Simply Haiku: An E-Journal of Haiku and Related Forms
September-October 2004, vol. 2, no. 5

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Reprint: Jim Kacian, "Looking and Seeing: How Haiga Works."
Previously Published in Haigaonline

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Page 11: Model 2: Iterative Haiga

The second model is iterative haiga. By this we mean haiga in which the subject matter of the picture and the poem are identical, and are intended to reinforce each other.

This is not so simple, again, as it might seem. If either of the elements is powerful enough in its own right, it can render the other extraneous. In fact, this is the most common mistake we encounter in contemporary haiga, especially in the west.

But when done well, there can be a building of power, resulting in a heightened experience of the central image.

Consider, for instance, the aforementioned Watanabe's morning glories.

The poem reads,

"asago wa / heta-no kaku sae / awari nari."

"with morning glories / the clumsier you draw them / the more pathos they have."

This poem can be considered a mere apothegm, or worse, an excuse for a poorly executed painting. But instead, because the painting so charmingly illustrates the point, the art and text reinforce each other, and we are glad for both.

Another example of this is Hakuin's wren.

The haiku is,

"it looks / like a nightingale / but it's a wren."

The poet makes fun of his own inability to paint to a sufficient standard, but in so doing makes a virtue of it.

The painting here can be considered artless, but there is still a liveliness which the poem points to obliquely, even while simply recounting what the painting is about.

Both of these haiga, and others equally successful, work because the predisposition we have towards them from the visual is not overwhelming. They are artless, charming, inviting.

We are enticed into considering the poem as well, because we know the painting has not said all there is to say of the situation.

And once we encounter the poem, we are directed back to the painting through the repetition of theme.

These modest paintings carry, as a result, a great deal more energy than they might on their own. Likewise, the poems are saved from preciousness by their associations with art which redeems them. Looking at these haiga does not preclude a further seeing into them.

Both of these examples are representational. We might recall Shiro's self-portrait as an example of a non-representational picture paired with a thematically linked poem that is, if we agree it is not a picture of a nose, but of something abstracted.