Follow the Impulse of the Brush: Transreading Japanese Forms

Inspiration from the East – Transread Japanese forms, poets, and traditions with Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana.

From Sei Shonagon’s 10th Century classic, The Pillow Book, to contemporary haijin (haiku writer) Masaya Saito’s Snow Bones, this 10-week course will guide you through landmarks in Japanese poetry from the Heian Era to the present day. We’ll focus on key Japanese poetical forms, such as the zuihitsu ‘running brush form’, haiku, haibun, and tanka to examine how these have evolved and transformed both within Japan and globally. This will include an interrogation of the work of Kimiko Hahn who has done so much to promote the zuihitsu form in the English language, as well as an exploration of contemporary tanka by the Japanese poetical icon, Machi Tawara.

We’ll also look at what type of content Japanese forms might be appropriate for – for example: haiku as containers for grief and trauma and zuihitsu as vehicles for humour. The course will explore collaborative forms, such as visual poetry, as well as the feminist perspectives of Hiromi Ito and Fumiko Hayashi, and the surrealist poetry of Chika Sagawa, Yoko Ono, and Minoru Yoshioka. Course materials will also probe the representation of Japanese culture and landscape (such as the iconic Mount Fuji) through a variety of poetical styles and forms.

The sessions will be heavily influenced by Alex’s recent trip to Japan in November 2024, where she gave a lecture on the zuihitsu form at The Japan Writers Conference and interviewed poets and translators, such as Andrew Houwen and Masaya Saito, insights and writing tips from which will be included in the course materials. Alongside exploring Japanese writers, there will be a session on the writing coming out of Japan by gaijin, or foreign residents, highlights of which include looking at work by Andrew Fitzsimmons emerging from the trauma of the Fukushima earthquake, as well as his poetic response to the medieval monk and poet Yoshida Kenko.

5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 9 October 2025. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.

Concessions & Accessibility

To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].

What to Expect

Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.

Image credit @Masaaki Komori

About Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana View Profile

Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana, author of Sing me down from the dark (SALT; 2022), taught at Tokoha Gakuen University in Japan for 10 years, and has master’s degrees in Japanese Language and in Writing Poetry. She is a PGCE-qualified teacher, mentor, and reviewer, who has delivered workshops for The Poetry Business, The Writing School and The Oxford Poetry Library and, in 2024, she was invited to lecture on the zuihitsu form at the Japan Writers Conference.

Alexandra is published in The North, P.N. Review, MAGMA, The Moth, Poetry Wales, The Pomegranate London and The Madrid Review. She has been shortlisted for The Fish, Troubadour, Winchester, Leeds Poetry Festival, and Artemesia prizes and was longlisted for the 2023 National Poetry Prize. She has performed her work at The Aldeburgh Festival, The Wee Gatherin, Tears in the Fence Festival, and The American Writers Program Conference, in Portland, Oregon. She is writing her second collection.

"I've found new ways of relating with the 'language' of writing."

- Spring 2025 Survey Response

The Poetry School