Choose your Haiku

Our Made in Italy T-shirts (weight 135 – 220 g) are produced from very soft organic/biological jersey cotton, spun, combed and GOTS certified, respecting the environment and the production chain. The screen prints use natural water-based colours and are also GOTS certified. All “Haiku line” t-shirts are packaged, embroidered and/or printed at the time of order. The “haiku line” is inspired by the poetic compositions that originated in Japan in the 17th century.

These compositions generally consist of three lines for a total of seventeen moras. As Roland Barthes wrote, the haiku “contains what you see, what you hear, in a minimum horizon of words”. Haikus are compositions from the soul which describe the emotions of the seasons, the precariousness of being human and the magic of everyday life.

Masaoka Shiki was born on 14 October 1867 to a family of lower-ranking samurai in the city of Matsuyama, on the northwest coast of the island of Shikoku. Together with Bashō and Buson he is considered one of the greatest Japanese poets. Together with Bashō and Buson he is considered one of the greatest Japanese poets.
Ryōkan (1758-1831), a Buddhist monk of the Sōtō Zen sect, spent thirty years living in a small hermitage in the mountains, dedicating long hours each day to meditation, wandering around the villages, playing with children and writing beautiful poetry. He is rightly called “the Zen poet”, after the doctrine whose fundamental teachings can be summarised in these words: meditation, inner freedom and compassion. Today he is venerated as “the Buddha of Japan”, and there are those who compare him to St Francis of Assisi.
The Japanese poet and painter Yosa Buson (1716-1784) was born in the village of Kema in the province of Settsu. With the same grace he transmitted to the tip of his brush, he was able to depict these “almost nothings” on the threshold of immediate, elusive experience. Remaining as close as possible to reality and nature, he always managed to transcend the everyday and the banal to grasp a feeling of essential totality – close to beauty itself.
Along with Bashō and Issa, Buson is regarded as one of the greatest haiku masters Japan has ever known.
Bashō (1644-1694), the pen name of Matsuo Munefusa, was one of the greatest Japanese poets.
Perhaps the greatest expression of Bashō’s work is the coexistence of elements from everyday life, often humble, and the signs of the poet’s emotions, immersed in nature and in conversation with the ancients, in a mixture of universal beauty and common objects: the banal and transient, the sublime and eternal.

In-depth information on GOTS certification

GOTS certification ensures responsible and sustainable development in the textile sector by issuing an environmental declaration verified by a third party. This certifies the organically-farmed natural fibre content in intermediate and finished products, traceability maintained throughout the entire production process, restricted use of chemical products, and compliance with environmental and social criteria (fundamental workers’ rights) at all stages of the production chain, from collecting natural fibres in the field to the subsequent manufacturing, up to labelling the finished product. In summary, a GOTS certified garment has qualities far beyond the fundamental use of an organic/biological fabric.