With the "autumn nightfall" nature is presented here in a seasonal context. Often in Japanese haiku, the seasonal reference is not as direct. Many haiku contain kigo, or "season-words" which may only be connected with a season by convention. For example, in another of Basho's haiku:
a family -- all
leaning on staves and white haired --
visiting the graves
"visiting the graves" represents the kigo. In Japan, "visiting the graves" is traditionally associated with mid-summer. Japanese readers, familiar with the tradition, immediately recognize the season and through that reference, nature is introduced into the haiku for them. Over the centuries Japanese haiku artists have amassed a long list of kigo based upon a relatively common culture throughout their country.
English language haiku writers and more specifically American haiku writers do not have as rich and abundant list of kigo available to them. The United States is basically a mix many different cultures, with people coming from vastly diverse histories. This diversity makes the consideration of a list of "American" kigo or "English language" an impossibility. While such obvious items as a snowman in winter and a pumpkin for autumn exist, more subtle things and cultural events will be lost to many readers.
Over a country as large as the United States, some obvious seasonal reference can lose significance. The subtle nuance of a first snowfall is lost to native southerners whose only knowledge of snow is from an annual viewing of "White Christmas". The diverse geographic, climatic and cultural landscape of the United States will make the development of a set of "American" kigo relatively useless. Concurrently, the majority of American haiku you will see will contain more of the direct seasonal references, if a season is referenced at all.
Changes in the modern world are beginning to affect haiku, especially with regard to seasonal references and nature altogether. Bruce Ross, in his
Haiku Moment
explains:
"The modern world, at least in the urban centers, has made it difficult to consistently maintain this sensitivity to nature and its cycles. (P-xxvii)"
While Ross continues:
"Yet contemporary English-language haiku poets nonetheless are determining the significance of nature and of man's relation to nature in their haiku. (P-xxvii)"
there is an increasing acceptance to haiku with little or no reference to nature. A haiku such as:
a cat watches me
across the still pond,
across our difference
written by Paul O. Williams, published in
Haiku Moment
adapts nature to a more urban setting, while Alan Pizzarelli's haiku from
The haiku Anthology
, edited by Cor van den Huevel, seems to abandon nature altogether:
game over
all the empty seats
turn blue
In spite of this increasing acceptance, and in deference to classical Japanese haiku, the vast majority of haiku today still attempts to embrace nature through either seasonal reference or direct observation. A well crafted haiku without a seasonal reference will bear additional scrutiny since it does stretch the tenants of classical haiku, but if it is good enough, it can be recognized.
Haiku students, poets and scholars often seem to make too much of the tenants or rules of haiku, at times seeming to pick nits while reading and evaluating individual haiku. There is often tenacity in their attempts to explain what is good and bad about a particular haiku. This tenacity is based upon a deep concern for most haiku enthusiasts. As Bruce Ross bemoans in
