There was an article in the September 1994 edition of Kanrai addressing the need to recruit young people to the art of haiku.
It was written by Akiyama Bokusha (92 or 94yrs old by now I think) from his hospital bed. He suggested that making haiku in the 5,7,5 form was too difficult for young Japanese and turned many people away from the art. He also said that putting in a kigo (season word) was probably too difficult.
His suggestion is that young people should be encouraged to write haiku in the spirit of Santohka. ie. free form but still short, and that after making haiku for a while they would come to understand the reason for and enjoy the challenge of making haiku with a season word in the 5,7,5 form by themselves.
It struck me as being very similar to the situation with International HAIKU today. However because the 5,7,5 pattern has little discernable rythym to the untrained Western ear we have no real reason to revert to the 5,7,5 form. I feel that some kind of form however should be aimed at. Whether 5,7,5 should be instituted or a different form (eg. rhythm) used I haven't yet decided.
At present, very few (famous) Western haiku poets make their haiku in 5,7,5. Maybe HAIKU is destined to stay, in general, in the free-form Santohka style or maybe, after a time, Westerners will also come to enjoy the challenge of making haiku with a season word in a set form.
If 21st century Japanese haiku takes the Santohka style, as suggested by Bokusha, we may actually see HAIKU and haiku coming closer to each other rather than remaining forever separate as Ekuni Shigeru suggests....
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