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Haiku Comics Creative Campaign

Joshua Korenblat

SUNY New Paltz

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This is the right moment for haiku: A form short enough to fit in a social media post or a phone chat, yet vast enough to carry a thousand-year tradition of honoring Japan’s culture of four seasons.

As scholar Haruo Shirane reminds us, haiku has always been about cultural literacy, teaching people to have compassion for the more-than-human world and notice and value seasonal change as part of a shared imagination.

In this project, your students will become Art Directors for the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). Their challenge: Promote interest in the U.S. for Japan’s culture of the four seasons by reinventing haiku as comics or storyboards and integrating them into a campaign.

This campaign must be visual and verbal. It can educate, raise awareness, or advocate. Or a mix of these purposes. The haiku comic framework is a deft way to develop concise storytelling skills that are foundational to education and awareness campaigns. 

Look to Grant Snider’s haiku comics as a model. His panels slow down time, expand a fleeting moment, and connect words with image—much like haiku itself.

We also have a short course of study on eco-poetics and activism by Arran Stibbe: Stories We Live By...

Why It Matters

In Japan, the changing seasons are more than weather. They share a common cultural language. Poets, painters, and everyday people express feelings, memories, and beauty through seasonal references. By combining this idea with comics, students can translate subtle cultural concepts into quick, visual, and poetic moments that resonate with modern audiences.

By bundling these ideas into haiku comics, students can transform their work into a campaign: one that pulls people in rather than pushing ideas on them and others.

Inspiration

Matsuo Bashō (spring)

the old pond—

a frog jumps in,

the sound of water

Yosa Buson (summer)

lightning—

from the darkness,

the screech of a heron

Kobayashi Issa (autumn/winter)

don’t worry, spiders,

I keep house

casually

series of haikus

A Living Culture Today

Consider Japan's renowned Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki's masterpieces, which draw inspiration from this culture of the four seasons. At once, these films show an imaginative interplay, deep respect, and even reverence for the more-than-human world.

Play

What Students Do

This project invites students to explore Japanese culture, poetry, and visual storytelling by creating haiku comics: short comics that combine words and images. The goal: help students understand how seasons shape culture, using Haruo Shirane’s book Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons as inspiration.

Learning Goals

Students will:

Why This Works for Remixing

Educators can adapt this project to:

In short, this project turns small poems and small drawings into big cultural insights, and gives students a framework for observing, reflecting, and sharing their world through creative storytelling.

Stage 1: Big Ideas & Essential Questions

Established Goals & Content Standards:

1. Visual Communication & Storytelling

Standards:

2. Iterative Design Process

Students will apply iterative design processes to refine visual storytelling and campaign ideas.

Standards:

3. Cultural Literacy & Context

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the cultural context in their design decisions.

Standards:

4. Creativity & Innovation

Students will develop original, imaginative solutions that combine text and image in unexpected ways.

Standards:

5. Multimodal Communication

Students will produce designs that integrate multiple modes: text, image, and potentially motion, for coherent communication.

6. Critical Thinking & Reflection

Students will critically evaluate their work and others’ to make informed design decisions.

Understandings:

Students will understand:

  • The concept of “secondary nature” (Haruo Shirane): How culture mediates nature in Japan.
  • Haiku structure and aesthetics: 5-7-5 syllable form, present tense, nature focus (seasonal words), here & now, five senses, compassion and feeling, and the element of surprise.
  • How to translate text (poetry) into visual storytelling.
  • Principles of sequential art: panel rhythm, composition, WHACK (What, How, Acting, Camera, Kutting, as described by Sherm Cohen.
  • How culture shapes the perception of seasons in Japan and U.S. contexts.

