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- Title
Rereading Basho's Frog Haiku: Its Stylistic Features.
- Authors
Jianqing Zheng
- Abstract
This essay asserts that Basho created an Eternal Now in his frog haiku, reflecting the Buddhist insight into the present moment. For a better understanding of characteristics of nowness, instantaneity and naturalness, the essay discusses 1) the stylistic features such as terseness, phonological pattern and musicality that form a wholeness of Basho's haiku, and 2) naturalness and simplicity that reflect the Buddhist philosophy. Though written in a traditional form of seventeen onji, the frog haiku has only eleven words. Although some words are kanji, borrowings from the Chinese language, they are polysyllabic in the Japanese language. For instance, (furu),(ike),(kawazu),(mizu), and (oto). And the assonance in these words makes a pleasant melody in the one-line structure, showing that the repetition, variation and arrangement of the vowels can distinguish this haiku in musicality and in two kinds of sound: the sound of vowels that produce the rhythm and the sound of water made by the hopping frog. The essay also discusses the three steps of reading the frog haiku, believing that the third one gets the kernel of simplicity. In fact, the most fascinating part of Basho's haiku is its naturalness and simplicity, which reflect the Japanese aesthetic attitude toward nature and human harmony with nature.
- Subjects
HAIKU; BUDDHIST philosophy; JAPANESE language; JAPANESE poetry; NATURALNESS (Linguistics)
- Publication
Japan Studies Association Journal, 2014, Vol 12, p1
- ISSN
1530-3527
- Publication type
Article