In the old days, masters of haiku would use the ancient three-line poetic form to evoke images of frogs leaping into old ponds or of stolen glimpses of the Milky Way through a crack in a paper screen.
Not today's poets.Try this from Kyoji Kobayashi, a 33-year-old poet:Other modern poets, perhaps in a spirit akin to e.e. cummings, even freely use symbols ranging from circles to stars in their haiku.
Kobayashi believes that giving the poems - traditionally a five-seven-five syllable count and including a seasonal reference - a modern sensibility is crucial to maintaining haiku as a vital art form.
But he and some other poets believe haiku, which is an attempt to evoke beauty through brevity and what is left unsaid, is faced with a crisis. They said haiku has become too popular, too much a part of mass culture, squelching the experimental spirit that has been its strength.
Even in haiku's classical era during the 17th century, only a relatively small number of aesthetes composed the poems. The most famous was Basho Matsuo, who traveled the cities and countryside of Japan while writing works such as:But today, weekly magazines and newspapers feature haiku written by readers, while radio shows have comics, actresses and other celebrities contesting their skills. Even "OLs" - office ladies - are starting to devote their free time to haiku instead of aerobics.
Haiku has become a pastime not unlike golf, flower arrangement or piano lessons. As many as 3 million Japanese pursue the art form, including politicians and housewives.
"Objectively speaking, the quality of haiku has clearly deteriorated," Kobayashi said with a grimness that contrasts with his cream-colored shirt spotted with drawings of insects.
He believes some haiku has become too easy to understand - "like baby food" for the poetic mind - and some is not even meant to be understood, boasting only an eye-catching absurdity.
About 200 people are estimated to make their living teaching and writing haiku. Kobayashi believes many of those professionals have furthered haiku's decline by focusing on gathering thousands of disciples and not on creating works of art.
Will success ultimately bring down haiku?
Kobayashi refuses to give up, because of what he claims is its great potential as a modern poetic form. In fact, rebellious challenges to haiku's rigid tradition-bound nature have always been a source of strength.