Essential Questions:

  • How might we use words and images together to distill the essence of a season?
  • In what ways can traditional haiku inspire modern visual storytelling?
  • How do design tools, such as Line, Shape, Form, Space, Color, Texture, and Value, affect the experience of a story?
  • How do design principles, such as Balance, Rhythm, Proportion & Scale, Emphasis, and Harmony, affect the experience of a story?
  • How might we make cultural ideas, like Japan’s seasonal aesthetics, understandable and meaningful to a contemporary audience?
  • What role do surprise, juxtaposition, or unexpected perspective play in creating impactful comics?
  • How can iterative creation, reflection, and feedback improve the message and the visual design of a public awareness campaign?
Resources

Student Learning Outcomes:

What knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit? 

Students will understand:

  1. Discover ideas: through close observation, curiosity, and sketching.
  2. Develop ideas that are vivid, visual, and emotionally engaging.
  3. Share ideas: turn them into short comics that raise awareness of haiku and Japan’s seasonal culture.By the end of this project, you will be able to:
    • Translate poetic ideas into visual form that communicates emotion and meaning.
    • Experiment with composition, pacing, and visual metaphor to tell a story without relying on words.
    • Compare how different cultures perceive nature and the seasons, and reflect that understanding in your design.
    • Generate innovative, engaging concepts that connect art, culture, and communication.
    • Present your work, justifying how your design choices enhance understanding and evoke feeling.
    • Transform a chosen comic foundation into an Art Direction campaign that tells a new story to live by in cadence with Japan's culture of four seasons: nature is a friend, companion, and teacher, and we must respect our home (As expressed in Essays in Zen Buddhism, D. T. Suzuki 1970).
      • All design decisions must be a good fit with the context of the campaign.
    What should they eventually be able to do as a result of such knowledge and skill?
    Students will be able to:
    • Compose original haiku (or adapt existing ones) for each season.
    • Design haiku comics with three panels per comic, showing narrative, rhythm, and surprise.
    • Develop multiple design variations (Mild, Medium, Wild) for iterative exploration.
    • Curate a cohesive campaign across formats and media ( zine, exhibition, social media, in-person workshops, designed and planned, or more..).
    • Reflect and compare the tools and principles of haiku poetry and visual communication design.

Stage 2: Learning Activities

What activities, experiences, and instruction will lead to learning?

Link to: Creative Brief: Haiku Comics Campaign

Client: Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO)

Source: Haruo Shirane’s Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons

Medium: Sequential art + poetry (haiku comics)

Audience: You determine! But readers unfamiliar with Japanese seasonal aesthetics and the relevance of haiku today are a good bet.

✨ Background

In his book Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, Haruo Shirane shows how Japanese art and literature are woven into the rhythm of spring blossoms, summer heat, autumn leaves, and winter snow. It’s about culture as a calendar. Poets, painters, and everyday people turned seasons into a shared language of beauty, memory, and feeling.

Your mission: translate Shirane’s ideas into haiku comics: short visual stories that combine the power of words and images. A haiku goes beyond observation by offering an element of surprise. Each comic should be a window into how the four seasons shaped Japanese culture. And also resonate with today’s audiences who are often in a hurry.

🎯 Objective

🌱 Inspiration & Research

📣 Campaign Angle

Example taglines:

A Season for Pumpkin Spice (and Your Reflection).

Cherry Blossoms > Filtered Photos.

Haiku Happens Here.

These haiku comics should make audiences pause and feel how time, nature, and culture interleave. Not just in Japan, but everywhere.

📋 Criteria

Your role: poet, idea shaper, and art director. Build a campaign that transforms scholarship into shared experience, where a reader can “feel” the culture of four seasons in just a few panels.

Introduction

Overview

Haiku comics combine the traditional Japanese 5-7-5 syllable poetry structure with visual storytelling through panel layout, composition, and rhythm. Haiku poems typically feature present tense, nature references, and capture fleeting moments.

Elements

A successful haiku must include an element of surprise. Without it, it's merely a description. Haiku relies on literal imagery rather than metaphorical concepts, using juxtaposition to create meaning.

Options

Study

Resources

Watch & Take Notes on Source Material:

Play
Play
Play

What are Haiku Comics?

This is adapted from a Haiku Comics workshop by Mark Madden. The writing is by Mark Madden, of Drawing Words Writing Pictures, with some modifications by Josh.

