Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry forms like haiku and tanka. It’s a warmhearted family of haiku poets created by Chèvrefeuille, a Dutch haiku poet. Japanese poetry is the poetry of nature and it gives an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. ++ ALL WORKS PUBLISHED ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE RIGHTS BELONG TO THE AUTHORS ++ !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!
!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 1st at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. Every weekend I have a wonderful challenge for you. You can respond on Sunday July 1st at 7:00 PM (CEST), so you have time to meditate and contemplate on the given challenge before responding.
This weekend I love to challenge you again with a Troiku Challenge. In this Troiku Challenge you have to create first a so called "fusion"-haiku and than you have to create a Troiku (more on Troiku you can find in the menu above) with your "fusion"-haiku.
For this Troiku Challenge I have chosen two haiku by Takahama Kyoshi (1874–1959) to work with. Kyoshi is not a renown haiku poet, but he has written wonderful haiku. (You can find more of his haiku HERE).
a distant mountain seen in the sunlight: a desolate field a leaf of a paulownia tree has fallen in the sunlight
Two nice haiku. Not easy to work with I think, but ... I think you can do it. Create a "fusion"-haiku from these two haiku and than create a Troiku with your "fusion"-haiku.
Have a great weekend and remember ... this episode is open for your submissions next Sunday July 1st at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 8th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend.
Share your Troiku created from your fusion-haiku with us all here at our wonderful Kai.
Welcome to our last regular episode of June. This month it was all about the beauty of the classical kigo for summer that nice little word to point towards the season in which the scene took place. We have seen beautiful kigo and I applaud you all for creating the most wonderful verses with them.
Next month I will challenge you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry inspired on images. So ... July will be a month to "imagine without limits". I have already gathered images to use. Images I took myself and images found on the Internet. I am looking forward to this upcoming month.
Green Waves
Okay ... back to our last episode of this month, the last regular episode to be precise. Today's classical summer kigo is: wind in the verdure (aoarashi). What does this kigo mean. It's about the wind through the green leaves, or the greeness of summer's nature. It wasn't easy to find a haiku in which this kigo is used, but I have found one:
the wind in the green helps to soothe their shattered nerves and old rivalries
A wonderful kigo to conclude this wonderful summer kigo month with I think. I hope you all did like this month and I hope to see you all again in July as we are going to create our verses through imagination.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now ... have fun!
And here is the last classical winter kigo for all of our friends on the Southern Hemisphere: snowflakes (kazahana). Lit. wind-flowers.
Share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai.
What a joy it was to read all your wonderful renga in response on our first episode of Carpe Diem's Renga Challenge. I am glad that this new feature has found it's way to your heart. Let me give you the goal of this feature again.
In this new feature "Renga Challenge" I challenge you all to create a renga of at least six (6) verses and with a maximum of 12 verses. Sounds easy ... well that's not true I think, because there is a rule. You have to create a renga by using haiku I will give you. It's your task to write the two lined verses (7-7 syllables approximately). With those two-lined verses you complete the renga. You may use the haiku in the order you like, so there is no need to use the order in which I will share them with you.
For this second "Renga Challenge" I have chosen again six (6) haiku written by Basho and translated by Jane Reichhold. So in a way you create a renga together with Basho.
Here are the six (6) haiku to use:
still alive under the slightness of my hat enjoying the coolness rainy season sea glow lights held up by the night watchman logged tree see the larger cut end is a harvest moon
Logged Tree (I couldn't retrieve the owner of this image. If you know the owner or are the owner of this image
please let me know)
the blue sea in waves smelling of saké tonight's full moon early summer rain the green of a rock cypress lasting how long on a bare branch a crow settled down autumn evening
Good evening fellow Carpe Diem poets. Time again for a new episode in a month full of classical kigo for summer and winter. And today's classical kigo for summer is a nice (and easy) one I think. Today I challenge you to create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form with old bush warbler (oiuguisu). And there are several haiku and tanka known with this kigo for example, this tanka:
If not for the call of the bush warbler coming out of the valley, who then would be aware of the arrival of springtime?
