Haiga: Takebe Socho and the Haiku-Painting Tradition (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 135 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press; illustrated edition edition (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824817508
• ISBN-13: 978-0824817503
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,025,377 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art and Poetry Travelling Together, June 1, 2006

By	Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Like its subject, this book combines art and literature in a wonderfully unpretentious yet tasteful fusion. The artwork in this book, like haiku itself, is deceptively simple, evocative while minimalist, and humorously serious. Very down-to-earth, it yet has the uncanny ability to uncover the magic and enchantment of what we usually take to be mundane, humdrum everyday reality.

The title is just a bit on the deceptive side. A good number of Takebe Socho's haiga artworks are included and he is indeed a significant focus of the book, but the works of many other haiga artists/haiku poets are included as well. The first work is in fact by the great haiku master Basho himself in the 1600's, and the last by Shimomura Izan in the mid-twentieth century. And in between we have a number of Basho's followers, Yosa Buson and his followers, and then Kobayashi Issa and later poets up until the modern period--including such major Buddhist monks as Hakuin Ekaku, Sengai Gibon, and Nakahara Nantenbo.

The introduction does a fine job of discussing the relation between this art form and haiku, touching on the influence of Zen in a clear-headed manner that acknowledges their common ground while distinguishing them with care. The history of haiga and its characteristics are also explained well, and Yamamoto Fumiko gives us a good short study of Takebe Socho. Furthermore, all of this is helpfully keyed to the artworks included in the book, of which there are roughly fifty-two, plus some reproduced in color as well here and there. Each illustration also comes with a short commentary discussing the different elements of painting, poetry, and calligraphy along with their interaction--sometimes this discussion verges on the fanciful and flighty, but this is no great sin.

To put it simply,
This is a really nice book.
You'll like it a lot.