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Paper short abstract

Haiku's global spread followed two routes: first, through Western centers via English and French; second, through Japanese imperialism in East Asia pre-war, reviving as postcolonial/immigrant literature post-war. Brazil experienced both routes, which intersected through immigrant mediation.

Paper long abstract

Haiku, a traditional form of Japanese poetry, has now spread throughout the world. There are primarily two routes for this dissemination. The first route reached the Western centers of Britain, France, and America, then spread globally through English and French. This pattern fits Moretti's world literature system theory, which posits that literature spreads from center to periphery. While haiku is traditional poetry in Japan, it was received as free verse in the West. This is because Western formal poetry is characterized by even-numbered lines and rhyme, whereas haiku consists of three lines without rhyme and is, above all, short as poetry. Before World War II, haiku spread alongside literary movements such as Modernism and Symbolist poetry. After the war, it proliferated as part of Postmodernist and Posthumanist literary and social movements. Through these two waves, haiku spread to many countries worldwide. The second route is the dissemination of haiku through Japanese imperialism. In East Asia, haiku spread to peripheral countries (colonies) through Japanese imperialist expansion before the war. After the war, following a hiatus, haiku was revived as postcolonial or immigrant literature. This route centers on Japanese-language haiku dissemination.

Brazil has two streams: haiku reception via France and haiku brought by Japanese immigrants. Furthermore, in the late 1980s, these two routes intersected through immigrant mediation. Goga Masuda, a 1.5-generation Japanese-Brazilian haiku poet fluent in both Japanese and Portuguese, incorporated Japan's association system into Portuguese haicai and created groups that compose haicai emphasizing seasonality. The haiku they create contain seasonal words (kigo), which are unique seasonal words based on Brazilian nature and culture. Groups inheriting this philosophy are now spreading throughout Brazil.

The roots of haiku lie in haikai. Haikai means deviating from orthodoxy and represents counterculture. World haiku can be understood as counterculture against traditional poetry and Modernist poetry in each country. While Japanese haiku is traditional poetry, world haiku represents free verse and poetic innovation.