Original by Ôe no Chisato, nephew of Ariwara no Narihira and another poet who flourished from the 890s to around 920 but whose birth and death dates are unknown.
Or what do you think of this beautiful haiku by my master Basho:
uguisu ya mochi ni fun suru en no saki this damned warbler ! it left his droppings on the ricecakes on the veranda
This hokku is from the third month (April) of 1818, when Issa was in and around his hometown. A bush warbler (Horornis diphone) has been singing in a strong, clear voice. It apparently fell silent when it reached a fence, perhaps made of bamboo or brushwood, but after it cautiously walks along the top of the fence and finds it a safe place, and one strong enough to hold its weight, it sings once more. Perhaps it still isn't used to the strange barriers humans erect in arbitrary places. Issa seems to be praising the energy and powerful voice of the rather shy and wary warbler, which doesn't give up when it meets an obstacle but examines it carefully and finally deals with it.
All beautiful verses inspired on our classical summer kigo for today. I have tried to create one myself with this kigo and this is what I came up with:
hot summer night only the breeze brings coolness a nightingale's song
I hope I have inspired you with this episode and I am looking forward to all of your beautiful responses.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 4th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our last regular episode of June later on.
In winter we are wearing warm clothes, mostly made from thick fabrics, but as summer comes we change our clothes to more thin fabricated ones, because in the warmth, heat of summer that will keep us cool. Nowadays that custom is still in use I think, but ... maybe you are not someone that uses this custom.
Today's classical summer kigo is thin clothes (usumono) and I think it's an kigo we can work with. Today's episode will not be a long one, because of lack of time. So I leave you with this classical summer kigo: thin clothes (usumiono).
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 3rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!
For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have another nice winter kigo: yellowtail (buri). Seliola quinqueradiata
Share your Japanese poetry inspired on this classical kigo with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Today another nice classical summer kigo. Our kigo for today we have seen here very often, but I think that this kigo has so much hidden it that we can use it often here at our wonderful Kai.
I found a nice haiku by Basho with this kigo in it, I don't know who was the translator of this haiku, so my apologies for that.
overhanging pine… adding its mite of needles to the waterfall
Our classical kigo you will find in the last line of this haiku. Today's classical kigo is waterfall (taki) and Basho has written several haiku with this kigo. In his Oku no Hosomichi (The Small Road Into the Deep North) he wrote about a waterfall that had a cave behind it's surface:
[...] "After climbing two hundred yards or so from the shrine, I came to a waterfall, which came pouring out of a hollow in the ridge and tumbled down into a dark green pool below in a huge leap of several hundred feet. The rocks of the waterfall were so carved out that we could see it from behind, though hidden ourselves in a craggy cave. Hence its nickname, See-from-behind (Urami-no-taki). [...]
for a while secluded behind the waterfall summer retreat begins
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 2nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.
For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have a nice classical kigo for winter: fireplace (ro)
Share your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on this classical kigo with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. My weekend was okay ... I enjoyed being free and it gave me some time to meditate and contemplate about the future of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. What will bring us the future here at CDHK? I hope to create posts for several years, but I hope that you all will stay to participate. Making CDHK takes a lot of time, but I love making it. So I tried to look at CDHK in a new way ... what can I change to bring more haijin, visitors and travelers to our wonderful Kai? First I will create a new kukai next month; second I think I will bring back some features from the past; third I will try to create the possibility for you all to be part of CDHK in another way ... as co-editors. Maybe you can remember our Ghostwriter feature, in that feature I gave participants the possibility to create a post for CDHK and I remember that several of you did a Ghostwriter post here. Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a warmhearted family of haiku poets, can grow further and can become better ... but I cannot do that without your participation. Well ... maybe you have some ideas to change Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and make it bigger and better than ever. Share your ideas with us all through the comment-field.
