ASAHI HAIKUIST SPECIAL/ Ambassador Wins the Only One Tree Haiku Contest

Shadows and lights--in the whispering poplar the smile of Basho

--Francesco De Sabata (Pescantina, Italy)

* * *

yellow whispering

among leaves . ..

daily spread of disinformation

--Gabriel Rosenstock (Dublin, Ireland)

* * *

Invisible crow

the Lebanon tree utters

a call of three caws

--Alan Summers (Wiltshire, England)

* * *

among paving stones

between two world wars

grew a weeping willow

--Igor Damnjanovic (Belgrade, Serbia)

* * *

among yellow maples

a woman strolls

toward the red one

--Alexey Andreev (Moscow, Russia)

* * *

Falling and falling

yet still full of blooms

the cherry tree

--Hidehito Yasui (Osaka)

* * *

The woodpecker nails

a hole in one

Tree

--Stuart Walker (Sapporo)

* * *

Stradivarius

a concert

in the woods

--Deb Koen (Rochester, New York)

* * *

Interpreting the dew

in the faint light of dawn

bodhi tree

--Ernesto P. Santiago (Athens, Greece)

* * *

Cherry blossom trees

Scintillating in the dawn . ..

Hanafubuki

--Keith Simmonds (Rodez, France)

------------------------------

FROM THE NOTEBOOK

------------------------------

Falling through the grove

at a shrine in Sakanoue--

leaves, bright shiny words

--Sadatoshi Tsumagari (Kagoshima)

These words spoken by a university president welcomed attendees who had traveled from Jakarta, Indonesia, Akita, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Matsuyama, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Amami and other haiku power spots to his campus located at the top of a slope.

A 16-year-old student, a retired high school teacher and an ambassador won the top three awards in the contest sponsored by The Asahi Shimbun. Contestants and haiku lovers of all ages assembled to congratulate the winners on Nov. 3, Culture Day, at a Haiku, Music & Metaphor symposium held at the International University of Kagoshima during Japan's 30th National Culture Festival celebrations.

Natural air conditioner

everybody gather

shade of tree

For having composed the above haiku that encourages people to live harmoniously with trees rather than convenience store air conditioners, Mina Morii was given the special prize award to take home to Amami Island, where she attends Oshima High School and is member of the local English club.

Last glory

golden in the sun

ginkgo trees

Satoru Kanematsu from Nagoya received an outstanding haiku award for penning the above sketch of nature at its peak of perfection. Donald Bobiash, the Ambassador of Canada to Indonesia who lives in Jakarta, was presented with the highest award by the university president. Having tried his hand at writing many haiku since previously visiting the university in 2009 in his capacity as Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Canada in Tokyo, his winning haiku sketched a timeless scene that has surely taken place in many parks, campuses and forests in Japan, Indonesia or his native Canada. Arriving on campus in the morning, the Canadian ambassador noted that there wasn't a cloud to be seen in the clear bright blue autumnal skies high overhead.

Solitary tree

Stretching up to the blue sky

The past, the future

The Only One Kagoshima Tree haiku contest received 2,020 entries from haikuists living in 28 countries. Today's column highlights 10 of the 37 haiku that were honorably mentioned during the festival.

Michio Katsumata from Akita International University pointed out that the winning haiku penned by the ambasador had been written in 5-7-5 syllables, the teacher chose a 3-5-3 syllable frame, and the high school student wrote freely in 18 syllables.

Other contest winners included Patrick Sweeney, who wrote a haiku that seems to juxtapose his expat life in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, as an elementary school teacher with a life in the United States he enjoys returning to during summer vacations.

In my other life

A pale-green sycamore

Arms wide, shimmering

Keiko Fujii traveled from Kita-Kyushu to receive a certificate on the festival stage for a haiku that also dwells on living in two places. She is member of the JTB Asahi Culture Center haiku circle in Tokyo.

Live here, still

Memory of you

Cherry tree

A high school student at Shugakukan High School in Kagoshima was also a winner for a haiku about being afraid. A member of an English Speaking Society, she composes haiku with her teacher Toshifumi Shinmyouzu, who demonstrates the use of simile in his compositions.

The leaves trembled

And fell to the road

By the breeze

* * *

Colors glow

Looks tasty as cake

Christmas tree

During the symposium, Akito Arima, an avid haikuist and former education minister, explained differences in the way haiku is penned around the world in an address to 150 participants. The president of the Haiku International Association visited with academics at the International University of Kagoshima in an effort to convince them that haiku should be added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Attendees received a colorful 100-page anthology, "Only One Tree haiku, music & metaphor," which highlights the judging committee selections, provides guidelines on how haiku contests can be judged, and includes an academic paper on the analysis of metaphor in poetry to assist in their interpretation and the arrangement of music, as well as a resolution to support the listing of haiku on UNESCO's list of intangible world heritage.

At the end of the festival, as the sun began to slide down behind the campus slope, Yukari Watanabe, one of five attendees participating from Matsuyama City, penned this haiku, her first in English.

Abundant harvest

toward Sakanoue

birds flock together

Source: ASAHI HAIKUIST SPECIAL/ Ambassador Wins the Only One Tree Haiku Contest