Haiku have a 5-7-5 syllable structure, broken into three lines, and there are a number of ways to think about how that might translate to comics. You can think about the subtle forces of layout, panel size, composition, and rhythm.

This is by John Porcellino and you might describe it as evoking a haiku rather than adapting it faithfully: the sizes of the three panels seem to refer to the 5-7-5 structure, and the text, though not observing the syllabic rules, observes many other principles of the haiku:

* The present tense

* A reference to nature

* The observation of a fleeting moment.

The framing meta-panel could be seen as uniting the comic in a single, cosmic instant.

John Porcellino
John Porcellino

It's up to you to decide which aspects of haiku to adapt and which to disregard.

Example Student Haiku Comics

Make Your Haiku Comic

Now that you’ve done your research, make your own haiku comic. The number of panels, the arrangement of panels, and WHACK (an acronym from animation that means: what you're showing, how you're showing it, acting (facial expressions and body gestures), camera moves, and kutting (transitions)) are up to you.

The haiku can be an idea sketch or a life drawing: it's up to you how you choose to represent things.

Typically, haiku relies on literal imagery, rather than metaphorical or conceptual imagery. If you want to suggest a metaphor, use a juxtaposition of interesting literal images, like the mountain/cat comic in the Introduction.

Haiku also needs to have a surprise in them. Without the surprise, it's not a haiku (although it's a beautiful description).

Option a. You can use a haiku poem you find online. Turn the text into a comic.

Link to → Basho poems

 Link to → Yosa Buson poems

 Link to → Kobayashi Issa poems

Option b. You can write a haiku about an experience you've had. Was there a quiet moment that surprised you? Turn the text into a comic.

Haikus can be funny too—you can contrast the gross/piquant/witty with the refined, for example. Senryu, for instance, is a humorous, earthy haiku genre that also focuses on people.

Option c. You can write a haiku about anything you want. But make it relate to a season! Turn the text into a comic.

🧮 Creative Brief (GRASPS)

GRASPS is an Acronym meaning: goodness of fit. Each criterion helps you see how your idea can be a good fit with context. Personalize this! Make it your own! Think of each criterion as a lever you can adjust.

G: Goal

* Create an art direction campaign that brings Haruo Shirane’s concept of “secondary nature” to life through haiku comics.

* The campaign should raise awareness of how seasons are not just natural, but also cultural — both in Japan and in the U.S.

R: Role

* You are an art director and cultural storyteller.

Your job is to:

* Design haiku comics that mix visuals + words.

* Curate them into a coherent campaign (zine, exhibition, social media).

* Teach others to notice their world through haiku + drawing.

* You may work alone or in a team!

A: Audience

* Fellow students of art, design, Japanese studies

* Poetry and comics fans

* The general public who follow seasonal rituals (cherry blossoms, pumpkin spice lattes, summer fireworks)

* Tourists and travelers who want to know the cultural depth of Japan

S: Situation

* We live in a culture where “seasons” are everywhere: Starbucks cups, school calendars, weather apps.

* In Japan, these seasonal markers are deeply tied to poetry, ritual, and aesthetics.

* Your challenge: Show how nature is culturally constructed, in Japan and in your own U.S. context. For hurried and distracted people, haiku comics serve as the foundation for the campaign.

P: Product / Purpose /Performance

Haiku Comics Collection: This is the Foundation for the Campaign

* Create 4 comics (one for each season).

* Format = 3 panels (about)

For each comic, sketch 3 variations:

* Mild: Expected / traditional approach

* Medium: Adds a twist or unexpected angle

* Wild: Totally out of the box!

* Haiku Comics Total: 12 Discovery Sketches; 4 Concept Sketches

With this Foundation, Discover & Develop 3 Awareness Campaign Ideas:

* Exhibition & Zine: Comics curated by season, arranged in a circular/cyclical format (be creative! Like Zoetropes (look them up).

