Albert Saijo
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Albert Fairchild Saijo (February 4, 1926 – June 2, 2011) was a
Japanese-American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in ranking to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
poet associated with the
Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...
. He and his family were imprisoned as part of the United States government's
internment of Japanese Americans United States home front during World War II, During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese Americans, Japanese descent in ten #Terminology debate, concentration camps opera ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, during which time he wrote editorials on his experiences of internment for his
high school newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repo ...
. Saijo went on to serve in the
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
and study at the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
. Later he became associated with Beat Generation figures including
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...
, with whom he wrote, traveled and became friends. Saijo's first solo collection of poetry, ''Outspeaks: A Rhapsody'', was published in 1997. A second collection, ''Woodrat Flat'', was published posthumously in 2015. Saijo was also the author of ''The Backpacker'' (1972), a short book on
backpacking Backpacking may refer to: * Backpacking (travel), low-cost, independent, international travel * Backpacking (hiking), trekking and camping overnight in the wilderness * Ultralight backpacking, a style of wilderness backpacking with an emphasis on ...
, and coauthor of ''Trip Trap'' (1972), a collection of
haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
written with
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...
and
Lew Welch Lewis Barrett Welch Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 23, 1971) was an American poet associated with the Beat generation literary movement. Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University o ...
. Saijo died in 2011 in
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
, where he had lived since the 1990s.


Early life and family

Saijo was born in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
on February 4, 1926, to Satoru and Asano Miyata Saijo. His parents were ''
Issei are Japanese immigrants to countries in North America and South America. The term is used mostly by ethnic Japanese. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are (, "two", plus , "generation"); and their grandchildren are ...
'', first-generation immigrants to the United States. His father, Satoru, was born in 1878 in
Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture t ...
, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1900. Satoru was
bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
and had been educated in Japan and the United States; in the U.S. he worked as a domestic servant before attending Kenyon Theological Seminary at
Kenyon College Kenyon College ( ) is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase. It is the oldest private instituti ...
and Drew Theological Seminary at
Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey, United States. It has a wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three schools. While affiliated with the Methodism, Me ...
. He was employed in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
by Albert Fairchild Holden, after whom he later named his second son, Albert Fairchild. Satoru was active in the
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel The Foursquare Church is an international Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1923 by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. It lies within the evangelical tradition. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California, United States. H ...
, and later started his own congregation, but left the church in the 1930s to become a poultry farmer. Saijo's mother, Asano, was born in 1893 and arrived in the U.S. as a
picture bride The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean) in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil selecting brides from their nat ...
in 1921. She was raised as a
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
. In Los Angeles she taught Japanese, worked as a columnist for the Japanese newspapers ''
Rafu Shimpo is a Japanese-English language newspaper based in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California and is the largest bilingual English-Japanese daily newspaper in the United States. As of February 2021, it is published online daily. In print publication ...
'' and ''Kashu Mainichi'', and participated in
haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
poetry groups. Saijo had an older brother, Gompers, born 1922, and a younger sister, Hisayo, born 1928. The three children were raised bilingual.


