Works
Gill's work focuses on kigo or seasonal keyword thematics in traditional Japanese poetry, ranging widely over haiku, senryū, waka and kyōka (狂歌:crazy poems), concentrating in each successive book on sub-themes, with the poems arranged in thematic chains. Characteristically, he provides the original Japanese text, with romanized transliteration, a word-for-word literal gloss, and then multiple versions (what he calls by his portmanteau neologism, paraverse, though the method was used by Hiroaki Sato. [10] ) that enable the reader to see the variety of potential readings to be elicited from an otherwise ostensibly simple, straightforward set of verses, accompanied by notes. Gill's richness of competing English versions of the one original has been seen as a distinct advance on earlier renderings of Japanese poetry, while his digressive style, often original but somewhat diffuse, can distract and, Kern argues, make too much demands on the reader's time.
Gill's work has been neglected by area scholarly journals and Japanology in particular, perhaps, as Adam Kern, Professor of Japanese Literature and Visual Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests, because the author flaunts his unconventional approach, and appears to present his translations and commentaries in a style that suggests he is an ' entertainer or agent provocateur or playful self-promoter. Kern's view is, that despite several idiosyncrasies of personal style and formatting that render his approach trying to readers, Gill's works
may ... be preferable, even with all their quirks, to the preponderance of academic translations of Edo-period comic poetry.
Rise Ye, Sea Slugs!
He first came to the attention, through listserve blogs, of scholars of Japanese poetry with his Book Rise Ye, Sea Slugs! 1000 Holothurian Haiku, (2003), a comprehensive collection (running to 480 pages, accompanied by a set of translations of Japanese poems thematically dedicated to the sea-cucumber, namako . Gill's competence in this arcane area was called on, and acknowledged, by the University of Guam's Alexander Kerr, a marine biologist, working on a philology of the Holothurians from antiquity to Linnaeus. Thomas Rohlich, now Emeritus Professor of Japanese Language and Literature at Smith College, hailed it as
'a treasure, and belongs on the bookshelves and in the hands of Japanese literary scholars, haiku and nature enthusiasts.'
Likewise, William J. Higginson wrote that
'these poems come to life as no other haiku translated from Japanese have ever come to life before...This single-topic tome may be our best English-language window yet into the labyrinth of Japanese haikai culture.'
Gill followed this up with an equally detailed delving into the extensive poetic haiku sub-culture built over centuries treating the theme of the Japanese fly (hae). [15]
Octopussy
In 2009 Gill self-published Octopussy, Dry Kidney & Blue Spots: Dirty Themes from 18c–19c Japanese Poems. This work consists of Gill's compilation, explorative translations and commentaries on Edo-period genre of comical haiku, known as senryū, with a particular focus on, the "filthy" poems in that genre, overlapping with known senryū, as bareku (破礼句:'lewd verse': literally "etiquette-violating verse"). [16] This genre, amply collected in a 4-volume Edo period work called Suetsumuhana (Safflowers, 1776–1801) [17] has often been ignored by scholarship, informed by a certain distaste and prudishness about the crudity of lower-class comic wit. Gill is one of the two people, the other is the ex-academic John Solt, who have challenged the negative, dismissive view associated with the passing references to the genre in the works of Reginald Horace Blyth, Donald Keene, Makoto Ueda and Faubion Bowers. Kern, after cautiously noting that Gill's presentations of his material might give casual editors the impression that the author is parodying the Nabokovian Charles Kimbote or even William Chester Minor, acclaims this and a sister book on the topic as "a significant contribution to Edo studies", "[b]ombilating with verve", and "stand[ing] out from the huggermugger of scholarly discourse on similar topics, which more often than not disappoints as eminent but dull", and sums up his achievement in breaking the bowdlerized approach to the subject by concluding that:
it is in breaking the wrongheaded if entrenched pattern of dismissive lip service to randy verse—that is, of barely acknowledging bareku in order to try to repress it—that gill's Octopussy is to be singled out for especial praise.'
Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a kireji, or "cutting word", 17 on in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a kigo, or seasonal reference. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as senryū.
Senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 morae. Senryū tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryū are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious. Unlike haiku, senryū do not include a kireji, and do not generally include a kigo, or season word.
Matsuo Bashō, born Matsuo Kinsaku, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa, was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku. He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with “Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton” (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses."
Renga is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ku (句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. Known as tsukuba no michi after the famous Tsukuba Mountain in the Kantō region, the form of poetry is said to have originated in a two-verse poetry exchange by Yamato Takeru and later gave birth to the genres haikai (俳諧) and haiku (俳句).
Kigo is a word or phrase associated with a particular season, used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry. Kigo are used in the collaborative linked-verse forms renga and renku, as well as in haiku, to indicate the season referred to in the stanza. They are valuable in providing economy of expression.
Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in the Chinese language or ryūka from the Okinawa Islands: it is possible to make a more accurate distinction between Japanese poetry written in Japan or by Japanese people in other languages versus that written in the Japanese language by speaking of Japanese-language poetry. Much of the literary record of Japanese poetry begins when Japanese poets encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang dynasty. Under the influence of the Chinese poets of this era Japanese began to compose poetry in Chinese kanshi); and, as part of this tradition, poetry in Japan tended to be intimately associated with pictorial painting, partly because of the influence of Chinese arts, and the tradition of the use of ink and brush for both writing and drawing. It took several hundred years to digest the foreign impact and make it an integral part of Japanese culture and to merge this kanshi poetry into a Japanese language literary tradition, and then later to develop the diversity of unique poetic forms of native poetry, such as waka, haikai, and other more Japanese poetic specialties. For example, in the Tale of Genji both kanshi and waka are frequently mentioned. The history of Japanese poetry goes from an early semi-historical/mythological phase, through the early Old Japanese literature inclusions, just before the Nara period, the Nara period itself, the Heian period, the Kamakura period, and so on, up through the poetically important Edo period and modern times; however, the history of poetry often is different from socio-political history.
Kobayashi Issa was a Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū. He is known for his haiku poems and journals. He is better known as simply Issa (一茶), a pen name meaning Cup-of-tea. He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki — "the Great Four."
Reginald Horace Blyth was an English author and devotee of Japanese culture. He is most famous for his writings on Zen and on haiku poetry.
Renku, or haikai no renga, is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ushin renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns providing alternating verses of 17 and 14 morae. Initially haikai no renga distinguished itself through vulgarity and coarseness of wit, before growing into a legitimate artistic tradition, and eventually giving birth to the haiku form of Japanese poetry. The term renku gained currency after 1904, when Kyoshi Takahama started to use it.
Hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, renga, or of its later derivative, renku. From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the hokku began to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in haibun. In the late 19th century, Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) renamed the standalone hokku as "haiku", and the latter term is now generally applied retrospectively to all hokku appearing independently of renku or renga, irrespective of when they were written. The term hokku continues to be used in its original sense, as the opening verse of a linked poem.
Haikai may refer in both Japanese and English to haikai no renga (renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. It meant "vulgar" or "earthy", and often derived its effect from satire and puns, though "under the influence of [Matsuo] Bashō (1644–1694) the tone of haikai no renga became more serious". "Haikai" may also refer to other poetic forms that embrace the haikai aesthetic, including haiku and senryū, haiga, and haibun. However, haikai does not include orthodox renga or waka.
Takarai Kikaku also known as Enomoto Kikaku, was a Japanese haikai poet and among the most accomplished disciples of Matsuo Bashō. His father was an Edo doctor, but Kikaku chose to become a professional haikai poet rather than follow in his footsteps.
Kireji are a special category of words used in certain types of Japanese traditional poetry. It is regarded as a requirement in traditional haiku, as well as in the hokku, or opening verse, of both classical renga and its derivative renku. There is no exact equivalent of kireji in English, and its function can be difficult to define. It is said to supply structural support to the verse. When placed at the end of a verse, it provides a dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense of closure. Used in the middle of a verse, it briefly cuts the stream of thought, indicating that the verse consists of two thoughts half independent of each other. In such a position, it indicates a pause, both rhythmically and grammatically, and may lend an emotional flavour to the phrase preceding it.
A hossu is a short staff of wood or bamboo with bundled hair or hemp wielded by a Zen Buddhist priest. Often described as a "fly whisk" or "fly shooer", the stick is believed to protect the wielder from desire and also works as a way of ridding areas of flies without killing them. The hossu is regarded as symbolic of a Zen teacher's authority to teach and transmit Buddha Dharma to others, and is frequently passed from one teacher to the next.
Miura Chora was a Japanese poet raised in Ise, in the Mie Prefecture of Shima Province on the island of Honshu, Japan. He traveled throughout the country composing poems and helped lead the Matsuo Bashō revival movement of the eighteenth century.
A saijiki is a list of kigo used in haiku and related forms of poetry. An entry in a saijiki usually includes a description of the kigo itself, as well as a list of similar or related words, and some examples of haiku that include that kigo. A kiyose (季寄せ) is similar, but does not contain sample poems. Modern saijiki and kiyose are divided into the four seasons and New Year, with some containing a further section for seasonless topics. Each seasonal section is further divided into a standard set of categories, each containing a list of relevant kigo. The most common categories are:
Karai Senryū, whose real name is Karai Hachiemon was a Japanese poet and poetry judge (tenja). He popularized a form of haiku called senryū, which is named after him. "Senryū" was the nickname that he adopted when he started judging poetry, and other poetry judges after him also adopted this name. The word senryū means "river willow" in Japanese.
Waka is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although waka in modern Japanese is written as 和歌, in the past it was also written as 倭歌, and a variant name is yamato-uta (大和歌).
Fujizuka (富士塚) are small mounds, commonly found in and around Tokyo, which represent Mount Fuji. During the Edo period (1603–1868), a cult arose around the mountain, one of whose major devotional rites was to climb to the peak. Pilgrims who were unable through age, infirmity or gender to climb Mount Fuji would ascend one of these surrogates instead. They were usually around ten feet high, and replicate the 10 stations on Fuji itself, from the foot of the mountain to the summit. Some were also situated so as to provide pleasant views of their surrounding area, such as the Moto-Fuji at Meguro.
Kyōka is a popular, parodic subgenre of the tanka form of Japanese poetry with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. The form flourished during the Edo period and reached its zenith during the Tenmei era (1781–89).
