The virtual workshop Following Zōka: Linking Bashō with Contemporary Haiku was held on Saturday, 4 October 2025 at 3pm London time. The workshop was presented by Janice Doppler, an American, who is a member of The British Haiku Society and the monthly Yorks-Lancs and Oxford haiku groups.

Zōka is the energy that transforms the cosmos through never-ending cycles of birth, growth, maturation, and death. Zōka, a concept that has no direct translation into English, was translated as “the Creative” in Bashō’s travel journal Knapsack Notebook:

“Saigyō’s waka, Sōgi’s renga, Sessū’s painting, Rikyū’s tea ceremony — one thread runs through the artistic Ways. And this spirit is to follow the Creative, to be a companion to the turning of the four seasons. Nothing one sees is not a flower, nothing one imagines is not the moon. If what is seen is not a flower, one is like a barbarian; if what is imagined is not a flower, one is like a beast. Depart from the barbarian, break away from the beast, follow the Creative, return to the Creative.”

Participants left the workshop with awareness of Bashō’s advice to “follow zōka, return to the Creative” and ideas for following it in their own haiku. In a PowerPoint presentation, 33 participants were introduced to zōka, considered examples of Bashō writing about zōka in Knapsack Notebook and Narrow Road to the North, and pondered some qualities and characteristics of zōka in each season.

The energies of zōka are constantly at work in the cosmos. Poets can intuit and communicate those energies in their haiku even if they’ve never heard of zōka; however, awareness of the Creative carries the potential for enriching one’s poetry. A whole-group discussion shined light on how zōka was communicated in haiku published in Blithe Spirit and, hopefully, sparked insights for incorporating it in participants’ reading and writing haiku. A few of the haiku discussed were:

Spring

the moors
for all the hard edges
rock moss

—Jamie Wimberly (Blithe Spirit 35.3)

Summer

sea lavender
a spider weaving
the marsh light

—Paula Sears (Blithe Spirit 35.3)

Autumn

acorn cups
the scattered spread
of autumn

—C.X. Turner (Blithe Spirit 33.4)

Winter

from leafless trees
crow follows crow
into a cold wind

—Martin Lucas (Blithe Spirit 4.2)

Any Season

slow clouds
floating whorls of kelp
as the tide slackens

—Ian Turner (Blithe Spirit 29.2)

For more about zōka, see Janice Doppler’s website at https://janicedoppler.my.canva.site/

Write-up by Janice Doppler