Anthology, January 2011

Details of the anthology: The Twaddle Of An Oxonian

NEW PUBLICATION

THE TWADDLE OF AN OXONIAN

A HAIKU ANTHOLOGY BY RYUSEKI TAKIGUCHI

A long-waited haiku anthology by Ryuseki (real name: Susumu) Takiguchi who has lived away from Japan, his home country, for nearly forty years, preserving, protecting and defending Japanese haiku tradition. Following in the footsteps of his great uncle, Nao Kataoka who was a student of Kyoshi Takahama (1874-1959), Takiguchi has walked a long and orthodox road of the Hototogisu (Kyoshi) School in his haiku journey under the guidance of Tsubaki Hoshino, Takashi Hoshino and other leaders of the School. He believes that the soul of haiku lies in a useless individual disporting him/herself in the asobi-gokoro (playful spirit). Putting Oxford (his university and also second home) and this playfulness together, he calls his new anthology The Twaddle Of An Oxonian.

Running through the anthology is the Weltanschauung (worldview) peculiar to haiku whereby things are looked at in a detached and tangential way. Also, many haiku poems in the anthology reflect another essence of haiku, sense of humour. Life lived in a foreign country (the UK) also makes this anthology different from usual stuff with poems about various experiences of such a life. The second part of the book comprises hundreds of haiku about the author’s late wife, Diana, whom he lost to cancer and to whom the whole anthology is dedicated. The moving preface is written by Tsubaki Hoshino. The anthology was an official commemorative publication project of the World Haiku Festival 2010 In Nagasaki, the Tenth Anniversary, which was held in April 2010 in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. (Translated from the publisher’s book launch document in Japanese)

Haiku anthology in Japanese, Okkusufodo no Zaregoto (The Twaddle of An Oxonian), Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi, illustration by Susumu Takiguchi, published by The World Haiku Club, Ami-Net Oxford International Press, created by Geibundo, printed by Sk-i Corporation, Sasebo, Japan,skpt@orange.ocn.ne.jp http://www.sk-i.net/

hard-cover, 200 pp, Price: Yen 4,500

Enquiry: susumu.takiguchi@btinternet.com

Books, Anthologies and Journals

ANTHOLOGIES:

Inside Out, Christopher Herold, Introduction by Paul David Mena, ISBN 978-I-893959-96-5, 2010, $12, Red Moon Press, USAwww.redmoonpress.com

Peeling An Orange: Haiku, Peggy Heinrich, Photographs by John Bolivar, 2009, ISBN 978-1-935398-12-7, $11.95, Modern English Tanka Press, USA www.themetpress.com publisher@themetpress.com

Ushizu (Oxford) no Zaregoto , or The Twaddle of An Oxonian, Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi, all in Japanese, illustrations by the author, published by The World Haiku Club, Ami-Net Oxford International Press, UK, created and printed by Geibun-do, Sk-i Corporation, Sasebo, Japan, ISBN 978-4-902863-18-5, 200 pp, 2010, Yen 4,500

JOURNALS

Journal of Renga & Renku Issue #1 is now available at http://www.darlingtonrichards.com/jrr

(This is not an e-magazine but is a printed journal to be subscribed.)

Edited and published by Norman Darlington and Moira Richards, this issue contains 170 pages of Poetry, Essays, Translations, Commentaries and Reports

Read the Table of Contents below

Leaf through the 17-page preview online at http://tinyurl.com/preview-jrr1

Order the 170-page print journal at http://www.darlingtonrichards.com/jrr

— Contents —

Editorial

Shisan – four 12-verse poems:

Flow of the Springtide,

Billows of Pear Blossoms,

Verlorene Zeit / Flow of the Springtide,

Kinderland so fern / Childhood’s Land so Distant

Essay: Renku – A Baby Thrown Out with the Bath Water:

A Start of Reappraising Shiki by Susumu Takiguchi

Nijūin – six 20-verse poems:

A Mud Turtle Crawling to a Longbill,

Paper Fan,

Adrift with her Dreams,

The Beat of Drakes Drum,

Mending Nets,

Pannonia

Essay: Gradus ad Mount Tsukuba:

An Introduction to the Culture of Japanese Linked Verse by H. Mack Horton

Jūnichō – four 12-verse poems:

Winter Fields,

Sera d'Estate / Summer Evening,

The Zen Master Trips,

The Marsh Frog

Essay: The Mechanics of the White Space

(or Bashō Cranks-up the Action) by John E. Carley

Kasen – eight 36-verse poems:

Impromptu at Fukagawa,

The Lye Tub,

February has come,

Pine and Pond,

Winter Clarity,

Knee Deep in Dandelions,

Dusk over Dry Grass,

Windswept Walk

Essay: Longer Renku: The Hyakuin of 100 Stanzas

by William J. Higginson

Half-kasen – an 18-verse poem:

Umbrella Handles

Yotsumono – a four-verse poem:

в сердце пиона / in the heart of a peony

Essay: The Alchemy of Live Renku by Christopher Herold

Live renku – one 12-verse, and one 18-verse poem:

Our New Nano,

Darkening Skies

Book reviews:

Birds on a Wire,

Book of Days,

Under the Roan Cliffs,

Haikai Poetics

Triparshva – fourteen 22-verse poems

including the winner of the 2010 JRR renku contest:

The Tiniest Pebble,

The First Warm Day,

Dusty Skechers,

Kettle Song,

Summer Stars,

After the campfire,

Crop Circles,

Weave of Dreams,

Here’s Gratitude,

Above the Treetops,

Last Summer’s Bushfire,

Shards of Coloured Glass,

Dream of Birds,

Last Interview

Bibliography of renga and renku

Report: Four Sign Language Renga

by Donna West and Rachel Sutton-Spence

Contributors and Acknowledgements

The JRR Crossword

Norman Darlington

Moira Richards

Journal of Renga & Renku

http://www.darlingtonrichards.com/