Kaneko Tohta

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Kaneko Tohta, Kaneko Tota 金子兜太

1919-


Tohta sensei is the grand old man of modern haiku in Japan. I see him often on TV and admire his vitality and points of view.
Kaneko Tohta uses the expression
"Mu Kigo 無季語", haiku "without a season word".
kaneko tota, tohta kaneko, tota kaneko, kaneko toota, kaneko touta

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He was born in 1919 in Chichibu, the mountainous area of Saitama Prefecture and began writing haiku when he was 18 years old.

Attracted to haiku through the works of TAKESHITA Shizunojo, KATOH Shuuson and NAKAMURA Kusatao. First submitted to KATOH Shuuson's "Kanrai" in 1941. Graduated Tokyo University in 1943 and started working for the Bank of Japan. Posted to Truck Lagoon as a Naval pay officer in 1944 and repatriated in 1946. After the war he emerged as a flag-bearer for avant-garde haiku and started the haiku group "Kaitei" (Distance to the Sea) in 1962 at the age of 43. "Kaitei" changed from a coterie magazine to a hierarchical structure in 1985.

From before the War until 1955 he stressed the importance of "plasticism" and "sociality" in haiku. His second phase was from the mid sixties to 1975 when he studied classical haiku in depth as a result of heated debate between the conservative and avant-garde factions within the group. The present phase is his third and it is characterized by the popularization of haiku as "poetry for the masses" grounded in the works of such poets as Issa and Santohka and blending the traditional and avant-garde in the melting pot termed "Modern Haiku".

To "practise the modern in the grandeur of the old" is his current catch phrase. He has published over 50 books starting with his anthology "Shounen" (A Youth). Now Honorary President of the Modern Haiku Society and selector for the Asahi Haiku Column.

Haiku International Association
©　www.haiku-hia.com/



November 2010

A feature film of NHK showed Tohta sensei well and active. The hot summer of 2010 had adverse effects for him. After a short stay in hospital for low blood pressure, he was able to go back home and continue his haiku meetings. He still reads about 6000 postcards with haiku to judge for competitions.

He rubs his body with a towel every morning, adding exercised to keep the body flexible. He walks a lot to keep fit and enjoys the garden, which his wife had planted with all the trees and plants from their home region in Chichibu some 40 years ago, when they moved in.

His wive, Minako　皆子, had died four years ago of cancer; he now lives with his son and daughter in law, who care for him.






Kaneko Minako 金子皆子（かねこ・みなこ）
1925（大正１４）・１・８ －2006（平成１８）・３・２・
She has written many haiku about spider lilies (manjushage) and many haiku which describe her love for her husband.


枯野ゆきつつ縺れる中学生

満月なり慕情は踝をのぼり

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More English Reference

More Japanese Reference


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The artistic quality and appeal of haiku

In 1970, I was very interested in the wandering poets Santoka and Issa. Although Issa is not usually considered a wandering poet, I was especially drawn to him. Even now I like him more than Basho, Buson, and Shiki. When I tried to see what drew me to him, I found an indescribable accessibility in his poetry. I do not want to use the term "mass appeal," but his haiku are so easy to understand.

Take the following two haiku, for example:

"Carrying poppy plants /passing by / someone fighting"
"Lice on paper scapegoats/ carried away/ by the stream"

Both are easy to understand and wonderful haiku. Two requirements of haiku are artistic quality and general appeal. Isn't it enough for a haiku to possess these two elements? Depending on how these two elements are joined, haiku can be compared with other forms of poetry.

Since that time, I have tried to learn how to accept these two elements of quality and appeal. As a result, my haiku have changed a great deal. Plainly stated, I wanted to create haiku that all could understand and love by all. My poems do not necessarily have to be loved, but I want them to be understood. With this in mind, I have continued trying to find my way. I used to think that quality mattered more than popularity, and that it was all right to write as I pleased. But I changed after the seventies. As a result, I fumbled about in various ways on my own. Some years ago, I asked some friends to show me some haiku loved by everybody and possessed of artistic merit. I wondered what would they come up with.

We settled on three examples.
Basho's "An old pond/ a frog jumps in/ the sound of water" was the first chosen.
Another was Shiki's "Eating a persimmon/ the sound of a bell/ Horyu Temple."
And the third was Kusatao's "Snow is falling/ Meiji/ so far away."