Today's classical kigo is taken from the sub-division "The Heavens" and is a kigo for late-summer. Today's kigo is: heat at zenith (hizakari). This kigo points to the heat of the day as the sun is at its highest point. (Say around 12:00 PM). That moment of the day is really the hottest part of the day and, as I look at myself, it's that moment of day in summer that I will avoid as much as I can.
As you can see on the image above, the trees have the shortest shadow and that points towards the moment of the day that is called "zenith".
I found two haiku by Santoka Taneda (1882 - 1940) in which this classical kigo, heat at zenith (hizakari), is used:
Hizakari no O-Jizō-sama no kao ga nikoniko. In the sunlight Jizō's face * Smiles brightly
* Stone statues of Jizō Bosatsu are often placed at crossroads or other places frequented by travelers. Jizō (Ksitigarbha) is the patron of children and travelers and is usually shown standing, holding a pilgrim's staff in his right hand and a pearl in his left. His head is shaven, and he has a compassionate smile.
Hizakari naite mo warōte mo hitori. In the heat of the day Crying or laughing-- Only one.
These haiku by Santoka Taneda are exceptional, because Santoka Taneda wasn't a great fan of the required kigo in haiku, but in these two haiku he uses our classical kigo for today, heat at zenith (hizakari).
the heat of the day walking beneath the leaves of willows ah! that coolness
I hope I have inspired you. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 1st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on.
Share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
As you all can see I have changed the logo of this Crossroads feature. The original image I used was by a photographer Martin Liebermann and he has asked me to remove the image from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Of course I am sad that I had to change the logo of our Crossroads feature, but I understand the question by mr. Liebermann. I will search for another image to use as a logo for Crossroads, but for now I have changed it to the above shown logo.
For this episode of Carpe Diem Crossroads I have another nice set of haiku for you to work with, but let me explain the task again for Crossroads. The task is to create a so called "fusion"-haiku from the given haiku. With that task you create a symbiosis bewteen the two haiku. Every set of haiku used here in Crossroads are always by the same haiku poet, because I don't think it's possible to create a "fusion"-haiku from two haiku by two different haiku poets.
This episode I have chosen two haiku written by Ryokan (1758-1831). Let me tell you a little bit about him:
Ryokan was born in 1758, the first son in a noble family in Izumozaki in the Echigo District. He entered the priesthood at the age of 18 and was given the Buddhist name "Ryokan" when he was 22 years old. He kept searching for the ultimate truths through his life. Leaning the Chinese classics and poetry at Entsu Temple of the Soto Sect in Tamashima in the Bichu District, he practiced hard asceticism under Priest Kokusen for 20 years. After this, he traveled all over the country on foot and returned to his home village just before the age of 40. He lived at the Gogoan hut in Kokujyo Temple on Mt. Kugami, and then moved down to a thatched hut in Otoko Shrine at the foot of the Mountain. It is said that he enjoyed writing traditional Japanese poetry, Chinese poetry and calligraphy all through his simple, carefree and unselfish life.
He was also called "Temari-Shonin (The Priest who Plays with a Temari ball)" and was much loved by children, since he often played with a Temari ball (Japanese cotton-wound ball), Ohajiki (small glass counters for playing games) together with children in the mountain village. Much of his poetry and letters which still remain, all of which are full of his sympathy and affection for children, describe his joyful times with children and also reveal his high personal qualities as a man who devoted his life to meditation. Ryokan was a Zen priest, but he never established his own temple, and lived by alms. Instead of preaching, he enjoyed companionship and conversation with many ordinary people. In 1831, he ended his 74-year life as an honest priest respected and loved by all he knew.
Here are the two haiku to work with and create your "fusion"-haiku:
river in winter soaring over peaks an eagle spots its prey
hedge branches young birds are raised morning snow
Two nice haiku, but it will not be an easy task to create a "fusion"-haiku with it I think. Of course I have given it a try myself and this is what I came up with:
first snow falls old birds nest covered with a blanket the eagle without vision
!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 24th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
I welcome you all at a new episode of our Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation, our weekend challenge or our meditation and contemplation feature for the weekend. This weekend I have a new feature for you to work with, but I have to tell you something about the background of this feature.
