Hop-stepping
on Stones: Haiga Today
Hop-stepping
on Stones: Haiga Today
An Interview with Jeanne Emrich
by Stephen Addiss
SA: As editor of Reeds you very likely have the best overall view of haiga in
the West; how would you describe the state of the field at the moment, both in
terms of general understanding and in regards to creative work?
JE: We are still very much in the early stages of discovery at this point. Most
people creating haiga today never heard of the form ten or even five years ago.
They have been learning about haiga through the haiku journals and Internet e-zines,
the majority of which started publishing the work of contemporary poet-painters
in the mid-- to late--1990's. The community of poet-painters creating haiga in
the West today is still exceedingly small, perhaps no more than 150 poets or
poets working in collaboration with visual artists. but it's clear that
enthusiasm for the form is growing, especially on the Internet.
The groundwork for all this was laid starting in the 1950's when our real introduction to the form came with H. R. Blyth's Haiku in four volumes and later in various journals, such as Mirrors International Haiku Forum in the late 1980's, and also in books and exhibition catalogues such as your catalogue in 1995, Haiga:Takebe Sōchō and the Haiku Painting Tradition, which featured more than fifty haiga of traditional Japanese masters from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. When journals such as Raw Nervz and South by Southeast started publishing haiga or haiga-like illustrations in their journals during the 1990's, interest started to grow. In 1997, an entire issue of South by Southeast was devoted to haiga. For many readers, this was their first introduction to the form. Then the Internet brought new exposure to the form with my Haiga Online: A Journal of Painting and Poetry, which first appeared in 1998 and was the first Internet journal to feature full color contemporary haiga. A couple of years later, the hardcopy American Haibun and Haiga, now Contemporary Haibun (Red Moon Press) began publishing haiga in black and while, followed in 2003 by my annual Reeds:Contemporary Haiga, the first hardcopy, full color publication completely devoted to the form.
But now, the really big story is haiga on the Internet. With the sheer ease of putting haiga files online, almost before the paint is dry or the photo is out of the camera, people all over the world, including Europe, Central and South America, and Asia, including India, are sharing their haiga every day. It really is an amazing phenomenon!
SA: This is fascinating!
From what you say, haiga is at a stage that haiku faced some decades ago, namely
abundant international interest but no sure and clear direction. At the time,
one important question was whether western haiku should follow the so-called
"rules" of Japanese haiku, including a seasonal reference and 5-7-5 syllable
structure. Although there are still many different ideas currently being
explored, it seems that a majority of haiku poets in the West do not find these
conventions necessary, and instead reach towards the more subtle characteristics
of haiku, such as suggestion rather than statement and the use of natural images
to bring forth human feelings. In comparison, haiga in Japan has not had
distinct "rules" but it does have characteristics, such as simplicity rather
than complexity of visual image, and the use of empty space in the composition.
Do you see these East Asian characteristics making their mark in the West, or
does a more Eurocentric idea of "filling up the space" seem more common in the
work we see today?
JE: I heartily agree that
haiga in the West is at the same stage haiku faced decades ago―but with the
added complexity that now we must understand not only how haiku works but also
how it works in combination with a visual image crafted in a particular
medium and using any one of a tremendous variety of styles and techniques. The
choices can absolutely confound anyone new to the form! That is why it is so
important to ground oneself first in the traditional aesthetic, which arose from
the brush.
Western poet-painters do include white space in their works for the most
part, and I think this will prevail as understanding of the form grows. In
fact, for some it appears to be the easiest and most visible way of applying the
traditional aesthetic of the Japanese masters! However, many of us have yet to
discover the charm of the vignette which is the sketch-like nature of the haiga
form, the dance of hand-written or hand-brushed calligraphy, as well as the many
delightful and subtle ways a well-crafted haiku can play against a painted
image. There may be no “rules” for creating haiga, but when we look at Bashō,
Buson, Sōchō and the other masters in Japan over the past three centuries, we
see that some clearly had a genius for combining haiku and painted images in a
variety of highly resonant ways, and we need to get a feel for that so we can do
it ourselves.
SA: One of the most intriguing aspects of haiga is the question of how the image relates to the words, and vice-versa. I’ve found three prevailing methods of combining text and image in Japan. the first is a portrait of the poet, usually abbreviated and often somewhat humorous, along with his or her poem. This form seems hardly to exist in the West. Second is a direct relation of having the visual image correspond with a verbal image. A haiku about butterflies and clover, in this case, would have a picture of butterflies and/or clover. The third, and most interesting, is when there is no direct connection, but each serves to add more potential meanings to the other. In “Garden Butterfly," for example, Issa adds an image of a rural hut to a haiku about a baby crawling after a butterfly.
