ments are not things of the past, to be seen only in museums and
galleries, but form a vital living part of the life of the Japanese people.
This art has grown out of that life and continues to be an active part
of it.

Each time that I have been a guest in a Japanese home this truth
has been further demonstrated. My host shows me some particularly
fine painting, recites poetry, or writes in "sumi" a verse for me in
incomparable calligraphy that portrays a three-line poems in striking,
fluid design. In this and other ways, my host and his family carry me
a little way into the living spirit of Japanese art.

This book by Dr. Yasuda, while ostensibly about haiku, in reality
penetrates deeply into the totality of this living spirit of Japan. It
deals with those aspects which have produced and maintained haiku
into the present day. The important key to understanding comes with
the realization that in Japanese art one strives always for the absolute.
Of the absolute there is no question of degree; it is either attained or
lost. Most often, to be sure, it is not attained, but it is the constant
striving toward and awareness of that high goal which gives strength and
vitality to this living aesthetic spirit which has so impressed me in Japan.
It is the failure to understand that which has led some Western critics
to claim that The Book of Tea, for example, is nothing but exaggerated
bombast.

It is this living aesthetic spirit which makes of each trip to Japan a
challenging experience. An understanding of this spirit is one of the
most valuable contributions that Japan can make to my country. Any
book which can give even an inkling of the nature and aliveness of this
aesthetic life in Japan performs a most valuable function. Dr. Yasuda
has achieved this in his original approach to the problem of haiku.

ROBERT B. HALL

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