Internment and early writing

In 1942, when Saijo was 15 years old, he and his family were removed from their California home and imprisoned at Pomona Assembly Center, then transferred to
Heart Mountain Relocation Center The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Heart Mountain and located midway between the northwest Wyoming towns of Cody, Wyoming, Cody and Powell, Wyoming, Powell, was one of ten concentration camps ...
, as part of the U.S. government's program of
Japanese American internment During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), mostly in the western interior of the country. Abou ...
. While at Heart Mountain Saijo attended high school and worked as a janitor. In 1942, Saijo began to write for his
high school newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repo ...
, the ''Heart Mountain Echoes''. His first feature article, entitled "Me and December 7", was published on the first anniversary of the 1941
Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
, and addressed his memories of shock and disorientation surrounding the attack, and his fears that he would be treated differently by non-Japanese friends and teachers as a result. The article also argued against the significance of race and expressed opposition to the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
theory of the
master race The master race ( ) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology, in which the putative Aryan race is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy. Members were referred to as ''master humans'' ( ). The Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg b ...
. In his writing of this period, Saijo expressed a commitment to the United States as a
melting pot A melting pot is a Monoculturalism, monocultural metaphor for a wiktionary:heterogeneous, heterogeneous society becoming more wiktionary:homogeneous, homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" with a common culture; an alternative bei ...
and support for those who volunteered for the
U.S. Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...
. The historian Michael Masatsugu has argued that while Saijo did challenge the racial essentialist construction of Japanese Americans that was used to justify their internment, his arguments regarding the irrelevance of race and his call for Japanese Americans to assimilate were consistent with the approach of the
War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was t ...
(WRA). Masatsugu observes that this was not a coincidence: Saijo and other writers were supervised by WRA officials, and Masatsugu argues that this supervision was a form of surveillance and censorship. Saijo's later editorials and features criticized the injustice of internment. These included "Christmas, 1942", which recounted his experience of his first Christmas at Heart Mountain. He was more explicit in a March 1943 editorial, in which he associated internment with imprisonment and suggested that it was driven by discrimination. Later in 1943 the ''Echoes'', under Saijo's editorship, called on Japanese Americans to give their backing to
Gordon Hirabayashi was an American sociologist, best known for his principled resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the court case which bears his name, ''Hirabayashi v. United States''. Early life Hirabayashi was born in Seattle ...
's legal challenge to internment (see '' Hirabayashi v. United States''). He later remembered internment as an "adventure", but also as causing the break-up of his immediate family as he and his siblings began to spend more time with their peers. Saijo was part of an early-leave program that commenced before the camps were closed; through a War Relocation Authority program he moved to
Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...
,
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
, where he hoped to attend the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
but instead took a job in a cafeteria. He was eventually drafted, and served in the 100th Battalion of the
442nd Regimental Combat Team The 442nd Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment including the 100th Infantry Battalion is best known as the most decorated unit in U.S. military history, and as a fighting unit composed almost ent ...
. He trained in
Hattiesburg Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 48,730 in 2020, making it the 5th m ...
,
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
, and served in Italy during the post-war occupation. While serving he contracted
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
, which continued to trouble him for the following 20 years. Funded by the
G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...
, Saijo attended the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
(USC) and earned a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in
International Relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
with a
minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...
in Chinese. He entered USC's
graduate program Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...
and began work on a thesis on the 1954
partition of Vietnam Partition may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Partition'' (1987 film), directed by Ken McMullen * ''Partition'' (2007 film), directed by Vic Sarin * '' Partition: 1947'', or ''Viceroy's House'', a 2017 film Music * Par ...
. Throughout his life Saijo remained in contact with those he had met at Heart Mountain, and relied on these connections for employment, housing, and religious instruction.


