Two Haiku Sequences by Sugita Hisajo
Translated by Eiko Yachimoto & Susan Stanford
Sugita Hisajo (1890 – 1946) was one of the most acclaimed of the first generation of women haiku poets to publish Modern Haiku (gendai haiku) when publication opportunities became available to women from 1916. The following two sequences were written in 1934, when she was at the height of her powers. They transcend the major thrust of Modern Haiku, which encouraged sketching-from-life, to capture memories of what was at the time an exotic childhood.
The first sequence celebrates her birthplace of Kagoshima and her birth month of May. At the time of her birth, Japan was involved in a rapid transformation from a feudal society to a modern nation state, and her father, a bureaucrat, was stationed in Kagoshima, in the subtropical southern part of the island of Kyushu.
The second sequence recreates vivid moments from her early childhood in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture--also known as the Ryukyu Island chain-- which divides the East China Sea from the Pacific Ocean. It was only ambiguously part of Japanese territory when formally annexed in 1879. Despite her position as a child of a colonist--her father was conducting a survey for taxation purposes--Hisajo and her older sister enjoyed considerable freedom to mix with both the Chinese and native Okinawans who lived there. Her experiences on this tropical island remained touchstones of happiness for her during her often lonely and tumultuous adult life.
The construction of the Okinawa sequence owes something to the tradition of linked poetry (renku), which became significantly marginalized by Modern Haiku. Renku encourages associational links and changes of perspective which we have tried to capture by the free switching of tense between past and present. The last haiku in the second sequence no longer centres on Okinawa but recalls her high school days, in which she looked to her future, in the context of earlier memories. It is possible that an encounter with an umi hōzuki, the egg sac of a spiral shell snail, was the trigger for the entire sequence.
Umi hōzuki, (sea hōzuki) take their name from hōzuki (the seed pods of Chinese lanterns) as both are used as whistles by children. The start of the school year is associated with the cherry blossoms for most Japanese readers, so the use of bead tree flowers evoke the particular flavour of Naha, just as the pomelo blossoms evoke Kagoshima.
The first sequence celebrates her birthplace of Kagoshima and her birth month of May. At the time of her birth, Japan was involved in a rapid transformation from a feudal society to a modern nation state, and her father, a bureaucrat, was stationed in Kagoshima, in the subtropical southern part of the island of Kyushu.
The second sequence recreates vivid moments from her early childhood in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture--also known as the Ryukyu Island chain-- which divides the East China Sea from the Pacific Ocean. It was only ambiguously part of Japanese territory when formally annexed in 1879. Despite her position as a child of a colonist--her father was conducting a survey for taxation purposes--Hisajo and her older sister enjoyed considerable freedom to mix with both the Chinese and native Okinawans who lived there. Her experiences on this tropical island remained touchstones of happiness for her during her often lonely and tumultuous adult life.
The construction of the Okinawa sequence owes something to the tradition of linked poetry (renku), which became significantly marginalized by Modern Haiku. Renku encourages associational links and changes of perspective which we have tried to capture by the free switching of tense between past and present. The last haiku in the second sequence no longer centres on Okinawa but recalls her high school days, in which she looked to her future, in the context of earlier memories. It is possible that an encounter with an umi hōzuki, the egg sac of a spiral shell snail, was the trigger for the entire sequence.
Umi hōzuki, (sea hōzuki) take their name from hōzuki (the seed pods of Chinese lanterns) as both are used as whistles by children. The start of the school year is associated with the cherry blossoms for most Japanese readers, so the use of bead tree flowers evoke the particular flavour of Naha, just as the pomelo blossoms evoke Kagoshima.
The Kagoshima Sequence (6)
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pomelos in flower
entering May sunshine 朱欒咲く 五月となれば 日の光 zabon saku gogatsu to nareba hi no hikari |
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pomelo blossoms
spilling over our house where living was joyful 花朱欒 こぼれ咲く戸に 住むは楽し hana zabon kobore saku to ni sumu (wa) tanoshi |
wafting sweet breeze who's come visiting our house of pomelo blossoms? 風かほり 朱欒咲く戸を 訪ふは誰ぞ kaze kaori zabon saku to o tou wa darezo |
in the sky above the blooming pomelos of my birth month a perfect pearl 朱欒咲く 我が誕生月の 空真珠 zabon saku waga are tsuki no sora matama |
