The Blade of Jun ETO: A Season of Intersection between Haiku and Waka (1970s-1990s)

The Blade of Jun ETO: A Season of Intersection between Haiku and Waka (1970s-1990s)
Jun ETO's words, "Your critical writing is written in waka" and "Criticism must be in haiku," symbolize the tension that postwar Japanese criticism has been facing. Eto emerged as a leading critic of Soseki and sharply criticized the postwar state and the attitude of intellectuals. His metaphors, which he compared to haiku, illustrate the ideal of criticism that condenses the world into a few short words. At the time, society had lost the fever of rapid economic growth, and literature was shifting to an expression that emphasized individual sensibilities against the backdrop of underground culture and the maturation of a consumer society. The style of criticism was also spreading with moods and body warmth, and waka-like lyricism flowed naturally in this period. Eto's rejection of waka poetry was ironic in light of this lyricism and his belief that criticism should cut to the heart of the subject without being carried away by sentiment. However, in the works of his later year
s, Eto's own loss and emotional turmoil are also engraved, and we can see the inner contradictions of a critic who is cutting down. In this short conversation about haiku and waka, the core of postwar criticism, which goes beyond style to question the way of life itself, is condensed.