Senryū

Senryū (川柳) is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 Template:Transliteration (or Template:Transliteration, often translated as syllables, but see the article on Template:Transliteration for distinctions). Template:Transliteration tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and Template:Transliteration are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious.

Like haiku, senryū originated as an opening part (hokku) of a larger Japanese poem called renga. Unlike haiku, Template:Transliteration do not include a Template:Transliteration (cutting word), and do not generally include a Template:Transliteration, or season word.

Form and content

Template:Transliteration is named after Edo period Template:Transliteration poet Karai Senryū (柄井川柳, 1718–1790). A typical example from the collection:

This Template:Transliteration, which can also be translated "Catching him / I see the robber / is my son," is not so much a personal experience of the author as an example of a type of situation (provided by a short comment called a Template:Transliteration or fore-verse, which usually prefaces a number of examples) and/or a brief or witty rendition of an incident from history or the arts (plays, songs, tales, poetry, etc.).

Senryū in the United States

The first senryū circle in the United States was reportedly started by Japanese immigrants in Yakima, Washington, during the early 1900s. Over time, other senryū circles were established in Seattle and other Japanese communities in the Pacific Northwest. In 1938, the Los Angeles–based Kashu Mainichi Shimbun published its first senryū section.

During the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, Template:Transliteration was a popular activity in the camps.

English-language Template:Transliteration publications

In the 1970s, Michael McClintock edited Seer Ox: American Senryu Magazine. In 1993, Michael Dylan Welch edited and published Fig Newtons: Template:Transliteration to Go, the first anthology of English-language Template:Transliteration.

• Prune Juice, a journal of Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration, is edited by Aaron Barry, Antoinette Cheung, and P. H. Fischer.
• Failed Haiku is edited by Bryan Rickert and Hemapriya Chellappan.
• Simply Haiku archives (final publication in 2009) contain a regular Template:Transliteration column edited by Alan Pizzarelli.

Additionally, one can regularly find Template:Transliteration and related articles in some haiku publications. For example, the World Haiku Review has regularly published Template:Transliteration. Template:Transliteration regularly appear or appeared in the pages of Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Bottle Rockets, Woodnotes, Tundra, Haiku Canada Review, Presence, Blithe Spirit, Kingfisher, and other haiku journals, often unsegregated from haiku.

American Template:Transliteration awards

The Haiku Society of America holds the annual Gerald Brady Memorial Award for best unpublished Template:Transliteration.

Previous Winners of the Gerald Brady Memorial Award include:

• 1988: Frederick Gasser
• 1989: Brenda S. Duster
• 1990: John Thompson
• 1991: Leatrice Lifshitz
• 1992: Christopher Herold
• 1993: Tom Clausen
• 1994: David Carmel Gershator
• 1995: Michael Dylan Welch
• 1996: Sandra Fuhringer
• 1997: John Stevenson
• 1998: Carl Patrick
• 1999: Leatrice Lifshitz
• 2000: Yvonnne Hardenbrook
• 2001: Billie Wilson
• 2002: w. f. owen
• 2003: w. f. owen
• 2004: John Stevenson
• 2005: Emily Romano
• 2006: Roberta Beary
• 2007: Scott Mason
• 2008: David P. Grayson
• 2009: Barry George
• 2010: Garry Gay
• 2011: Ernest J. Berry
• 2012: Julie Warther
• 2013: Peter Newton
• 2014: Neal Whitman
• 2015: paul m.
• 2016: Tom Painting
• 2017: Sam Bateman
• 2018: Joshua Gage
• 2019: PMF Johnson
• 2020: Tony Williams
• 2021: Amy Losak
• 2022: Joshua St. Claire
• 2023: John Savoie
• 2024: Brad Bennett
• 2025: Matthew Markworth

Since about 1990, the Haiku Poets of Northern California has been running a Template:Transliteration contest, as part of its San Francisco International Haiku and Senryu Contest.

See also

• Template:Transliteration

Bibliography and further reading

• J C Brown, Senryu: Poems of the People, Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1991, ISBN 978-0-8048-1664-9
• R. H. Blyth, translator, Senryu: Japanese Satirical Verses. 1949, The Hokuseido Press, ISBN 0-8371-2958-3. Includes black and white sketches and some colored plates
• R. H. Blyth, translator, Japanese Humour. 1957, Japan Travel Bureau
• R. H. Blyth, translator, Japanese Life and Character in Senryu. 1960, The Hokuseido Press
• R. H. Blyth, translator, Oriental Humour. 1960, The Hokuseido Press
• R. H. Blyth, translator, Edo Satirical Verse Anthologies. 1961, The Hokuseido Press
• Robin D. Gill, compiler and translator, Octopussy, Dry Kidney & Blue Spots – dirty themes from 18-19c Japanese poems, Paraverse Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9742618-5-0. Chronicles 1,300 Template:Transliteration – Blyth mentioned that he could only introduce what the censors allowed; these are the type of Template:Transliteration that were not allowed.
• Lorraine Ellis Harr (tombo), Selected Senryu. 1976, J & C Transcripts. One of the earliest English-language Template:Transliteration-only publications
• James Day Hodgson, American Senryu. 1992, The Japan Times, ISBN 4-7890-0661-1
• Howard S. Levy and Junko Ohsawa, One Hundred Senryu Selections. 1979, So. Pasadena, CA, Langstaff Publications, ISBN 0-686-37532-7
• Alan Pizzarelli, Senryu Magazine. 2001, River Willow. Although this book looks like a regular journal, it is the effort of Alan Pizzarelli only, done as a parody of haiku journals.
• Makoto Ueda, Light Verse from the Floating World: An Anthology of Premodern Japanese Senryu, Columbia University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-231-11550-4 cloth ISBN 0-231-11551-2
• Michael Dylan Welch, ed. Fig Newtons: Senryu to Go, Press Here, 1993 (the first anthology of English-language Template:Transliteration)

External links

• 'A Brief Survey of Senryû by Women' by Hiroaki Sato in Modern Haiku, Volume 34.1, Spring 2003