In the beginning of Ghost of Tsushima, protagonist Jin meets a poet who is easily lost in the woods around Hiyoshi Springs, who teaches him the art of haiku, one of the oldest and most prominent poetic traditions in Japan. Heeding the poet’s advice, Jin rests on a nearby rock and attempts to compose a haiku, scanning the idyllic landscape for inspiration as he contemplates his search and the natural beauty that surrounds him in a moment of quiet reflection.
It is a picturesque scene that captures the solemnity and Zen nature of haiku in the 13th century interpretation of Ghost of Tsushima from Japan. The only problem is that none of this had really happened.
While it is true that samurai were expected to be versed in arts other than fencing and often to practice poetry, haiku, as presented in the game, did not begin to emerge as an independent poetic form. until around 1600, approximately 400 years after Ghost of Tsushima takes place. Furthermore, none of the game’s characters would have referred to his poems as “haiku”, as the word did not come into common use until the 19th century, when it was coined by the well-known writer Masaoka Shiki, widely regarded as the latter. of the “four great haiku masters” of Japan.
Ghost Of Tsushima’s photo mode is AWESOME
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Haiku, as we know, the form traces its roots to the hokku. In fact, these were written at the time of Jin’s adventure, although they were quite different from the haiku he composes throughout the game. Rather than being independent poems, the hokku were the first stanzas of renga, collaborative poems that were played as a word game in meetings. While the hokku was often considered more important than the stanzas that would follow, they were not intended to be read independently of the renga, and would not be commonly written as separate poems until the 17th century.
That’s not all Ghost of Tsushima is wrong about in form. Ask someone what a haiku is and they will probably tell you that it is a short poem written in three alternate lines consisting of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. The haiku Jin writes in the game adheres to this pattern, only that rule is not entirely correct. In fact, traditional Japanese hokku generally followed a pattern of five seven seven, but its lines consisted of in– phonetic sounds – instead of syllables. This is an important distinction, since a syllable could contain more than one in; the word “Tokyo”, for example, contains two syllables but four in. As a result, haiku that followed a strict syllable count, particularly in English, often ended up filled with superfluous words to meet the required number.
It’s largely for this reason that, as Kotaku points out, the haiku you can write in Ghost of Tsushima is not very good. The title haiku composition minigame is understandably rudimentary, limiting you to select between different pre-written phrases until you have a three-line poem, making it impossible to replicate the nuance of a true haiku in-game. However, even with this in mind, Jin’s poems will almost always be completely meaningless, as Jin’s first haiku amply demonstrated:
Whispers through the trees
A fresh bed under the stars
Growing stronger
Ultimately, however, the haiku in Ghost of Tsushima is effectively another type of collectible to check its long to-do list between clashes with the Mongols, making it easy to overlook these inaccuracies in the game’s greatest scheme, especially when there are so many other aspects of it they are so polished. Developer Sucker Punch has never announced that Ghost of Tsushima is historically accurate. The studio always said it was more concerned with capturing the feeling of being a samurai than recreating the past, as Sucker Punch co-founder Chris Zimmerman told GameSpot:
“The way I think about it is: we will deviate from the historical truth, we just want to do it on purpose. A lot of the support we get from our Sony friends in Japan and our Japanese friends in Sony USA, and all the cultural consultants who we’ve put together to help us do this is to make sure we don’t accidentally stray. There are things we’re going to do that are different and we want to choose them wisely. “
It’s a bit ironic, then, that Ghost of Tsushima would have been more authentic if it hadn’t included haiku, but it’s not the only historical inaccuracy in the game, and it doesn’t detract from its other merits. And on a more positive note, the quiet moments of respite that inspire Jin to compose his haiku help add some lightness to the adventure and highlight the game’s stunning environments, which is never a bad thing.
