Karai Senryū

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title: "Karai Senryū" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["japanese-haiku-poets", "1718-births", "1790-deaths", "18th-century-pseudonymous-writers", "people-of-the-edo-period"] description: "Japanese poet" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karai_Senryū" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Japanese poet ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox writer"]

Field	Value
name	Karai Senryū
image	Karai Senryu.jpg
birth_name	Karai Hachiemon
birth_date	1718
birth_place	Edo, Japan
death_date	October 30, 1790
nationality	Japanese
genre	Senryū
subject
spouse
partner
website
portaldisp
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| embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Karai Senryū | honorific_suffix = | image = Karai Senryu.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Karai Hachiemon | birth_date = 1718 | birth_place = Edo, Japan | death_date = October 30, 1790 | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = | language = | residence = | nationality = Japanese | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | home_town = | period = | genre = Senryū | subject = | movement = | notable_works = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = | portaldisp = Karai Senryū, whose real name is Karai Hachiemon (柄井 八右衛門) was a Japanese poet and poetry judge (tenja). He popularized a form of poetry similar to haiku called senryū, which is named after him. "Senryū" was the nickname that he adopted when he started judging poetry, and other poetry judges after him also adopted this name. The word senryū means "river willow" in Japanese.

Biography

Hachiemon was a government official in the Asakusa district of Edo, a post that he inherited from his father.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Senryu-hasshoh-no-chi.jpg" caption="Monument to Senryū"] ::

Karai became the judge of Maekuzuke competitions (川柳評万句合, Senryūhyō Manku Awase) in Edo. The Maekuzuke was a popular style at the time which consisted of a participant adding their own verses to an already existing verse. Karai would judge these verses with a point system. And from there, he collected ten thousand of these poems each year, the best of which were distinguished and published. There is a monument for him at the location where he judged the first Maekuzuke in Japan. It has been said that Senryū judged over 2,300,000 verses in his lifetime.

In 1765, Senryū's disciple published an anthology of Senryū's selected haiku called Willow Barrel (Haifū yanagidaru, commonly known as just Yanagidaru in Japanese) that reflected Senryū's sense of humor and style. He later published several other anthologies throughout his lifetime that gained in popularity. During the Meiji era, this style of poems became known as senryū. The first 23 volumes of Willow Barrel were published while Senryū was alive. Overall, 167 volumes were published.

References

References

1. (2006). "Understanding Humor in Japan". Wayne State University Press.
2. (6 October 1999). "Light Verse from the Floating World: An Anthology of Premodern Japanese Senryu". Columbia University Press.
3. Kumei, Teruko. (2006). ""A Record of Life and a Poem of Sentiments": Japanese Immigrant "Senryu," 1929-1945". Amerikastudien.
4. Brown. (1991). "Senryu Poems of People". Tuttle Publishing.
5. Donald Keene. (1999). "World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-modern Era, 1600-1867". Columbia University Press.
6. Shirane. (2008). "Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900". Columbia University Press.

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