Graphic Haibun: The graphic haibun style of presenting haibun with art is the invention of Linda Papanicolaou. Taking her inspiration from high tech graphic novels, she adapted that format as a way to present her art and haibun. The result is that the two media combine in an interwoven format, rather than as text beside illustration. The results are quite stunning.

Gyotaku: pronounced gee- oh- tah- koo, originated in Japan around 1862 as a method of recording an angler’s catch in a manner that would preserve an accurate record of both the size and species. The fisherman would take his catch to a painter who applied water based paints or inks directly to the fish, which was then laid on rice paper, creating an impression. The fish could then be washed off, sold at the market, and safely eaten. Later evolving into a form of Japanese folk art, gyotaku is still practiced today.

Haiga: When haiku are embedded in an art piece, it is called, haiga. Haiga may be done by collaboration, or be the creation of one person. Today’s haiga may use the traditional Japanese art of sumi-e ink painting on rice paper, block or fish prints, or use any modern art technique, from digital photography to watercolors.

Haiku: Haiku originated in Japan some 300 years ago, and has since spread throughout the world. Wherever haiku travels, it is adapted to the culture, climate, and geography of its adoptive home. The Haiku Society of America has refined various definitions for English language haiku as our understanding of the genre grows, and we strive to create our own body of English language haiku.
      The Haiku Society of America defines haiku as “a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition.”
      “Notes: Most haiku in English consist of three unrhymed lines of seventeen or fewer syllables, with the middle line longest, though today's poets use a variety of line lengths and arrangements. In Japanese a typical haiku has seventeen "sounds" (on) arranged five, seven, and five. (Some translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about twelve syllables in English approximate the duration of seventeen Japanese on.) Traditional Japanese haiku include a "season word" (kigo), a word or phrase that helps identify the season of the experience recorded in the poem, and a "cutting word" (kireji), a sort of spoken punctuation that marks a pause or gives emphasis to one part of the poem. In English, season words are sometimes omitted, but the original focus on experience captured in clear images continues. The most common technique is juxtaposing two images or ideas (Japanese rensô). Punctuation, space, a line-break, or a grammatical break may substitute for a cutting word. Most haiku have no titles, and metaphors and similes are commonly avoided. (Haiku do sometimes have brief prefatory notes, usually specifying the setting or similar facts; metaphors and similes in the simple sense of these terms do sometimes occur, but not frequently.”¹

Sumi-e: A calligraphic style of Japanese ink painting. Traditional sumi-e employs only black ink, varying the ratio of ink to water to achieve gradations in value. The ink was made from the charcoal ash of the bamboo plant, and pressed into sticks. When the sumi-e artist wanted to paint, s/he would grind a bit of ink from the stick by rubbing it in a special grinding stone indented with a well to which a tiny bit of water had been added. The sumi-e brush was also made from a bamboo shaft, with goat or horse hair for the bristle. The brushes are tapered at the end, allowing for the various strokes used to apply the paint, usually to rice paper. Haiga were created by embedding a haiku, calligraphed with the same brush, into the sumi-e painting. Later works of sumi-e haiga might employ several colors of ink.

Tanka: “The typical lyric poem of Japanese literature, composed of five unrhymed metrical units of 5,7,5,7,7 'sound symbols'; tanka in English have generally been in five lines with a total of thirty-one or fewer syllables, often observing a short, long, short, long, long pattern. Tanka usually need no titles, though in Japanese a 'topic' (dai) is often indicated where a title would normally stand in Western poetry. In Japan, the tanka is well over twelve hundred years old (haiku is about three hundred years old), and has gone through many periods of change in style and content. But it has always been a poem of feelings, often involving metaphor and other figurative language (not generally used in haiku). While tanka praising nature have been written, and seem to resemble "long haiku," most tanka deal with human relationships or the author's situation. In the words of Sanford Goldstein, "behind the scene is the autobiographical moment of the poet' ('Tanka Off the Back Burner,' Frogpond, XV:2 Fall-Winter 1992). The best tanka harmonizes the writer's emotional life with the elements of the outer world used to portray it.”²