Renku Reckoner
A General Introduction
2010 revision

Renku

Renku is the contemporary name for Shomon haikai renga - that kind of collaborative linked verse composed after the style, or in the school, of Matuso Basho. The term renku does not properly embrace other schools of haikai renga, the high style of medieval linked verse - ushin renga or simply renga, nor the earliest forms of comedic linked verse - mushin renga. Neither does it cover the plethora of loosely related forms of collaborative verse that have recently arisen in the English speaking world and which rely largely on thematic progression. Renku does not employ on any form of topical or narrative extension. It is never thematic.

However it would be a mistake to suppose that renku is a narrow and static genre in thrall to historic practice. Though the aesthetic principles and techniques discussed herein are directly drawn on those advanced by Matsuo Basho and his school, the majority of the compositional patterns described in Renku Reckoner have arisen in the last fifty years. Nor do they come exclusively from Japan.

This site is not offered as an exhaustive or academic exposition of all facets of the genre. It intended rather as an artistic manifesto designed to promote the composition and understanding of renku amongst persons who are of, or familiar with, English-language cultures.

The title is an ironic reference to Ready Reckoner's, those pocket volumes of mathematical computation and material equivalence that were popular before the advent of silicon chips. To use a Ready Reckoner it was not necessary to grasp the nature of a calculation, merely to locate the correct column of values.

The Schematic Guides that feature elsewhere in Renku Reckoner are indeed intended to give instant access to suitable patterns for composition, but the accompanying articles, explanatory texts and polemics aim to allow the reader to appreciate the interlocking principles which power renku, and thus to arrive at an understanding of the range of possible outcomes for any given type of composition.

It is highly unfortunate that the early impression gained of renku during its spread into English has been of an inflexible and rule-bound genre that might hardly qualify as literature at all. The reader is therefore respectfully reminded that the Schematic Guides are illustrative only and that an almost infinite number of variations are not only possible, but desirable.

I have practical experience of many collaborative forms other than renku, and have experimented extensively with solo sequences influenced by renku, but which could not properly be described as such. I have also sought to examine in some depth the potential for fixed-form prosody in English language haikai.

As a poem leader (sabaki) I have facilitated or directed something in the order of a hundred renku sequences, a number of which have been published and/or composed in more than one language. I have also had the pleasure of co-translating a number of classic Basho Kasen. Whether the sum of this experience amounts to anything is for the reader to decide.

Renku was effectively unknown outside Japan until the 1980's. A decade later, aided immensely by the mushrooming internet, a number of determined Japanese renkujin and their American friends were actively engaged in attempts to spread interest in the genre amongst English-language poets who were to some degree expert in haiku.

Unfortunately renku immediately fell victim to what have since been termed 'the haiku wars' - a sometimes vicious debate as to whether the American Haiku ever could, or should, be considered coequal with, an extension of, or no longer talking to its Japanese parent.

Now that the parties have retreated into their camps English-language renku finds itself claimed by contending factions who agree on one thing only - that renku is extremely intricate, and beset by complex rules. One way to negotiate this alleged difficulty is to propose that interested persons become honourary Japanese so that all might follow the same immutable cannon. Others abjure such Oriental authoritarianism yet treat the genre as little more than an amusingly liberal pastime wherein do what thou wilt is indeed the whole of the law.

Such attitudes are nonsense. Renku is an art form not a parlour game. There is no monolithic Japanese practice; there are tendencies and trends as in any literature. The 'rules' are simply guidelines and conventions; they are only difficult to understand because Japanese exponents seeking to popularise renku have not always been successful in distinguishing which elements are culturally specific, and too many Occidentals have pretended an expertise they do not possess.

Renku Reckoner aims to show that renku is not a Japanese art form, but rather a literary genre that has arisen in Japan. The aesthetic considerations and poetic techniques that inform renku are not limited to any particular place or time. Matsuo Basho, being a truly great artist, dealt in universals.

The man himself remarked that in any artistic endeavour one must be prepared to learn the rules and then break them. Because of the amount of misinformation surrounding renku in English this site seeks to promote an understanding of the reason for the 'rules'.