Haibun

Haibun ([俳文 haikai writings] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a literary composition that combines prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and includes, but is not limited to, the following forms of prose: autobiography, biography, diary, essay, history, prose poem, short story and travel literature.

History

The 17th century Japanese poet, Matsuo Bashō, was one prominent early writer of haibun. He wrote some haibun as travel accounts during his various journeys, the most famous of which is Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Interior). Bashō’s shorter haibun include compositions devoted to travel and others focusing on character sketches, landscape scenes, anecdotal vignettes and occasional writings written to honor a specific patron or event. His Hut of the Phantom Dwelling can be classified as an essay while, in Saga Nikki (Saga Diary), he documents the day-to-day activities of his disciples and himself on a summer retreat.

The first contest for English-language haibun took place in 1996, organized by Michael Dylan Welch, and judged by Tom Lynch and Cor van den Heuvel. Anita Virgil won first prize, and David Cobb won second prize. The contest resulted in the publication of Wedge of Light (Press Here) in 1999. The first anthology of English-language haibun was Bruce Ross's Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun (Tuttle), published in 1998.

Jim Kacian and Bruce Ross edited the inaugural number of the annual anthology American Haibun & Haiga (Red Moon Press) in 1999; that series, which continues to this day, changed its name to Contemporary Haibun in 2003 and sponsored the parallel creation in 2005 of Contemporary Haibun Online, a quarterly journal that added Ken Jones, the Welsh haibunist, to the founding editorial team of Kacian and Ross. A second journal devoted to the genre, Haibun Today, was launched by Jeffrey Woodward in 2007 and remains active; the same editor presided over the short-lived Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose (2009).

Characteristics

A haibun may record a scene, or a special moment, in a highly descriptive and objective manner or may occupy a wholly fictional or dream-like space. The accompanying haiku may have a direct or subtle relationship with the prose and encompass or hint at the gist of what is recorded in the prose sections.

Several distinct schools of English haibun have been described, including Reportage narrative mode such as Robert Wilson's 'Vietnam Ruminations', Haibunic prose, and the Templum effect.

Contemporary practice of haibun composition in English is evolving rapidly. Generally, a haibun consists of one or more paragraphs of prose written in a concise, imagistic haikai style, and one or more haiku.

Modern English-language haibun writers of note include Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross and Mark Nowak.

See also

• Tanka prose
• Poetic diary

External links

• contemporary haibun Online - an edited journal of haibun prose and haiku poetry
• Haibun Today - online quarterly
• Haibun Today's extensive haibun bibliography
• Ray Rasmussen's haiku & photography web site featuring examples and definitions of haibun
• Modern Haibun and Tanka Prose, biannual journal
• Simply Haiku 2003–2009 – complete archive of the online journal which contained a section of English-language haibun
• Modern Haiku - an independent journal of haiku and haiku studies, offering a few modern English haibun online from each print edition
• The Hut of the Phantom Dwelling by Matsuo Bashō - 17th century Japanese haibun in translation