Akita International Haiku Network
Gray clouds trail across the sky. In the pale winter sun a flock of geese (Ben Grafström–Akita, Japan)
Happy New Year 2010 ! the Year of the Tiger 謹賀新年 kinga shinnen 二千十年 nisen ju nen 平成二十二年 heisei niju ninen 庚寅 Kanoe Tora Miss Masuda Aika（桝田愛佳）, a freshman at Seirei Senior High School in Akita, celebrated the New Year by contributing her haiga to the Akita Sakigake Newspaper （秋田魁新報） on January 1. We … Continue reading Haiku about the New Year (2010)
Professor Kirby Record teaches as director of English for Academic Purposes at Akita International University(AIU)(国際教養大学) in Akita. He also writes haiku. He is a fellow haiku poet of mine. On October 11 and 12, we participated in AIU Festival and exhibited works of haiku posted on the website, giving haiku activities, such as … Continue reading Haiku by Kirby Record (Part 2)
Marshall Hryciuk is a Canadian haiku poet. On November 28th,, 2009, I met him and his wife Karen Sohne, a haiku poet, who has written haiku in English for over 20 years. It was at a symposium by the Haiku International Association (HIA)（国際俳句交流協会） in Tokyo that we met for the first time. The title … Continue reading Haiku by Marshall Hryciuk (Part 1)
Professor Kirby Record teaches as director of English for Academic Purposes at Akita International University(AIU)(国際教養大学) in Akita. He also writes haiku. He is a fellow haiku poet of mine. On October 11 and 12, we participated in AIU Festival and exhibited works of haiku posted on the website, giving haiku activities, such as … Continue reading Haiku by Kirby Record (Part 1)
The Haiku International Association(HIA)（国際俳句交流協会）, a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting haiku globally, celebrated the 20th anniversary of its establishment with a symposium titled Haiku Worldwide ― Present and Future on November 28, Tokyo. First of all, HIA President Akito Arima (会長有馬朗人) gave a speech of celebration as a greeting. Secondly, they announced … Continue reading Haiku at HIA Haiku Contest and Symposium (2009)
Now is late in autumn here in Akita. Our website is full of autumn. The readers have contributed pictures and haiku about autumn from all over the world. 伊藤貞順 (Ito Teijun), a Japanese poet in Akita, presented two pictures to us. She rode on a local train from 鷹巣 (takanosu) to 角館 (kakunodate) and … Continue reading Haiku by Joshua Sellers
On July 15, we received two comments for ‘Akita International Haiku Network’ from Scotland. Mr. John McDonald sent his comments to us for encouragement, saying ‘Good Luck!’. He was the first haiku poet to send us comments and presented us with his haiku books. I’d like to take up one of his … Continue reading Scots haiku by JOHN McDONALD (Part 2)
On September 30, the activities of our network were reported in the Akita Sakigake newspapers （秋田魁新報:Akita Sakigake Shinpou）. That afternoon one of the readers sent to us haiku about ‘autumn rice fields’ , or ‘秋の稲田(aki no inada)’ . The Kanji characters ‘ 秋田‘ are used as the name of Akita City and Akita Prefecture. … Continue reading Haiku about Autumn Rice Fields
According to『おくのほそ道』(Oku no Hosomichi), ‘The Narrow Road to Oku’ ‘ translated by Donald Keene, 松尾芭蕉( Matsuo Basho )(1644-1694) arrived at Kisakata on the evening of August 1, 1689, when a misty rain started to fall, obscuring Chokai Mountain. The next morning the weather cleared beautifully. When the morning sun rose in all its splendor, … Continue reading Basho’s stay in Kisakata, Akita (Part 3)
On September 4, we received a comment on “Basho’s stay in Kisakata, Akita ( Part 1) from Dr. Gabi Greve. She said in her comment, “lately I enjoy Basho and the Sake no Hosomichi in the following site : http://washokufood.blogspot.com/2009/08/sake-no-hosomichi.html. I wonder what Basho might have eaten at Kisakata.” Dr. Gabi Greve is German … Continue reading Basho’s stay in Kisakata, Akita (Part 2)
Akita International Haiku Network 