Okouchi Sanso Composition Strolls

I participated in this wonderful Okouchi Sanso Composition stroll in the bamboo forest of Arashiyama, Kyoto, organized by my Haiku Sensei, Stephen Gill, whom I take haiku classes with in Senri-Chuo in Osaka. Here is Gill’s blog post on the Icebox about the event, featuring a few haiku by me as well as a few photos of me working to help repair the bamboo fence. Reminded me of my Colorado days, and how much I love being in nature.

Icebox

On September 14 & 28 吟行 ginko were held in the beautiful West Kyoto garden of 大河内山荘 Okouchi Mountain Villa. Paradoxically, the 14th was cooler than the 28th, but both days stayed fine and at least half a dozen Hailstone poets came along.

In the morning they had kindly helped the nature conservation NPO, People Together for Mt. Ogura, with their brushwood fence repairs in the bamboo groves on the hill’s lower slopes – right outside the Villa’s front gate. Its traditional Japanese-style garden was laid out in the Shōwa era by the film star, Ōkouchi Denjiro. Thank you to all the volunteers who came, even if perhaps not everyone managed to write poems afterwards.

Putting up a ladder
to an autumn cloud —
clasping it ……….(Tomiko Nakayama)

Tourist’s scribble*
on the bamboo cut down —
“I love you” ……….(Mayumi Kawaharada)

Collaboration eases
our bamboo forest work —

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Genjuan International Haibun Contest 2020

I am delighted to be a part of this wonderful Haiku in English group that Stephen Gill runs and teaches in Kansai. I attend the Senri-Chuo meetings in Osaka. Do enter a haibun today!

Icebox

We are pleased to announce that the Genjuan International Haibun Contest 2020 will be open for submissions from Oct. 1 till Jan. 31 (arriving a couple of days late is usually OK). This year we have a new Officer, Yaeno Azuchi, and therefore a new address: 53-56 Izumigawa-cho, Shimogamo, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-0807, Japan. Much gratitude goes to her predecessor in Hyogo, Eiko Mori, for many years of bright, efficient service.

We also have two new Judges, both haiku poets: Akiko Takazawa & Sean O’Connor. Akiko, a disciple of Murio Suzuki (1919-2004), leads the Karinka 花林花 group and lectures on haiku at NHK Gakuen in Tokyo. She is also a fine translator of haiku, both Japanese into English and vice versa. Sean is the author of Even the Mountains – Five Years in a Japanese Village, amongst other memorable books, and has a good grasp of the Japanese view of…

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Osaka Tenjin Matsuri Festival: Opportunity to Participate In The Cosmos

I felt the world re-enchanted and a reconnection to sacred time when I was transported out of mundane time by participating in the Tenjin Matsuri Festival in Osaka July 24-25. A festival that is considered one of the top three festivals in Japan and has been held at the Temmangu Shinto Shrine for over 1,000 years, it allows young and old to cut through the one-dimensional rationality that dominates our consumer society and momentarily restore the sacred connection to the cosmos.