Read the full article HERE
©　www.haiku-hia.com / Kaneko Tohta

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His haiku written during the war

海に青雲生き死に言わず生きんとのみ
umi ni aoi kumo, iki-shini iwazu ikin to nomi

Clouds above the ocean,
Determined to live, without asking
"To die or to live?"



yashi no oka, asayake shiruki hibi nariki

Hills of palm trees,
Those were days with a sky of strong
red at dawn.

Tr. TAI KAWABATA Japan Times, Feb. 2008


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Compiled by Larry Bole

Here are two more of Tohta's wartime haiku from Ueda's book,
"Modern Japanese Haiku: An Anthology":

shinishi hone wa umi ni sutsu beshi takuan kamu

Dead bones
must be dumped into the sea!
I chew a piece of takuan.

Ueda's note:
Takuan, pickled radish, was one of the last food items an average Japanese could get during the war years.



bochi mo yakeato semi nikuhen no-goto kigi ni

The graveyard is burnt too;
cicadas, like pieces of flesh,
on the trees.

Ueda's note:
Written in the Hongo district of Tokyo, an area that suffered heavy air raids during World War II.

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Tenro 天狼 "Heavenly Wolf"



A group of haiku poets, founded in 1948.

. Reference : 天狼


. WKD : WOLF haiku by Kaneko Tohta 　


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激論つくし街ゆきオートバイと化す
gekiron tsukushi michi-yuki ootobai to ka su

. I become the motorbike .

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Here are some examples of the Avantgarde Haiku


梅咲いて庭中に青鮫が来ている
ume saite niwachuu ni aozame ga kite iru


plums are blossoming -
everywhere in my garden
blue sharks have come


from the collection 遊牧集



source : kuuon.fya.jp



blue shark, Isurus oxyrynchus

Here we can feel one part in reality and one part in phantasy, almost like in a painting of Salvadore Dali. Kaneko sensei likes large wild animals, I heard him say once, also elephants and other big fish. You can see a white elephant in the illustration.


This also reminds me of an old haiku by
the Danrin school 檀林(だんりん / 談林)(about 1684)
introduced by Shirane :


mine no hana no nami ni ashika kujira o oyogase

making sea lions and whales
swim in the cherry blossom waves
at the hill top

(Basho was one of the critics of this kind of "nonsense" haikai.)
Haruo Shirane : Beyond the Haiku Moment



And it reminds me of one haiku by Tsubouchi Nenten


桜散るあなたも河馬になりなさい　
sakura chiru anata mo kaba ni narinasai

falling cherry blossoms -
you also must become
a hippopotamus

source
http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~sas18091/sahaiku.html

This is a play on words.
When Japanese people die, their corpse becomes a "sleeping hippopotamus" (shi kabane) ... kaba ne, sleeping hippo.


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銀行員ら朝より蛍光す烏賊のごとく
ginkooin ra asa yori keikoo su ika no-gotoku

these bank clerks
already in the morning they are fluorescent
like firefly squid

die Bankangestellten
schon früh am morgen
wie die Leuchttintenfische


ほたるいか firefly squid from Toyama Bay


Kaneko sensei talks about it
(NHK Haiku July 2009).
After the war, he has been working at various branches of a bank and here in Kobe he saw his fellow workers every morning coming to the office, each one had a small fluorescent lamp on his desk which he switched on to show he was there and working. This reminded Kaneko sensei of the hotaruika.


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竹林を出れば白雲曼珠沙華
chikurin o dereba haku-un manjushage

out of the bamboo grove
there are white clouds
there are spiderer lilies

. Spider Lilies (higanbana, manjushage)

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わが湖(うみ)あり日蔭真暗な虎があり　
waga umi ari hikage makkura na tora ga ari

there is my very own lake ...
there is a tiger with a very
black shadow

Explaining this haiku


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and about Mister Tohta himself

兜太似の大入道や更衣　

a big Nyudo-monster
like mister Tohta -
changing summer robes

Bakushuu

. Oonyuudoo 大入道 O-Nyudo Monster .


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WKD Library

War, Peace and Kaneko Tota
By Tai Kawabata



Gendai Haiku Saijiki : No Season
現代俳句歳時記 　無季 MU KI
mukigo 無季語 words without a seasonal implication
muki haiku 無季俳句 haiku without a season word

Kaneko Tohta uses the expression
無季語 mukigo
?Muki Kigo? - Problems of Terminology


NHK Haiku NHK 俳句 Kaneko Toota on TV


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***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets



Modern Japanese Haiku 新興俳句 Gendai Haiku　現代俳句

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