Akita International Haiku Network

In 1689, 320 years ago, Matsuo Basho visited Kisakata, Akita on the narrow road to Oku. He composed his haiku:

象潟や雨に西施がねぶの花

Kisakata ya ame ni Seishi ga nebu no hana

Donald Keene translated this haiku into English,

Kisakata―

Seishi sleeping in the rain,

Wet mimosa blossoms.

In 2004 I visited Kisakata and composed my own haiku:

Basho’s wind

circling stone tablet

midsummer

蕉風の句碑に立ちたる真夏かな

Shofu  no  kihi ni tachitaru  manatsu kana

This haiku appeared in the Asahi newspaper’s Asahi Haikuist Network by David McMurray in 2004, who noted that “Hidenori Hiruta in Akita wrote his haiku in celebration of the 360^th anniversary of Matsuo Basho’s birth.”

Now, in May 2009, I have just written another haiku, inspired by this picture of a mimosa tree in Kisakata:

Basho’s dream

roaming over the Net

mimosa blossoms

ネット上芭蕉の夢やねぶの花　

Netto jo  Basho no yume ya  nebu no hana

― Hidenori Hiruta (Akita)