Abstract
We have focused on the aesthetic appreciation of haiku, classifying ambiguity into cognitive and emotional ambiguity and examining their relationship to beauty. The results showed that cognitive and emotional ambiguity explain the beauty of haiku in different ways. By subdividing the two factors, this study aimed to identify more precisely the ambiguity factors evoked during haiku appreciation. First, a free-text and interview research was conducted with 50 haiku semi-experts, and eight factors were suggested through the KJ method. Then, 60 participants were asked to evaluate 10 haiku from the perspective of the 8 factors of ambiguity, and factor analysis finally identified 4 factors: ambiguity of scene, ambiguity of association, ambiguity of interpretation, and ambiguity of emotion. They showed moderate positive correlations with each other, indicating that they are similar but different concepts, and that the three factors except for ambiguity of interpretation were negatively correlated with the beauty of haiku.