As you all know I started with Carpe Diem Haiku Kai (then titled only Carpe Diem) back in October 2012. Before I started with CDHK I had some experience with writing haiku (or tanka) every day on two other websites. Those websites however did this for just one month (February and September). I was a very active participant in those daily memes and I missed it almost immediately after writing the last episode of the daily haiku meme in September 2012. So I wanted to fill that hole and decided to create my own daily haiku meme. Well ... right on that moment I created Carpe Diem, now renown as Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, and started to create every day haiku (or tanka).
To make Carpe Diem more attractive I created several special features. The first special feature I created was simply titled Carpe Diem Special and in that feature I introduced several known and unknown haiku poets and gave a haiku written by them. The goal was to create a haiku in the same tone and sense as the given haiku. In other words I tried to inspire my visitors to create haiku in the way of the given classic haiku poet.
This weekend I love to bring a "new" episode of this Carpe Diem Special feature, but of course I had several other special features here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai for example the weekly Tan Renga Challenge or "Little Ones" and more.
Okay ... here is the first "stop" on our Trip Along Memory Lane, a trip back in time: This weekend I have (as said above) an episode of that feature titled "Carpe Diem Special" and the goal is to create a new haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry in the same tone and sense as the given haiku. For this Carpe Diem Special I have chosen haiku written by a not so renown haiku poet: Sumitaku Kenshin (1961-1987).
Sumitaku Kenshin
Sumitaku Kenshin wrote mostly one-lined haiku-like poems, so it's a little bit strange to share these with you, because we are all haiku poets that use the three-line lay-out of haiku, but well ... maybe it inspires you to explore this way of writing haiku ... you never know.
Here are the (5) haiku to work with:
While lost in talking, the stars have grown more and more distinct How happy! Bathing in the tub full to overflowing A dragonfly, with its thin wings sick in summer Autumn is lonely, a mosquito bites me A lonely night, someone begins to laugh
All nice one-line haiku to inspire you, but don't forget ... the task is to create in the same sense and tone.
Well ... I wish you all a wonder weekend and I am looking forward to your responses on this new weekend-meditation feature "Along Memory Lane, A Trip Back In Time".
This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday June 24th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 1st at noon (CEST). For now ... have fun and have a great weekend!
Share your inspired haiku in the same sense and tone with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Today summer starts and that makes me happy and I love to dance and sing in praise of summer, in praise of nature, wonderful and beautiful nature. Nature ... the source for all haiku poets. It's one of the main themes of the classical haiku and that's what we are exploring this month through the classical kigo of summer (and winter).
Today's summer kigo is evening lull (yuunagi) and I think this is what gave me the idea of dancing and singing to celebrate summer.
I had some trouble with todays kigo evening lull, but after some web-surfing I ran into the translation of lull. It turned out that it means pause, silence, repose, peace, stillness and tranquility. So yuunagi means evening peace, silent evening or so.
The above image, is that evening lull? A serene beach somewhere in Japan, the rippling of the water, the sun downing ... maybe a few seagulls that sre crying, maybe a faraway sound of a temple bell ... Yes ... this is (in my opinion) evening lull.
Here are a few haiku I have taken from my archives, just taking the easy way this time, forgive me.
deep silence listening to the song of cicadas - sultry summer night evening lull the sweet scent of Honeysuckle arouses the senses on the beach around the campfire - rippling waves entwined bodies in love on the beach - evening lull
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 28th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, a weekend-meditation, later on. For now ... have fun!
Here is the kigo for winter to work with on the Southern Hemisphere: winter grove (fuyu kodachi)
Share your haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry inspired on this classical kigo for summer with us all here at our Kai.