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)
niwa no chō
ko ga haeba tobi
haeba tobu
garden butterfly
as the baby crawls, it flies―
crawls close, flutters on
In Western haiga I’ve noticed a fourth style, where the image is an abstraction that relates to the emotional tone of the poem. Of these four, how do you see Western haiga progressing, and might there even be other interactions of text and image?
JE: I see us exploring all of these, and more. The methods you describe speak of
concrete images as subject matter. As poet-painters, we strive to combine these
images in a way that might be realized in the viewer's mind as meaningful. Many
of us have thought along these lines for years and have worked under the
operating premise that the verse must not be a mere caption for the
visual image, nor should the visual image be an illustration of
the verse. Rather, one should bring something new to the other
or alternatively leave something out to stimulate the imagination and encourage
the reader/viewer to complete the haiga. It seems we have always interpreted
this to mean objective subject matter, as in your example of Issa's haiga where
he adds an image of a rural hut to a verse about a baby crawling after a
butterfly. But as I have tried to paint my own haiga and as I have looked over
others' work submitted to Reeds, I have seen that we have yet to fully take
into consideration the art of the visual rendering itself -- the medium used
along with technique and style in making the rendering. All these can add
meaning over and beyond the literal image in the poem or painting.
If Issa were alive today and chose to show a photograph or a collage or a
computer rendering of a hut to accompany his verse rather than a quick ink
sketch, the nuances of his haiga might be quite different. So, just like the
rest of us today, he would have to think of how his choice of medium
might pertain to the combining of text and image in this now
contemporary form. I see Western haiga progressing along these lines of
exploration and experimentation in media.
SA: Yes, now that we have so
many different possibilities in terms of visual media, it seems that even for
the same poet-artist, each haiga might be a different blend. For example, one
poem might go well with a photograph, another with a hand-drawn image, another
with a computer abstraction, and so forth, with everything from crayons to
collage entering the mix as we seek for the greatest resonance. In your
explorations and publishing of Western haiga, do you see these kinds of special
correspondences between haiku and specific visual media taking place?
JE: Haiga is a truly versatile form. A haiku might go with just about any
medium and the combination be made to work, even with photography, depending on
how the medium is used. I have found that the more painterly the medium -- for
example, sumi-e and water colors -- and the looser the painting style,
the more it seems to resonate with both literal and suggestive
verses. Landscape verses go very well with such media. There is something about
a loose wash and expressive brushwork that both delights the eye and invites the
imagination into the painting to roam through it and, in effect, complete it.
The same synergy occurs when the painting is in the abstract expressionist
vein. Regardless of whether the verse is impressionistic (eg. describing
atmosphere) or well-focused on objects, the eye will search the abstract
painting for meaning.
The painterly media are also excellent for verses involving
people, especially humorous verses, as are renderings in pencil and marker. Cor
van den Heuvel's doodle haiga,
done in pen, are in the spirit of some of the quick
caricature-like sketches done by Issa, Buson, and Sōchō and their followers. Of
course, senryu goes perfectly with outright cartoons -- just line drawings,
perhaps with a little wash of color.
Many haiku verses, including those with cultural allusions, go well with
collages and photo montages. A major concern in working with such complex media
is to avoid information overload and overly "hot" or dramatic images Multiple
images in a collage or montage can overwhelm the accompanying verse, as the
reader finds when undertaking the almost gargantuan task of trying to see which
images in the collage or montage actually resonate (or resonate best) with the
verse. The type of multiple-image haiga that work best, in my opinion, have
just a few images and plenty of white space, in keeping with the traditional
haiga aesthetic.
SA: To what extent do you
think that the East Asian idea that one's brushwork reveals individual character
and personality carries through to some of the less "traces of the hand" media?
