Haiku, arguably Japan’s most recognized form of poetry, developed into the poetic form we know and love today through hundreds of years of evolution. Inseparably integrated with Japanese history, Haiku has a notable influence on Japanese poetry, art, and society.

Elizabeth Oyler is Associate Professor of pre-modern Japanese Literature at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research is motivated by a fascination with the way historical and cultural memory are represented in literature and performing arts from Japan’s medieval period, particularly the fifteenth century. She is currently working on a book-length study of Noh drama, specifically how the staging of a set of plays by early playwrights simultaneously codify and undermine spaces of the poetic and social landscapes of the early fifteenth-century.