Relationship with the Beat Generation

In around 1954 Saijo began to develop an interest in
Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...
, and in 1957 he left USC and moved to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, where his interest in Zen and haiku brought him into contact with members of the
Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...
. He worked at the
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
in San Francisco's
Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
, and attended courses delivered there by David Hunter of the
Human Potential Movement The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...
, where he met
Lew Welch Lewis Barrett Welch Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 23, 1971) was an American poet associated with the Beat generation literary movement. Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University o ...
; and through Welch he met
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...
,
Joanne Kyger Joanne Kyger (November 19, 1934 – March 22, 2017) was an American poet. The author of over 30 books of poetry and prose, Kyger was associated with the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beat Generation, Black Mountain, and the New Y ...
,
Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...
,
Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles f ...
and others. Saijo eventually moved in with Welch, Whalen, and others, and in 1959 led meditation at Snyder's zendo in
Marin, California Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...
. Masatsugu argues that Saijo's emergent interest in his Japanese heritage, including haiku and Zen, and his involvement in the Beat Generation, "were enabled in part by the shift in racial discourse and the re-presentation of things Japanese in American society", as fears of a "
Yellow Peril The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror, the Yellow Menace, and the Yellow Specter) is a Racism, racist color terminology for race, color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the ...
" receded and Japan became a
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
ally to the U.S. At around this time Saijo also met
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...
, who was already an established writer. Kerouac, Saijo and Welch took a road trip together from San Francisco to New York, during which they bonded over haiku and Buddhism, and composed poems as they went. On arriving in New York, they visited the apartment Ginsberg shared with
Peter Orlovsky Peter Anton Orlovsky (July 8, 1933 – May 30, 2010) was an American poet and actor. He was the long-time partner of Allen Ginsberg. Early life and career Orlovsky was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, the son of Katheri ...
, where they presented Ginsberg with a wooden cross stolen from a
roadside memorial A roadside memorial, also referred to as a , is a marker that usually commemorates a site where a person died suddenly and unexpectedly, away from home. Unlike a grave site headstone, which marks where a body is laid, the memorial marks the last ...
in Arizona. The three men then spent the night at Kerouac's mother's house in Northport, where Kerouac remained as Saijo and Welch returned west. ''Trip Trap'' (1972) is a collection of haiku by Saijo, Kerouac and Welch, which describe their road trip, and invoke Gary Snyder, who was then in Japan, as a kind of guiding spirit. The collection was published after Kerouac and Welch's deaths, and included an introductory essay by Saijo, in which he recalled their trip as involving shared conversations and shared periods of quiet contemplation. Saijo and Kerouac became friends, bound by a shared
wanderlust Wanderlust is a strong desire to wander or travel and explore the world. The term has its roots in German Romanticism. Etymology The first documented use of the term in English occurred in 1902 as a reflection of what was then seen as a chara ...
and appreciation of Zen Buddhism,
cool jazz Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music inspired by bebop and big band that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and a lighter tone than that used in the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz of ...
and alcohol. Saijo later was a minor character in Kerouac's ''
Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Range, Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from th ...
'', in which he takes the name "George Baso" and in Kerouac's depiction of the 1959 drive is described as "the little Japanese Zen master hepcat sitting crosslegged in the back of Dave's ew'sjeepster". Rob Wilson has argued that the character of Baso functions as a "link to Zen Buddhism and the Orient for Kerouac, who found the West Coast U.S.A. closer in expansive sentiment and lyrical existence to Asia than to Europe". A photograph of Saijo, Kerouac and Welch composing a poem together in New York was featured in Fred McDarrah's book ''The Beat Scene''. Along with Shig Murao, Saijo is one of only two Asian-American writers usually considered part of the Beat Generation.


''The Backpacker''

Saijo's ''The Backpacker'' (1972) is a short book offering guidance on how backpackers can enter a spiritual
psychedelic experience A psychedelic experience (known colloquially as a trip) is a temporary altered state of consciousness induced by the consumption of a psychedelic substance (most commonly Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms, or N,N- ...
. A new edition featuring an expanded section on food was published in 1977. Reviewing ''The Backpacker'' in the hiking magazine '' Backpacker'' in 1973, Denise Van Lear wrote that "no other book so graciously portrays nature's lure as it relates to hikers. Saijo's eloquent prose will transform you."


''Outspeaks''

