28 A GUIDE TO JAPANESE REFERENCE AND RESEARCH MATERIALS members of the Hototogisu school drew away from their master. Among these dissident poets were Watanabe Suiha, lida Dakotsu, Usuda Aro, Yoshioka Zenjido, and, in time, Mizuhara Shuoshi and a number of others. In the period following World War I, Seisensui again called for a departure from the regular 5-7-5 form. Aro, however, opposed him when he declared himself in favor of a return to the haiku of Basho. Here he agreed with Otsuji, who had died in 1920. Still opposing the classical and traditional poets and espousing a free verse form for the haiku was Hekigoto, who began publishing the journals Heki (Green) and Sammai (Absorption) upon his return from foreign travel in 1923. In the latter he even gave up the term haiku for his poems, which he began to call tanshi or "short poems." In his essays he declared that poetry should not be limited to the stimulation of the senses, but should be "the manifestation of the eternal qualities rooted in man's life." Through his efforts the haiku began to reflect the personal lives of its poets. Despite his impatience he served as a touchstone for the modern haiku. At the end of the Taisho era, the traditional schools were thus represented by the journals Hototogisu, centered in Kyoshi, Shakunage (Rhododendron) in Ar6, and Kench6 (Tired bird) in Matsuse Seisei. S6un, edited by Seisensui, and Kaik6, edited by Ippekir6, represented the journals devoted to the free verse form. The two groups differed, as we have seen, in the emphasis they gave to references to the seasons and to the seventeen-syllable form. 55. The Hototogisu School in the Sh6wa Era In the December, 1926, issue of Hototogisu, Kyoshi noted that the haiku had become even more surely than before a form of poetry characterized by objective imagery. This was followed by his pronouncement in the following year that the haiku was above all a form of nature poetry. In the first article he also described Mizuhara Shuoshi, Awano Seiho, and Yamaguchi Seishi as being three poets in whom objective imagery might be expected to find a further development. As if in answer, these poets ushered in the "period of the four S's," so named from the happenstance that their poetic names, and that of a fourth compeer, Takano Sujui, all began with the letter S. Among the four S's, it was Suju who most faithfully illustrated Kyoshi's belief in objective imagery. Seiho too tried to concentrate on the contemplation of nature despite the warm sympathy with which he regarded human life. Contrasted with these two were Shuoshi and Seishi whose poems showed far greater revolutionary significance. In addition, Hototogisu was enriched by the contributions of Tomiyasu Fusei, Tanaka Oj6, Yamaguchi Seison, Hino S6j6, Kawabata B6sha, Matsumoto Takashi, Nakamura Kusatao, Ky6goku Kiy6, Hasegawa Sosei, Takahama Toshio, Hoshino Tatsuko, Ikenouchi Tomojiro, Nakamura Teijo, Shiba Fukio, and Goto Yahan. Fukio had begun publishing his poems from about the end of the Taisho era in Amanokawa (The River of Heaven), a magazine 'edited by Yoshioka Zenjid6. In his poems his impressions and feelings are given concrete form by means of a very precise style. Metaphors abound in Bosha's work in which ideas become important. Yahan, who had studied under Seiho, sang quietly of the things he observed in nature. Takashi's poems are marked by much stylistic refinement. Especially noteworthy is Kusatao, who conceived of the haiku as being one of the forms of modern literature, and attempted to describe in its small compass all of the feelings and reactions which an individual might possibly experience. The recognition that the haiku might serve as the medium of expression of a modern man begins with Kusatao. His very first collection, Ch6shi (The oldest son), published in 1936, is filled to overflowing with the thoughts of a young man who has deliberately taken to himself all of the social responsibilities that come with being the oldest son and heir to his family. Many women poets began to appear at this time. Sugita Hisajo and Hasegawa Kanajo wrote elegant verses filled with feeling, and Takeshita Shizunojo tended toward general social criticism. But it was not till the postwar period that these women poets began to develop their individualistic qualities. 56. Proletarian Haiku The proletarian movement in the haiku came at about the same time that it did in the long poem and in fiction. Toward the end of the Taisho era, a tendency to deal with the problems of society and of daily living had become evident in S5un (Stratus), the journal edited by Ogiwara Seisensui. This tendency was especially noticeable in the work of Kuribayashi Issekiro, and became even more pronounced when in 1930 Issekiro, Ozawa Takeji, and Hashimoto Mudo began publishing the journal Hata (Flag). This magazine was combined in the following year with Haiku zen'ei (Haiku advance), a magazine then being published by a group of leftist students including Yokoyama Rinji, and the resulting publication was soon renamed Haiku. Later in 1931, a further affiliation with Haiku kenkyu (Haiku studies), published by the S6dai Haikukai or Waseda University Haiku Society resulted in the appearance of Haiku no tomo (Haiku companions), and the proletarian haiku movement was at last unified. The poets all wrote ideological verse using everyday diction and the free verse form. Although they were undoubtedly satisfying to their composers, they never reached the point of having artistic value. In 1932, in accordance with NAPF's aims, the doctrine arose that both the tanka and the haiku should be subsumed under a single new form, the tanshi or "short poem," and for a time the proletarian haiku movement suffered a series of internal arguments. Opposing the proposal to write tanshi, Issekiro, Rinji, and Mud6 began publishing Haiku seikatsu (Haiku life) in 1934. But this was already at a time when freedom of expression was being curtailed, and it was all these poets could do to write of society as it was. Taking the life school), established in 1931 by Kuroda Chujiro and his associates, who also used everyday speech and the free verse form.