JE: I could say that the more mechanical or digital the medium, the less "traces
of the hand." But, in actual fact, it's not the medium itself, it's again how
the medium is used. Collage, for example, can be an assembly of "found art" –
material culled from photos, magazines, newspapers, even product wrappers, which
can seem quite removed from the individual who assembled it. But all the
poet/artist need do is add some hand-drawn or -brushed images and calligraphy,
and the expressiveness of the hand and the
"hand-made" is back in the picture. We see this in the work of Gary Lebel from
Georgia where material collected from his daily walks are combined with cutout
bits of paper, his own callgraphy and verse, and whatever else he might add with
a brush, pen, pastel, or crayon. The result is that he makes the medium his
own, and we feel the expressiveness of his hand in every element of the collage,
Gary Lebel
But beyond this, perhaps the greatest challenge to the haiga aesthetic with its
emphasis on the handmade comes from digital photography where the "traces of the
hand" often seem entirely obscured. Currently, digital haiga or photo-haiku is
very popular on the Internet. As more and more haiku
poets acquire digital cameras and the software that goes with the cameras, they
see how easy it is to take photos, transfer them to their computer and
quickly put verses on them, using digital fonts-- a far remove from hand-brushed
art and calligraphy! Even if you argue that the creator's character and
personality comes through in such decisions as where to point the camera, what
font to use, and where to place it on the digital image, the technology itself
is doing most of the work in gathering the information, formatting it, and
delivering it. But beyond this very elemental use of digital
technology are infinite possibilities in the digital arts where the
artist's hand, character, and personality may very well be in evidence. Using
such software as Adobe Photoshop, the poet/artist may have up on the computer
screen digital photos. But, in addition to those files, he or she can also have
scans of hand-written or hand-brushed calligraphy as well as any painted or
drawn work, augmented, if so desired, with scans of "found art" from nature or
from newspapers, magazines, even product wrappers, much as Gary LeBel does by
hand. Then, using various "cut and paste" and other selection options in the
software, the poet-painter now is free to assemble a montage where not only
"traces of the hand" are present but also a contemporary realization of the
traditional haiga aesthetic -- the sketch-like nature of the
presentation, expressive calligraphy, and plenty of white space to let the
imagination play. At present, there are no Western poet-painters that I know of
who are creating photo montages or collages this way with digital technology,
though there are numerous artists exploring techniques for combining inkjet
printing with traditional art materials. It's a very exciting field with great
potential for those of us working in haiga.
SA: Could you tell us more
about new technologies— are they leading to new genres within the haiga
tradition?
JE: I see digital rendering as a new genre. Digital technology now includes software tools that a haiga artist can use every step of the way in creating haiga from scratch, exactly as a graphic designer would. The artist can take a hand-drawn sketch, a painting, or a simple photograph and fabricate whole new images. He or she can in seconds try out different colors, smooth out rough lines, morph photos into simulations of drawings or paintings, create image maps, and otherwise animate a haiga to the point where both the images and verses move in and around one another. Today, the undisputed master of digitally rendered haiga is Kuniharu Shimizu of Japan, who, as of this date, has created more than 800 haiga featuring his own art with his verses as well as those of some 200 haijins world-wide As a graphic designer, he brings to haiga the same artistic talent and technological sophistication present in his professional work. He feels that the traditional haiga aesthetic of the handmade is ingrained in his haiga, since the majority of his haiga start from hand-drawn sketches and evolves through the many creative choices he makes during the entire production process.
We see Simizu go one step beyond this in "Autumn Day" with a fine verse by Hisashi Miyazaki, also of Japan.
Hisashi Miyazaki, poem; Kuniharu Shimizu, computer rendering
Here all elements of the visual and verse are digitalized except the most important element in the verse, the hop-stepping, which Shimizu highlights by presenting it with an elegant hand-brushed line skipping up the mountain. Far from being submerged within the digital graphic, the "traces of the hand" here is given the star role.
By
comparison to Shimizu's haiga, all of which are still, unmoving images, the
production of computer-animated haiga has been minimal and sporadic. For several
years starting in 1998, my journal Haiga Online featured haiga with image maps
embedded behind sumi-e paintings. You clicked on various images in the painting,
and haiku verses appeared. Beyond that, as far as I know, the
only person working in any kind of animated haiga today is Joel Weishaus of
Oregon, and he has only recently made a beginning in this medium. The important
thing to keep in mind is that today we see differently than the haiga masters of
the past. Our visual literacy includes familiarity with a great variety of
media virtually unknown 300 years ago -- and with the new technologies, our
visual culture is changing rapidly. It may be that we hardly recognize the
haiga of the old masters in the experimental work we are seeing today, or it may
be that we are just not used to the new visions that come to us via our
computers.
SA: Like all technologies,
digital imaging presents many new possibilities and excitement, but also has
some potential drawbacks. For example, isn't it easier now to have the text in
word-processor fonts instead of by hand? How do you feel about this, is there a
loss in immediacy? Or is it becoming a question of the haiku, the art, and then
the calligraphy choice coming last?
JE: It's certainly easier to use word processor fonts but, as you suggest, it
loses the immediacy and expressiveness of the poet/artist's own hand. It's
really only a couple of extra steps to write your verse and signature on a piece
of paper, scan it, and then transfer the scanned work to your digital photo
or even a painted image, for that matter. There also is software available that
enables you to record your own hand-writing as a font, so you can literally type
in your own hand-writing!
