Documents

Lorraine Ellis Harr helped define American haiku and senryu and their relationship to the Japanese originals. In the 1970s she drew up guidelines or sets of rules for the composition of haiku and senryu in English: “The ISN’TS of Haiku,” “Haiku Is” and “Senryu Is,” which, though conrroversial, were helpful in understanding the differences between these haikai forms.

The Matsuyama Declaration, signed by six prominent haiku specialists from Japan, the U.S.A., and France, was made public at the Shimanamikaido ’99 International Haiku Convention in Matsuyama, Japan, on July 18, 1999. The document called for the recognition of haiku as world poetry and welcomed all poets around the world who possess “the haiku spirit” to join together in studies and activities; proposed the establishment of an International Haiku Research Center biennial international conferences, and a prestigious Masaoka Shiki Prize; and asserted the importance in world haiku of Matsuyama, the center of the haiku reform movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“About Haiku” is a brief unpublished definition of haiku written about 1971 by American poet Truth Mary Fowler (1907–2000). It represents an early attempt in English-language haiku to define the genre and provide guidelines for composition.