haiku of Hashimoto Takako

Noted in the World Haiku Review archives:

Toward the Starry Sky: the haiku of Hashimoto Takako (1899 - 1963) by Debra Woolard Bender with Eiko Yachimoto, from a series on women poets of Japan.

An excerpt:

hoshizora e mise yori ringo afure ori

From the grocer's, a heap of apples
overflows to the starry sky.

Apples
.....from the grocer's heap tumble
........................... ...into starry skies.

This successful and famous haiku has been highly praised and loved ever since Takako composed it in 1947. A heap of red apples placed at the storefront, sparkling under incandescent lights relate, on a symphonic scale, to a myriad stars. Even though apples were a popular symbol of hope in the post-war chaos and hunger, Takako's clarity is reminiscent of Miyazawa Kenji with his hard and lofty imagism. As in the firefly haiku, her deeply suppressed boyishness can be sensed here, too, and her inner child appears to have survived. In her mature womanhood, she would write many sensual, or even sexy haiku which some call "ecstasy haiku"

The article and companion translations are highly recommended.

~ Billie