COVER STORY: Living in Japan—Home from Home

Caption: Laurent Mabesoone (pen name, Seegan) hosts a haiku gathering at the Memorial Hall of Kobayashi Issa in Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture.
Credit: TADASHI AIZAWA

Poetry and Music of the Soul

Transcending the barriers of language and culture, the two men profiled here are conduits to literary creativity and musical appreciation.

President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy’s publication of a collection of his own haiku in April this year made the news. Another European who is fascinated by haiku is Frenchman Laurent Mabesoone, a university lecturer in Japan who is using the verse form to deepen exchange.

Mabesoone hosts a haiku gathering four times a year at the Memorial Hall of the haiku poet Kobayashi Issa (1763–1827) in Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture. Around ten people of varying ages and occupations attend each time and exchange feedback on the poems (in Japanese) they have brought.

At the gathering in June, on the theme of “Early Summer,” Mabesoone read the following haiku:

The stray cat became a domesticated cat,
Fresh breeze of summer

Original Japanese (Mabesoone composes haiku on a single line): Noraneko ga Kahineko to nari Kaze aoshi

“I first came across haiku when I was a senior high school student studying in Japan. I was very interested in why such short descriptive renderings should be the representative literary form of Japan.” He conducted research on Kobayashi Issa in his native France, returning to Japan in 1998, where he currently resides in Nagano Prefecture, which coincidentally is where Issa was born and raised.

He conducted research on Kobayashi Issa in his native France, returning to Japan in 1998, where he currently resides in Nagano Prefecture, which coincidentally is where Issa was born and raised.

“The appeal of haiku lies in the way simple words may be used to create a suggestiveness that resonates,” says Mabesoone. “Also, by using seasonal descriptions, they give us a new appreciation of the bonds between humans and nature, between humans and living creatures. Poets in other countries create works by themselves, but it seems to me that haiku are produced through communication and collaboration with others.”

Kifu Mitsuhashi is an award-winning master of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese end-blown vertical bamboo flute. Last year he visited Brazil to play with Heitor Villa-Lobos, a classical guitarist, in São Paulo.

“At the São Paulo Fundação Japão, we played samba with just an acoustic guitar and a shakuhachi. We didn’t waste time with unnecessary words. Samba music is a familiar part of the daily lives of the people of São Paulo, and by layering the shakuhachi over the top of the samba I think they were able to gain a deep understanding of the shakuhachi in just a short time. The audience responded really positively to the sound of the shakuhachi, and after the performance we received thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Someone commented that ‘the shakuhachi has a strange, mystical timbre, but it goes well with the guitar and blends with the rhythm of the samba.’”

Before the Brazil trip, Mitsuhashi had played sessions with the daegeum (a traditional Korean transverse flute) and with tango musicians in Argentina.

“At the São Paulo Fundação Japão, we played samba with just an acoustic guitar and a shakuhachi. We didn’t waste time with unnecessary words. Samba music is a familiar part of the daily lives of the people of São Paulo, and by layering the shakuhachi over the top of the samba I think they were able to gain a deep understanding of the shakuhachi in just a short time. The audience responded really positively to the sound of the shakuhachi, and after the performance we received thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Someone commented that ‘the shakuhachi has a strange, mystical timbre, but it goes well with the guitar and blends with the rhythm of the samba.’”

“The shakuhachi has a rich timbre and delicate reverberations. Its unintoned yet distinct sound has the power to fuse well with the melodies of other music, while at the same time imparting to the listener a clear sense of Japan’s unique timbre. With each new session, I feel that we managed to convey not only the beauty of the shakuhachi but the beauty of Japanese culture.”