* Social Media Campaign: Instagram posts (comic + haiku + cultural note) and simple motion graphics (using Keynote or PowerPoint to make them is fine).

* Game (board or digital)

* App

* Workshop: Public event teaching others to make their own haiku comics. Would need advertisements, swag, and branding.

* You name it!….

S: Standards / Success Criteria

Your work will be successful if it:

* Distills a moment with clarity and curiosity (an ‘enlightened or enlivened pause’).

* Balances visual storytelling with the haiku form (5-7-5 or near variant).

* Shows juxtaposition (nature vs culture, old vs new, Japan vs U.S.).

* Works as a cohesive campaign across formats (zine, exhibition, Instagram).

* Honors Japanese traditions while adding a thoughtful local voice.

In a nutshell: Small poems + small drawings = big cultural insight.

Professional Examples

Grant Snider, Incidental Comics

Old Pond Comics

✅ Haiku Comics Campaign: Quick Checklist

🎯 Goal

[ ] Translate Shirane’s idea of “secondary nature” into comics

[ ] Show how seasons = culture + nature (Japan + U.S.)

👤 Role

[ ] Act as art director + cultural storyteller

[ ] Design comics, curate campaign, and maybe teach others

[ ] Work solo or with a team

👥 Audience

[ ] Students of art/design/culture

[ ] Poetry + comics fans

[ ] General public (season followers: blossoms, PSL, fireworks)

[ ] Tourists + travelers seeking cultural depth

📍 Situation

[ ] Seasons are everywhere (apps, ads, cups, rituals)

[ ] Japan = centuries of poetry/art tied to seasons

[ ] Task = Show constructed nature of seasons in a way busy people can “get” fast

🖼️ Product / Performance

Step 1: Haiku Comics Collection (Foundation)

[ ] Make 4 comics (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter)

[ ] Each ≈ 3 panels + 17 syllables (flexible)

[ ] For each comic → sketch 3 versions:

[ ] Mild (expected)

[ ] Medium (unexpected twist)

[ ] Wild (out-of-the-box)

Total: 12 Discovery Sketches + 4 Concept Sketches

Step 2: Campaign Ideas (Choose + Build 3)

[ ] Exhibition + Zine (circular, cyclical design; maybe zoetropes)

[ ] Social Media (Instagram posts + short motion reels)

[ ] Game (board or digital)

[ ] App (simple interactive)

[ ] Workshop (ads, swag, branding)

[ ] Or… Your original idea!

Total: However Many Discovery Sketches You Need + 3 Concept Sketches

🌟 Standards for Success

[ ] Distills a moment of pause (clarity + curiosity)

[ ] Balances image + haiku

[ ] Uses juxtaposition (nature vs culture, old vs new, Japan vs U.S.)

[ ] Feels cohesive as a campaign (not just scattered pieces)

[ ] Respects Japanese haiku’s cultural roots while adding a local, personal voice

[ ] Has an element of the seasons, compassion, feeling, senses, and surprise!

Small poems + small drawings = Big cultural insight

Performance Tasks that Show Learning Has Happened:

  • Haiku Comics Collection (Foundation)
    • 4 comics (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) × 3 panels each.
    • For each comic: 3 design variations (Mild / Medium / Wild).
    • Total: 12 discovery sketches + 4 final concept sketches.
    • Comics must show: seasonal essence, juxtaposition (nature vs culture), surprise, clarity, and cohesion.
  • Campaign Development
    • Curate comics into 3 campaign ideas (choose any format: exhibition, zine, social media, game, app, workshop).
    • Include mockups, layouts, and rationale for audience engagement.

Other Evidence for your Evaluating Student Learning:

By what criteria will “performance of understanding” be judged?

Art Direction Grading Contract with Rubrics

  • Criteria For Discussion:
    • Clarity: Does each comic distill the essence of its season in one quick glance?
    • Creativity: Does it bring Shirane’s ideas into a modern, relatable form?
    • Poetry: Do text and image work together like two voices in harmony?
    • Cohesive: Do all four comics feel like part of the same campaign?
    See Informal Rubrics below for assessing growth.

