26 A GUIDE TO JAPANESE REFERENCE AND RESEARCH MATERIALS Nihonha or Japan School. In 1898 they published their first anthology, Shin-haiku (The new haiku). This was followed by Shunka shuto (Spring, summer, autumn, winter) in 1901. In the meantime the journal Hototogisu (Cuckoo) and the newspaper Nihon shimbun (The Japan news) became the principal organs of the poets of the Nihonha, publishing not only their haiku but shaseibun, "the pictorial style" of prose characterized by the use of an impressionistic technique. Shiki, who had made a principle of shasei, "the picturing of life," was often excessively objective, so that the individuality of any poet following his precepts ran the danger of becoming rarefied. The imagery tended to be superficial; in their poems dealing with human affairs, Shiki and his followers did not succeed in picturing or suggesting the realities of man's inner being. Basically, Shiki's poetry was intellectual. Delighting in whatever was strange, new, or changeable in natural phenomena, he tended to exaggerate them, so that his sketches took on the aspects of things created by man rather than by nature. In Shiki's later years, this led to his insistence that a reference to one of the seasons, as held by former poets, was essential to the haiku. 49. The Lesser Rivals of the Japan School Shiki's school was opposed, although ineffectively, by two schools. The Tsukubakai (Tsukuba Society) was headed by Ono Shachiku and was more concerned with academic study and appreciation of the haiku than with creative activity; and the Shuiseikai (Autumn Voices Society) was led by Ozaki Koyo and Tsunoda Chikurei and looked for "a true elegance" based on a harmonizing of old and new attitudes. The Shuseikai's immediate predecessor was the Murasaki Ginsha (Purple Voices Society), headed by Ozaki. 50. The New Tendency Haiku (Shin-keiko-ku + Ato (1 ) After Shiki's death, the haiku poets began more freely to express their individualities. One group gravitated around Hekigoto, who became responsible for the choice of poems in Nihon; the other followed Kyoshi, who was the editor of Hototogisu. But since Kyoshi for a time concerned himself mainly with the development of shaseibun and made Hototogisu a general cultural and literary magazine, it was Hekigoto who worked the more energetically in the creation of a new haiku. More progressive than Kyoshi, Hekigoto ultimately gave impetus to the Shin-keiko or New Tendency movement. In 1906 Hekigoto edited the collection Zoku shunka shuto (Spring, summer, autumn, and winter: continued), which started this movement. In 1910, he published his poetic record of a trip to Hokkaid6 under the title Sanzenri (Three thousand ri). His record of a second journey, takent in 1909 to the Kansai district, was entitled Zoku sanzenri (A new three thousand miles) and was published in 1914. His elevated style and rural themes appealed greatly to the poets in the provinces. The journal Nihon oyobi Nihonjin (Japan and the Japanese) was issued as a successor to Nihon and to a second journal Nihonjin (The Japanese), and became the organ of Hekigoto's group. According to Hekigot6, it was necessary to devote oneself to objective imagery, but, in contrast to Shiki's impressionism, which almost any poet could imitate, Hekigoto's was one which was "rich in subjective taste." Hence, the poet is to "look at nature through the window of his own senses and perceptions," and his purpose is to express " a taste higher than for nature alone." For the Shinkeik5 movement, Hekigoto took the following for a motto: "a dynamic representation depending on an awakened individuality." The tendency in Hekigot6 was to progress from reality to symbolism, from declarative to more suggestive statements. It was Osuga Otsuji who first used the term shin-keiko to describe the new style. This came in an article published in the January-February, 1908, number of Akane and entitled "Haikukai no shin-keiko (New tendencies in the world of haiku." Speaking of Hekigot6, Kitani Rikka, and Hiroe Yaezakura, Otsuji declared that "by pointing out a special characteristic they cause the actuality to appear dimly; consequently, the range of association of ideas becomes wider and more free." Agreeing with Otsuji, Hekigoto tried to cut himself off from every association of idea connected with the seasons of the year, and worked toward the presentation of the individual characteristics of his subject matter. A consciously subjective and symbolistic style was thus born which also received the influence of naturalistic thought. Illustrating the new type of haiku is Nihon haikush6 daiisshu (A selection of Japanese haiku, number one), edited by Hekigot6 and containing the poems of Otsuji, Rikka, and Anzai Okaishi. The newer style agreed with "the movements of the poet's spirit" and "the special customs of his native province." Toward the end of 1910 many of the poets began to apply what they called muchushinron, "the theory of centerlessness." According to this theory, the haiku was simply a one-line poem in seventeen syllables. In the older haiku, the abstract feelings associated with the seasons had been illustrated by natural scenes. Now, by beginning with an accurate description of a natural scene, the attempt was made to suggest the appropriate abstract feeling connected with it. Ogiwara Seisensui next argued for a revision of the haiku's 5-7-5 form as being too much inclined toward dividing a haiku into three parts. He therefore proposed a 5-5-7 form and also advocated the writing of poems containing 5-5-3-5 and 5-5-5-3 syllables, with each poem having a caesural break coming at the end of the second line. The haiku, he said, would thus have two "centers" and would suggest "limitless" feelings and atmospheres. This was the background against which Nihon haikush6 dainishi (A selection of Japanese haiku, number two) appeared in 1913. In this collection of "new tendency" haiku are found disordered arrangements, strange word uses, and out-of-the-ordinary contents. It was inevitable that a naturalist attitude, giving high value to actual impressions and to the individualistic characteristics of whatever was observed, should gain favor. Gradually, also, the restriction to seventeen syllables was broken and a form close to that of free verse was adopted.