Shahai .. Photo Haiku

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Photo + Haiku ... Shahai 写俳




Some friends have asked me about haiku and photos, usually now called
* Photo Haiku * in the English language.


Haiga are of course the ones painted by hand, where haiku and picture usually are drawn at the same time, when you can consider where to place each ... and usually the painter and the poet are of course one and the same person.

When I take a photo, I usually aim with the full frame to make a picture that is somehow complete in itself. Any text within would destroy this impression, so I started to write my text beside or above or below a photo. To enhance the unity of the work, I then make a frame with a color that should still more enhance the situation I want to express with both the photo and the haiku combined.

Many photo haiku I have seen with the text overlayed have one problem for me: The text is usually so small that it is hard to read. But it must be small so as not to distract too much of the photo.

Now the Japanese are sort of copying this Photo Haiku Concept and the new product is called

Sha-Hai

sha .. from shashin, photo 写真
hai, you guess, from Haiku　俳句

Sometimes it is also called haisha　俳写,
but that reminds many of a dentist ha-isha 歯医者


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When composing a Photo-Haiku it is best if the author of the photo and the poem is one and the same person.

You can start with a haiku and find a suitable photo for it.
You can start with a photo and try to compose a haiku for it.

The photo and haiku can closely match each other.
The photo and haiku can be of completely different subjects, but together give rise to a new short story.

If your photo definitely expresses the season, you might do without a kigo in your haiku.

If you quote a poem you find somewhere online or use a photo you find online, you should try and get permission of the original author to use his work.
The least you should do is give credit to the photografer/poet and quote the page from where you took that part of your composition.
After all, you will publish the work under your own name, so make sure all the sources you used are properly credited.

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The latest from NHK in Japan, for haiku, senryu and other short poems with the same rhythm
Five Seven Five with a Photo

NHK Foto Go Shichi Go

NHK is running an 8 series programm from November 2007 about
Foto Go Shichi Go / Photo 5 7 5

Photographer Itami Koji is giving advise.
板見 浩史（いたみ こうじ）



This is different from SHA HAI (haiku), in as much as it includes all forms of short poetry with the rhythm of five seven five (go shichi go). It is becoming quite popular now, since everyone has a cellphone with camera and can send his composition to his BLOG from everywhere in Japan.

five seven five is the rhythm of the Japanese soul, as one poet has put it.


For more information, read
NHK Haiku, My Introduction


ENJOY !
フォト　五七五 foto 5 7 5 gallery with photos and poems, like a walk through an everyday of Japan ...
Just click on any photo to see more !

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I add some LINKs to Japanese SHAHAI pages


写俳日記
http://shahai.exblog.jp/


写俳も楽しいものですね。♪
http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/kyotocity/diary/200511100000/#comment


quite neon…
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hai/ten/syahai-popona001.htm


klick on any of these clickables
http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~HAIKU/wakwakf/ksyahaif.htm


Click on a photo to see the haiku above the photo and listen to music
Oboke gorge in Japan
http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~musasi/oboke.htm


Shahai Gallery
http://www.fujicom.co.jp/salon/circle/c_syahai.html


again with music
http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~musasi/index.htm


a book about HAI SHA

http://www.50pa.com/haisya.html



There are about 500 hits when googeling with 写俳。
So I give up for now. (November 2005)


google with 写俳 NOW !
about 25,800 for 写俳, November 2007

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Haiga: A Definition
~ Ray Rasmussen
http://raysweb.net/haiku/pages/haiga-definition.html

Haiga—Modern Art Plus Haiku
Simply Haiku : ~ Ray Rasmussen


Haiga Online Dot Com


Of all the contributions to world art to have come from the Japanese, haiga is perhaps the most unique. It is, by definition, a combination of visual and verbal elements which work in ensemble to create an aesthetic experience quite distinct from either element taken by itself.

Read all 20 pages here
Jim Kacian
"Looking and Seeing: How Haiga Works"

..... ..... .....

Haiga is haiku painting. REEDS on Haiga

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Gabi on haiga ...

question from a friend
Why do you write a haiku that is a close description, a duplicate of what the photograph is saying.

answer :

for me it works this way

If I read the story of Hansel and Gretel, for example, I expect the illustration of an old witch in a gingerbread home, not an elf dancing in moonshine.

If I see a photo that shows just what the haiku put in words, then I am happy (because a haiku for me is a snapshot in words) and I can now SEE the words were well choosen.

Nature presents us with a vista and we can capture it with words and as illustration. If both are rather similar, well, then both are well done!

If I had a haiku of an autumn lake in late sunshine with a photo for example of an airplain in the blue sky ... that would not work for me.

If we go on a ginko, a haiku walk, everyone sees the same landscape, but you would be surprized how many different haiku are written about it. Each is quite unique and shows the observand eye of each individual to a wide variety of objects in nature that could be used as a theme for a haiku of this moment.



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