WHERETO Learning Plan

🧭 W: Where and Why

How will students know where they are headed, why they are going there, and how they’ll be evaluated?

Destination: Students will create a four-season haiku comics collection and curate a campaign (zine, exhibition, social media, workshop, etc.) to share it.

Purpose: To explore how culture shapes our perception of nature, translating Shirane’s idea of “secondary nature” into visual storytelling.

Evaluation: Students will be assessed on clarity, creativity, poetry, cultural insight, cohesion, and their ability to reflect on their design decisions in their awareness or advocacy campaign, which is built on the haiku comics they've discovered and developed into a refined concept.

🪝 H: Hook and Hold

How will you grab and sustain students’ interest?

Begin with immersive examples of Japan's seasonal art: Ukiyo-e prints, professional haiku comics (John Porcellino, Old Pond Comics), Studio Ghibli films like Ponyo, and Shirane’s videos.

Pose authentic, thought-provoking challenges: How can a single comic panel capture the essence of a season? How do you communicate subtle cultural ideas in a few words and images?

Encourage playful experimentation with layout, rhythm, and “surprise moments” in haiku.

🎒 E: Equip and Experience

What experiences will help students make understanding real and equip them for success?

* Read and annotate Shirane’s book and classical haiku.

* Practice writing original haiku or adapting existing ones.

* Learn comic design principles: panel layout, rhythm, composition, and WHACK (What, How, Acting, Camera, Kutting).

* Conduct iterative sketching: 3-panel comics for each season, with Mild, Medium, Wild variations to explore traditional vs. experimental approaches.

* Use journals to document ideas, references, and reflections, creating a “thinking-to-making” bridge.

🔁 R: Reflect, Revisit, Revise

How will students reflect, rethink, and revise?

* Peer review sessions to give and receive constructive feedback.

* Reflective journals: Which choices communicate the season or cultural idea most clearly? Which variations add surprise or tension?

* Revise comics and campaign designs iteratively. How? Embed peer review multiple times throughout the process, rather than just at the end.  This way, students receive and provide ongoing feedback loops. This can help students become more confident when doing something new or novel, increase motivation, and help them reach a greater depth in their work.

* Structured feedback checkpoints are really helpful, especially if peer review is frequent and not just concentrated in late in the creative process. This is called formative feedback!

* Consider alternative media, venues for campaign, or cultural contexts for further refinement along the way.

🖼️ E: Exhibit and Evaluate

How will students express understanding and engage in self-evaluation?

* Submit final four-season comic set, including concept sketches and 3-panel versions.

Present curated campaign mockups (zine, exhibition, social media posts, workshop plan).

 Reflect on: How do your comics convey Shirane’s ideas? How do text and images interact

* Receive summative feedback on creativity, clarity, cohesion, cultural insight, and overall impact.

🧵 T: Tailor to Needs

How will instruction be differentiated?

* Students may choose existing haiku or create original ones.

* Flexible comic formats integrated into campaign: hand-drawn, digital, mixed media, or motion graphics, an event or exhibit, a workshop, a product, and more...

* Choice in campaign medium allows students to match strengths, interests, and learning preferences. We can provide scaffolding and support tailored to individual learners here.

🍱 O: Organize for Effectiveness

How will learning move from guided to independent application?

* Hook: Show exemplars early on and cultural artifacts from Japan

* Equip/Explore: Research seasons, Japanese aesthetics, and haiku; write and sketch preliminary ideas.

* Practice & Elaborate: Create 3-panel comics with iterative Mild/Medium/Wild versions.

* Reflect, Revise & Refine: Peer review, journaling, and refine comics.

* Exhibit & Evaluate: Curate comics into a campaign, present, and reflect.

Extend: Provide students with multiple ways to express their ideas and multiple channels to do so across their campaign channels (print, web, products such as posters or physical items, social media, exhibits, and so on). This is great for Universal Design for Learning. For more information on the Universal Design for Learning approach, please see the CAST website.