Karumi (軽み)

Karumi is an ideal for the style of haikai poetry founded by Basho MATSUO.

Summary

Karumi is a state that a poet can achieve by pursuing the teachings of Buddhism and essentially establishing a state of sabi, after which they further pursue this state so that they can describe the subject abruptly and candidly.

In other words, Karumi is a form of expression through which a poet can deeply communicate with nature or their surroundings via empathy or telepathy and feel the essence of the subject, from which the poet can express what they felt through poetry.

It was an innovative technique at the time, and is quite interesting in terms of literature as well as the study of psychic phenomena, because the technique required a poet to overcome trials and tribulations in the process of having empathy with the subject, and in doing so improve their capacity for poetic expression and psychic communication.

[Original Japanese]