Saijo moved from
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
to
Volcano, Hawaii Volcano or Volcano Village is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States located in the District of Puna with a small portion of the CDP in the District of Kaū. The population was 2,575 at the 2010 census, up fro ...
in the early 1990s. Six years later, when he was 71 years old, he published ''Outspeaks: A Rhapsody'' (1997), a lyrical
memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...
. His poetry in ''Outspeaks'' is written entirely in
capital letters Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''#Majuscule, majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''#Minuscule, minuscule'') in the written representation of certain langua ...
and punctuated with
dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
es, resembling the work of the poets of the Beat Generation, yet though his poems take a
stream-of-consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which i ...
form Saijo did not adhere to Kerouac's mode of spontaneous prose. In his best-known poem, "EARTH SLANGUAGE WITH ENGLISH ON IT" he explains his style by expressing a wish for a " UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR", a "BIRTHRIGHT TONGUE" with "NO FORMAL-VERNACULAR OR DEMOTIC-HIERATIC OPPOSITION". With this "slanguage", he approaches topics including racism, the environment, technology and religion often from unexpected angles. ''Outspeaks'' also includes Saijo's recollections of his road trip with Kerouac and Welch, and is grounded in the 1960s: Saijo writes "I CONSIDER MYSELF A CHILD OF THE '60S—IT WAS WHEN I BECAME A REBORN HUMAN". In her review of ''Outspeaks'' in the alternative literary journal ''Tinfish'',
Juliana Spahr Juliana Spahr (born 1966) is an Americans, American poet, literary criticism, critic, and editing, editor. She is the recipient of the 2009 O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize, Hardison Poetry Prize awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library to honor ...
described Saijo as "a new illiamBlake". Rob Wilson identified ''Outspeaks'' as one example of poetry from the area surrounding the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
bearing the markers of two types of
postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...
: "writerly experimentation and textual play ... as well as the concerns of belonging to and expressing a distinct, particularized and limited model of identity, affiliated voice, sentiments of nationhood, and (post)colonial heritage". Wilson interprets Saijo's use of the
plover Plovers ( , ) are members of a widely distributed group of wader, wading birds of subfamily Charadriinae. The term "plover" applies to all the members of the subfamily, though only about half of them include it in their name. Species lis ...
as a signifier of "'ANIMAL CIVILITY,' living on edges and borders, embodying nomadic movement, improvisation, and risk, jazzy flights between solitary foraging and
communal roosting Communal roosting is an animal behavior where a group of individuals, typically of the same species, congregate in an area for a few hours based on an external signal and will return to the same site with the reappearance of the signal. Environmen ...
: anarchic and poetic existence on a small budget." In his article on Saijo's historical legacy, Masatsugu analyzes the poem "Bodhisattva Vows", which is included in ''Outspeaks''. In his reading the poem concerns U.S.
Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
and the burden imposed on people associated with "a racialized Oriental
spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...
", but also points to the agency and complicity of the Asian-American subject. In Masatsugu's reading the poem represents the
Bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...
"as a spiritual laborer with obligations devoid of the sentimental attachments often associated with more exoticized representations of Buddhism or Asian spirituality." Masatsugu describes the poem as ironic and humorous; he reads it as an expression of disdain and resignation at the Bodhisattva's role. He observes that the poem's short sentences, separated by
dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
es, "convey a sense of the accumulation of obligation in carrying out the vow", and its rendering of the text in
all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...
"both amplifies and flattens the prose, rendering the narrator's voice clear yet removed."


Death and legacy

Saijo died in
Volcano, Hawaii Volcano or Volcano Village is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States located in the District of Puna with a small portion of the CDP in the District of Kaū. The population was 2,575 at the 2010 census, up fro ...
on June 2, 2011. He was survived by his wife Laura, his sister Hisayo, and four stepchildren. In 2015 an exhibition entitled "Poetry Scores Hawai'i: LOOK LIKE WHAT IT MEANS" was held at the
University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
. The exhibition included work by 29 artists responding to poems by Saijo that were published posthumously in the Bamboo Ridge Press house magazine. The University also hosted a two-day conference celebrating the exhibition and Saijo's work.


''Woodrat Flat''

In December 2014 Tinfish Press announced it would publish a collection of Saijo's work from the 1980s and 1990s entitled ''Woodrat Flat'', to be edited and introduced by the poet and activist Jerry Martien. In a review for ''Queen Mob's Teahouse'' Greg Bem described ''Woodrat Flat'' as "a firm but mindful book, one whole composed of many meditations ... a mature book, too, one that can justify its own worth, its own righteousness, and, adversely, its own meek way of cupping a spoonful of quiet here and there to be dripped over the illuminated absurd of the modern world."


Notes


References

* * * *


External links

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Text and audio of "Bodhisattva Vows", from ''Outspeaks''
read by
Joanne Kyger Joanne Kyger (November 19, 1934 – March 22, 2017) was an American poet. The author of over 30 books of poetry and prose, Kyger was associated with the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beat Generation, Black Mountain, and the New Y ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saijo, Albert 1926 births 2011 deaths American writers of Japanese descent American Buddhists Japanese-American culture in Los Angeles Japanese-American culture in Hawaii Japanese-American internees American military personnel of Japanese descent American poets of Asian descent Beat Generation poets English-language haiku poets American Zen Buddhists Writers from Los Angeles Poets from Hawaii Hawaii people of Japanese descent 20th-century American poets Japanese-American culture in San Francisco Poets from California United States Army personnel of World War II University of Southern California alumni