigo outside of Japan

Although haiku started as a Japanese poetry form, it is now written around the world in many different languages. William J Higginson's "Haiku World" (1996), which is the first international saijiki, has more than 1,000 poems, with over 600 poets from 50 countries writing in 25 languages. The writing of haiku around the world has only increased with the advent of the internet, where one can even find examples of haiku written in Latin, Esperanto, and Klingon, as well as numerous examples in more common languages.

These international haiku poets have had to adapt the idea of kigo to their local conditions and culture. Many phenomena that might be used as kigo are similar throughout much of the world, such as the blooming of flowers and trees in the spring, and the migration of birds in the spring and autumn. Even if the trees and birds are not the same as in Japan, the concepts are still the same.

On the other hand, climatic conditions can often be very different from what the Japanese are used to. The tropics, for example, are very different from the temperate climate of Japan and usually only have a wet or Monsoon season, and a dry season. The Tornado Alley area of the United States has its tornado season (peaking from late winter through mid summer, depending upon latitude). Areas with a Mediterranean climate, such as Western Australia, coastal California, and Spain have their summer Fire Season. On the other hand, in the Caribbean and the east coast of North America, plus surrounding areas, it is Hurricane Season during the summer and autumn months.

There are many local cultures around the world, but you can still find similarities and differences. One similarity is that many areas have harvest festivals with bonfires. One difference between locations is that for a bird that migrates, some places will view that bird as a winter resident, or as a spring and summer breeder, or as an autumn and spring migrant.

For some examples of non-Japanese kigo, here are some from southern California:

A large Jacaranda tree in full bloom.

Kigo and haiku: an example

An Australian frog (kawazu).

In the famous haiku by Matsuo Bashō below, "frog" is an all spring kigo. Haiku had been traditionally written about the singing of mating frogs, but Bashō chose to focus on a very different sound.

ふるいけや
かわずとびこむ
みずのおと		 Furuike ya
Kawazu tobikomu
Mizu no oto		 An old pond
A frog jumps in—
the sound of water.

Must haiku include a kigo?

In the pre-Meiji era (before 1868), almost all haiku contained a kigo. For example, Japanese experts have classified only about 10 of Matsuo Bashō's (1644-1694) hokku in the miscellaneous (zō) category (out of about 1,000 hokku). As with most of the pre-Meiji poets, Bashō was primarily a renku poet (that is, he composed linked verse with other poets), so he also wrote plenty of miscellaneous and love stanzas for the interior lines of a renku. Usually about half the stanzas in a renku do not reference a season.

A little later Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) (who wrote mostly haiku and not renku) wrote 109 haiku without season words (out of roughly 20,000 haiku).

The Meiji era poet Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), who recommended several major reforms to the writing of hokku and tanka, including an expansion in subject matter and vocabulary, still included kigo in his revision of hokku, which he renamed haiku. Experts have classified a few hundred of Shiki's haiku in the miscellaneous category (out of the few thousand that he wrote). His follower Takahama Kyoshi, who was the most influential haiku poet in the generation after Shiki, also emphasized kigo. However, in the early part of the 20th century, there were a number of Japanese poets, such as Kawahigashi Hekigoto, Ogiwara Seisensui, Noguchi Yonejiro, Taneda Santōka, Ozaki Hōsai, Nakatsuka Ippekirō, and Natsuishi Ban'ya who were less concerned about the traditions of haiku such as the inclusion of kigo. Some, like Hekigoto and Seisensui, actively opposed the insistence on kigo, but even they often included kigo in their haiku.

Most Japanese, and many western, haiku written today still follow tradition by including a kigo. Many haiku groups and editors of haiku publications insist that haiku include a kigo. For some haiku traditionalists, anything that doesn't have a kigo is something else, either senryū (comic haikai) or zappai (miscellaneous haikai). Until a few modern saijiki added the miscellaneous category, any seasonless haiku would not have been included as an example haiku in a saijiki, which are the major references for haiku poets in Japan.

A Tree Sparrow (suzume).

There are, however, some reformers who have made suggestions such as using the idea of keywords (which would include kigo as a subset). Keywords are words, such as dawn, birthday cake, ocean wave, beggar or dog, with strong associations, but which are not necessarily associated with a particular season. Birds that do not migrate, such as pigeons or sparrows, are additional examples of non-seasonal keywords.

References

Print
Online
Online lists of season words

Notes

  1. ↑ Higginson, William J. Kiyose (Seasonword Guide), From Here Press, 2005, p.24

See also