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Kenneth Yasuda (June 23, 1914 – January 26, 2002)Library of Congress, American Library Association. Committee on Resources of American Libraries. National Union Catalog Subcommittee. The National union catalog, pre-1956 imprints: a cumulative author list representing Library of Congress printed cards and titles reported by other American libraries, Volume 360. Mansell, University of Michigan, p200 was a Japanese-American scholar and translator.
Yasuda's 1957 book consists mainly of material from his doctoral dissertation from 1955, and includes both translations from Japanese and original poems of his own in English. These had previously appeared in his book A Pepper-Pod: Classic Japanese Poems together with Original Haiku (Alfred A. Knopf, 1947). In The Japanese Haiku, Yasuda presented some Japanese critical theory about haiku, especially featuring comments by early twentieth-century poets and critics.
Yasuda's translations apply a 5–7–5 syllable count in English, with the first and third lines end-.(Yasuda observed that although rhyme, as understood in English, does not exist in the original Japanese, in translations thereof into English they should use all the poetic resources of the language).Yasuda, Kenneth 'Rhyme in Haiku' in his 'The Japanese Haiku' Charles Tuttle Co Rutland 1957
In the same book, Yasuda contended that 'the underlying aesthetic principles that govern the arts are the same for any form in Japanese or English' and would ensure the possibilities of Haiku in English being as popular as with its Japanese audience.Yasuda's Introduction to his 'The Japanese Haiku ', Charles Tuttle Co, Rutland 1957
In Yasuda's haiku theory the intent of the haiku is contained in the concept of a "haiku moment," 'that moment of absolute intensity when the poet's grasp of his intuition is complete so that the image lives its own life', (seventeen syllables corresponding to that 'moment', divided into three lines within 'one breath length' ).Yasuda, Kenneth, Introduction 'The Japanese Haiku' Charles Tuttle Co, Rutland 1957 This notion of the haiku moment has been defined as 'an aesthetic moment' a timeless feeling of enlightened harmony as a poet's nature and environment are unifiedOtsuiji (Seiki Osuga) Otsuiji Hairon-shu(Otsuiji's Collected Essays on Haiku Theory ed. Toyo Yusada, 5th ed. Tokyo, Kaeda Shobo 1947)'The passing momentary experience that comes alive through the precise perception of the image.'Lowenstein Tom ed. 'Classic Haiku-Introduction' Duncan Baird PublishersLondon 2007
Yasuda's indirect influence was felt through the Beat writers; Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums appeared in 1958, with one of its main characters, Japhy Ryder (based on Gary Snyder), writing haiku.
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