A few poets are reluctant to use their handwriting because they think it's
too sloppy or illegible. They don't see the liveliness in it, nor the
personality or character that others might respond to and appreciate. Consider a
lithograph by Picasso, say one of his quick sketches of a bull fight where every
line dances. Would a word-processed signature at the bottom of the work augment
the presentation or deaden it? No, we look for and expect expressiveness from
the hand of the artist.
Beyond our everyday handwriting, there is fine art calligraphy, which I
feel is one of the great unexplored areas of expression in Western haiga. There
are books out now showing extraordinary work in combining painted, drawn, or
mixed-media type art with text (often Western poetry, epigrams, or longer text
from books) in a variety of calligraphic styles. The calllgraphy is almost
always fully integrated with the art and often to stunning effect. Ultimately, I
think we have to recognize that the calligraphy is a creative element equal to
the verse and the visual image in a haiga.
SA: I fully agree, for what it's worth, that traces of the hand show traces
of the character and personality in both Eastern and Western calligraphy, even
though we are restricted to 26 letters rather than more than 50,000 characters.
In looking at haiga, I find the personal touch is really important, perhaps even
more so when we are using photographic or computer-created images. But all of
this relates to a larger issue, which is the perception of haiga. I don't
believe that anyone has written very much about this, and I wonder if you would
offer your thoughts on this vital question?
JE: In haiga, where there is both a visual image and text to look at, the reader/viewer undergoes a certain order of perception. At it's most elementary, haiga could be likened to a newspaper cartoon, where the reader first sees the visual image, then reads the caption (verse), and finally returns to look at the visual image again to re-imagine it in light of the new information contained in the caption/verse. But in haiga where the text is usually a haiku, there is an additional set of perceptions contained within the middle step, the reading of the text. The reader now becomes absorbed in reading the lines in the haiku, however many there are, from top to bottom, mentally visualizing the images as they are presented, and then perhaps re-reading the verse to savor whatever resonates within the verse, including nuances of meaning, mood, atmosphere -- even new subject matter! So, when the reader returns mentally to look at the visual image -- the painting, collage, photo or whatever medium might be the presentation vehicle -- he or she now has considerably more mental images and more nuances in mind than an ordinary cartoon caption might generate. The more resonance and connotations in the verse, the more the reader is likely to pass back and forth between the visual images and the verse.
The traditional haiga masters of Japan had a wonderful and very intuitive understanding of this process and they knew how to play off of it in some delightful ways. I think they understood that when the reader reads the verse, he or she mentally goes off into the self-contained world of the haiku, and upon returning to the visual image finds that -- surprise! -- the image is not as first perceived! This can be very subtle -- the intimation of a mood, perhaps, which we might pick up in a color wash -- or it can be something not shown, but which the verse tells us is there, such as the child and butterfly in Issa's grass hut. Or It can be something quite different! This is particularly effective with the visual turns out to be a visual pun on the verse.
We
find this kind of double entendre in your delightful haiga, "Entangled."
Stephen Addis
At first glance, we see a playfully erotic, brushed line drawing of a female nude, her hair spiked and adorned with your red seal The drawing alone is entertaining, but we know there is more coming with the verse, our next step in the order of perception. At first reading, the verse appears to take us into another context entirely and we find ourselves envisioning a willow tree in April. Like all good haiku, this verse's suggestiveness invites us to linger within the poem for a while. We speculate about what or whom is "entangled" and what might be those mysterious "whispered secrets." We are off into another world entirely. And when we return to the painting, our next step in the order of perception in haiga, we find that -- bingo! -- our reclining nude has taken on a whole new identity! She is a visual pun -- an April willow with whispered secrets that have entangled lovers. We smile, enjoying the little joke, and even recycle through the whole process once more, rereading the verse, looking again at the painted image, just to savor the fun of the whole presentation.
Ultimately, I think that if haiga has anything new to offer the world of poetry and art in the 21rst century, it is this enriched resonance and interplay that haiku brings to visual images and particularly as filtered through our contemporary sensibilities. No matter what the medium, haiga today is making that medium new and making us see anew as well.
Stephen Addiss is the author of Haiga:Takebe Socho and the Haiku Painting Tradition (1995) as well as of numerous articles and essays about haiga published in journals and books internationally.
Jeanne Emrich is the founder and first webmaster of Haiga Online: A Journal of Painting and Poetry (1998–2002), the author of Berries and Cream: Contemporary Haiga in North America (Press Here, 2000), a book-length interview with Michael Dylan Welch, and the editor of Reeds: Contemporary Haiga (2003--2005), a publication of Lone Egret Press.
This interview first appeared in Modern Haiku, Vol. 37:2, Summer, 2006.
Return to Reeds: Contemporary Haiga Main Page.