Embedded Files
From the World Haiku Festival 2010
in Nagasaki
Overview and 15 Awards for haiku competitions
The World Haiku Club had its first World Haiku Festival, a flagship event of the Club, in the year 2000 in London and Oxford. Since then nine sessions of the World Haiku Festival had been held in various countries including Holland, Venice, Japan, Romania and India until its tenth anniversary meeting was held this year in Sasebo, Nagasaki-Prefecture, Japan from 9 to 14 April. Though marking the tenth anniversary celebrations, the event was scaled down to be of a modest size, taking the provincial, parochial and conservative nature of the location into consideration.
Such an event as this, especially with its world-wide outlook, had never been held in the City and it was therefore appreciated more as a beginning of something new than a one-off occurrence. Reflecting this, the event is planned to be a year-long one and to continue all through the year until March next year with each month dedicated to follow up lectures, kukai, workshop and, above all, a mini World Haiku Festival 2010 which will be held for three days in the early part of October this year. Everybody is welcome to attend this autumn WHF when momiji, autumn colours, will be especially beautiful. All in all it was a success and the story was told by local and national newspapers and TV.
The main reason why the tenth anniversary of the World Haiku Festival was held in Sasebo rather than in Tokyo, or Iga Ueno, Basho’s birthplace, is simply that the city was my childhood hometown. It was to honour the City as well as the World Haiku Club itself.
The Festival enjoyed an official backing and endorsement awarded by all local and municipal governments and their education authorities, including Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture and Nagasaki City. It also enjoyed various supports from local industry and sponsorship from Berry Brothers & Rudd Limited, the world-famous wine merchant, who sponsored the first Festival back ten years ago.
Unlike the previous nine events all of which were those of the haiku poets, by the haiku poets and for the haiku poets, WHF2010 was organised by the people (haiku laymen) and for the people (citizens in general at home and abroad) and it belonged to the people. This was a new aspect even for WHC and involved many challenges.
In addition to usual workshops, papers, lectures and kukai, there were special features reflecting the open nature of the Festival. There was, for instance, an introductory haiku-writing class for those un-initiated, including representatives from USA, Britain and China. The scene was splashed in most newspapers and broadcast by TV. So were related cultural presentations including local children’s sword dance and beautiful koto harp music led by Mrs. Takenaga, Master of Sokyoku of the Ikuta Ryu School. Sasebo is endowed with beautiful landscapes and seascapes with the Kujuku-shima (or Ninety-nine Islands) forming the most significant part of the Saikai Kokuritsu Koen (or Western Sea National Park). The ginko we had therefore was a spectacular one, going up to the Mount Yumihari overlooking the town, harbour, naval base, dockyard, peninsulas and the Kujuku-shima Islands.
The haiku journey which followed the conference was delightful, driving up and down the Nagasaki Prefecture from Hirado Island, Arita ceramic Mecca, Ureshino Hot Spring, Nagasaki-city, Shimabara, Unzen Hot Spring and Omura.
Thus the Festival, though modest in scale, was of high quality and rich in variety of events, which could be a model of future events.
The Results of the 15 Haiku Competitions
World Haiku Festival 2010 in Nagasaki
7 – 14 April 2010, Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
In the World Haiku Festival 2010 In Nagasaki there were as many as 15 competitions in various categories of haiku. From among many entries, the following works won these 15 prizes and they and the authors were announced and celebrated at the Festival Dinner on 11 April 2010. (The haiku poems which were in the second and third places as well as those 7 haiku which were awarded honourable mentions plus haiku of merit outside these best ten will be shown in a different announcement, together with authors’ names)
1 Grand Prix of World Haiku Festival 2010 In Nagasaki (The best chosen from all categories)
Judge: Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi (瀧口流石)
Harumi Yamaga (山家春海)
蒼き宵別れし時も蛍の夜
blue twilight...
the time of our parting was also
a night of fireflies
2 The Governor of Nagasaki Prefecture Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: Setsujo Akiyoshi (秋吉節女)
Kiyoko Alexander (アレキサンダー毅代子)
玻璃抜けてきし透明な寒さかな
through
the glass window, has come
transparent cold
3 The Mayor of Nagasaki City Award (Haiku in Japanese on “atomic bomb”)
Judge: Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi (瀧口流石)
Shizue Nonaka (野中静枝)
原爆に夫を奪われ姑（はは）強し
mother-in-law...
fortitude itself, having had her husband
snatched by the atomic bomb
4 The Mayor of Nagasaki City Award (Haiku in English on “atomic bomb”)
Judge: Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi (瀧口流石)
Diane Mayr, Salem, USA
the sun cannot know
the smudge on the ground
once had a name
5 The Mayor of Sasebo City Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: Yasuko Nagata (永田保子)
Kazuko Nakatana (中棚和子)
耳朶の左右の違ひ日向ぼこ
sunbathing...
different, right and left;
my ear lobes
6 Director General of the Sasebo Education Authority Award (Children’s haiku)
Judge: Tomoyo Nakamura (中村朋代)
Shunsuke Nakagawa (Second grade of middle school, 中川竣介, 清水小学校２年）
すぎなのは海草みたいにゆれている
swaying
like seaweeds...
horsetail’s leaves
7 Chairman of Sasebo Cultural Federation Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: Hozue Shimoda (下田秀枝)
Mutsuko Sakata (坂田 睦子)
もの言わぬことも意思なり桜蘂
silence:
also an expression of will...
cherry stamen
8 Captain of Fleet Activities, Sasebo US Navy Award (Adult, Haiku in English)
Judge: Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi (瀧口流石)
Priscilla Ligneri
once it gets started
steam from the boiling water
joins the fresh spring air
9 Captain of Fleet Activities, Sasebo US Navy Award (Children, Haiku in English)
Judge: Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi (瀧口流石)
Steven Garcia Oliver Seenman
(Grade 6, Darby Elementary School, Sasebo)
winter snow,
little white specks falling
so gracefully on me.
10 Nagasaki Prefecture Haiku Poets Association Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: Noboru Murayama (村山のぼる)
Yukiko Itoyama (糸山 由紀子)
黄砂降るシュガーロードに黄砂降る
yellow sand storm
on the Sugar Road
yellow sand storm
11 Television Sasebo Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: World Haiku Club Editors
Michiko Ota (太田 迪子)
数条の蛍火川をすすみをり
several lines...
the light of fireflies proceeds
along the river
12 The Ninety-Nine Islands Award (From the Festival ginko)
Popular vote of the ginko participants
Hiroyuki Matsubara (松原弘幸)
叫ぶごと泣くごと木の芽総立ちに
the buds of trees
all of them standing up
as if to scream or cry
13 Nagasaki Shimbun-sha Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: Ryuseki (Susumu) Takiguchi (瀧口流石)
Tsutae Maeda (前田 ツタエ)
八十過ぎて孫に手を借り春の旅
over eighty years old...
my hand in my grandson’s;
spring journey
14 NHK Nagasaki Broadcasting House Director-General Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: Toka Nagata
Kazuko Miyazaki (宮崎 賀須子)
土割って時しらしめるふきのとう
breaking the ground
a butterbur flower emerges and
tells the time
15 Takashi Hoshino Award (Adults including university students)
Judge: Takashi Hoshino
Kiyoko Alexander (アレキサンダー毅代子)
玻璃抜けてきし透明な寒さかな
through
the glass window, has come
transparent cold
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