Four-Dimensional Haiku (4-D Haiku)
by Yasuomi Koganei

Probably, you learned about "dimensions" at a junior high school that a line is one-dimensional, sheet of paper is two-dimensional and space, this room is three-dimensional. The forth dimension is "time." These are basic coordinates to describe the world.
Haiku is believed that the product of a single thought at a single moment, that is, roughly speaking, haiku is three-dimensional.


snow fall--
we all become
better people
Ambrozi Andrei, 12 years old, Middle School no 12


a notebook on the table...
the wind turns
a haiku page
Nasta Elena, Middle School nr. 12, Constantza


beads..
ink flows
on the diary page
Marin Maria, Middle School nr. 12, Constantza

But there are many haiku that tell us a long story, not a single thought at a single moment. One day I was in the train coming back to Tokyo from Kairakuen, which is a park in Mito, famous for its plum trees.

plum tree's shadow (4)
on the newborn's robe (5)
daughter's old album (5)


The image I wanted to create was that of a woman checking a newborn's robe in a sunny tatami room before packing it to post to her daughter who is soon to deliver a baby. An old album is lying open beside the robe, showing a photograph of the woman herself holding her daughter as a baby. The baby is clad in that very robe, which had been a present from her own mother, the baby's grandmother. The shadow of the plum tree in the garden is creeping over the tatami to the robe.
In other words, I was attempting to compose a haiku, which would indicate the stream of four generations: the woman's mother, the woman, her daughter, and her soon-to-be-born grandchild. The woman is hoping that her grandchild, and perhaps even grandchildren, will grow up to be pure, peace loving and yet tough like plum trees. The shadow may suggest a dark side of the world, setbacks which her grandchildren may encounter in the future.
I favor four-dimensional haiku, which suggest emotions occurring over a lengthy time span, or the gradual unfolding of an event in a three-dimensional field. A typical four-dimensional haiku is:


oteuchi no meoto narishi o koromogae (Buson)


From a structural viewpoint, "oteuchi no meoto: a married couple sentenced to capital punishment" implies a space including the married couple, or a three-dimensional field. And "narishi o koromogae" implies what a long time had elapsed before they were able to change clothes for the season with a sense of security.

Other examples are:

ship's silhouette
fades into the rippling sunset
message in a bottle
Yasuomi Koganei


hermitage ruins--
apple buds
burst open
Braciu Aida, 15 years old, Art High School, Constantza


When composing haiku, what happens in the brain? I studied this subject after viewing the cherry blossoms along the Meguro River. For details, see my essay in the our 10th memorial edition, but, simply speaking, my brain reproduced images of almost all the cherry blossom views I have ever experienced including the one just experienced at Meguro River. These images may be verbalized in my brain, and the verbal image applicable to the haiku might be selected:


cherry petals
showering down
to the river


We know that a haiku with bipolar structure would provide more space between the lines (i.e. more scope for the imagination). The brain raked through other images that would juxtapose the cherry blossom view, in the short and long term memories, scanning memories of news items, books, polluted rivers, and so forth.
The serious issues of the day being the war against Iraq and the suspected development of nuclear weapons in North Korea, the verbal image ultimately selected was:


cherry petals
showering down to the river
- 38 degrees North Latitude


Just before the end of World War Two, one of my colleagues, age six at the time, and her three siblings entered South Korea from the North crossing 38 degrees North Latitude. However, in the course of being evacuated from South Korea to Japan, two of the four perished on the Chosen Peninsula. Now a Demilitarized Zone splits the Korean Peninsula into two parts around 38 degrees North Latitude, winding like a river.

Neuron circuits are growing in the brain from birth, being affected by education, culture, environment and the DNA they inherit. Aging reduces the circuit's ability to control the body. Composing haiku is almost equivalent to keeping a log of the composer's neuron circuit activity as it reacts to external stimuli or internal desire. Composing haiku on a long-term basis provides a record of the haiku composer's life and the history of his philosophy-forming process. Many phenomena and copious information are memorized unconsciously in the appropriate area of the brain and some of this emerges in the working memory during haiku composition.
Our brains are affected by education, culture and DNA. It follows therefore, that the brain reading a haiku is very different from the brain that composed it. When people read haiku, their brain circuits are actively trying to understand the composers' thoughts, reproducing concepts suggested by season words or other key words. These concepts may be quite different from the composer's because haiku, even world haiku, are highly personal and local.
A careful haiku composer will try to reproduce the fact or scenery that induced an emotional reaction in her/him, rather than describing the emotion itself. Haiku theory states that the best way to share an emotion is to share the scenery that inspired it.

On New Year's Day in 2000, I was attempting to compose an urban haiku incorporating skyscrapers.

skyscrapers --------------frozen city (iteshi machi)
a dot -------------------a dot (kokuten hitotsu)
cleans a window ----------cleans a window (mado o fuku)

The first haiku shows clearly the contrast in size between skyscrapers and the human body, but it leaves something to be desired. "Skyscrapers" is changed to "frozen city", which includes the climatic factor and may suggest an image of human beings as being great but at times foolish. The word "dot" to indicate a human being is sufficiently effective in conjuring up the image of skyscrapers, without mentioning them directly.

Readers are at liberty, if rarely so, to enjoy an image that is in opposition to the composer's intention. Yamaguchi Seishi (1901-1994) composed "natsu no kawa akaki tessa no hashi hitaru: summer river/end of red chain/dipping (literally)" for an anchor chain manufacturer whose anchor chains, coated with anti-rust paint, brought him prosperity. Kenkichi Yamamoto (1912-1977) however, read "red chain" as "rusty chain" changing "prosperity" to "ruin" in his book (Shinpan Gendai Haiku, Jo, Kadokawa, 1993, page 39).

Composing haiku is almost equivalent to expressing the personality of the composer. Likewise, reading haiku is an expression of the reader's personality.

Recent interesting art installations provide an artistic space with, e.g., a video which projects images on to walls, which change according to the visitor's movements. This may be an attempt to create a four dimensional art genre, which will convey the artist's thoughts more clearly and more precisely than conventional paintings or sculptures.

Now world haiku excite the curiosity of readers and/or composers living in different countries through the Internet. Needless to say, the genre promotes mutual understanding between people of diverse cultures.

Establishment of the Japanese Cultural and Civilization Center in Contantza, Romania, its continuation, and expansion of grass-roots activities of JCCC will ultimately contribute to world peace.