Summer, in this case the astrological summer, is almost starting. Tomorrow, around 7:00 PM (CEST), summer is starting and that means that we will have the longest day of the year and (of course) the shortest night of the year too. In Japan you all know that Shinto is the most important religion, but (as I discovered yesterday as I was writing my weekly post on MLMM, a wonderful website on WP) in Shinto religion which you can compare with NeoPaganism they don't celebrate the Summer Solstice. All other seasons equinoxes are celebrated, but not the Summer Solstice. In the classical Saijiki (a collection of seasonwords or kigo) you will not find Summer Solstice, but you will find our kigo for today: short night (mijikayo). And I will try to share a few haiku on this classical kigo for summer written by haiku poets of all ages.
For example these by Yosa Buson (1716-1784), by the way Buson wrote a lot of haiku about the short night (or the long day). Here is a selection:
mijika yo ya ashiato asaki Yuigahama / mijikayo ya ashiato asaki yui no hama A short night of summer: Faint footprints On the shore ofYuigahama.
In the Western world the Summer Solstice is celebrated on several places. One of the renown places is Stonehenge (UK) were they celebrate the Summer Solstice every year again.
Stonehenge (Getty images)
Here is a tanka I wrote several years ago inspired on "the short night" or the Summer Solstice:
Well ... enjoy your summer solstice celebration ... celebrate nature even on the longest day and in the shortest night of the year.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 27th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode, evening lull (yuunagi), later on. Have fun!
For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have another nice winter-kigo: short day (tanjitsu)
Share your Japanese poetry themed "short night" with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
It will not be easy to "translate" this kigo for you all, because it's a "rare" kigo and I even don't know if I have written it the correct way. Today's classical kigo is taken from the sub-division plants and I will try to explain it to you.
Luxurance (shigeri) is specifical used to describe the beauty of foliage, the beauty of the richness of for example the Wisteria, the Willow or other beautiful trees, bushes and flowers that are in full bloom. Isn't that richness? The beauty of nature that we are celebrating in every haiku or tanka.
Luxurance (shigeri) of foliage, nature is beautiful
Nature is beautiful and a rich source of inspiration. Well ... I think I will write no more to explain our today's kigo luxurance (shigeri).
I found two nice haiku written by Buson (1716-1784) in which this kigo is used as I explained it:
sake jyuuda yuri mote yuku ya natsu kodachi ten horses carrying loads of sake, swinging, pass by a thicket of trees in full summer foliage.
Two beauties by this haiku master, one of the five most famous classical haiku masters. He (Buson) was not only a haiku poet, but also a great haiga-painter. And ... he followed in the steps of Basho who he admired. He created haiga for the first edition of "the small road into the deep north", the most famous haibun ever.
I have tried to catch this beautiful kigo in my haiku, but I couldn't come up with a good one. So I decided to dive into my archives and found a nice haiku in which this kigo, isn't visibly used, but can be found.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 26th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, short night (mijikayo), later on. For now ... have fun! And here is the winter kigo for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere, withered mums (karegiku)
Share your "luxurance" haiku or tanka with us all here at our Haiku Kai. Have fun!
Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. I had an easy day today. I had a day off and so this day I was going with the flow so to say. Of course I was busy in another way. I am busy with creating new features here and I love to bring back a few of the features we have seen here. Last Saturday I started again with reading Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku" and I ran into wonderful haiku written by the master. Haiku that I hadn't really read the last time I read this book. That brought me an idea that I will use next month, but there was also a very rare incident this weekend.
I got an issue of a renaown mindfulness magazine here in The Netherlands and I read a wonderful article in that issue. Maybe you rememeber that I did a pre-announcement about our upcoming summer -retreat and it's theme "Finding The Way". Well that article I mentioned above was about "Finding The Way", it was about a pilgrimage, not the usual pilgrimage as for example "the road to santiago", but about an "inner pilgrimage", a pilgrimage you can do in the warmth of your own home. I will tell you more about it as I start our summer retreat on July 15th.
Okay ... back to our all day business this month, classical kigo for summer. Kigo, as you all know, are words that point towards the season in which the haiku was written and kigo are part of the classical way of writing haiku (or tanka).
Today's kigo is sweetfish (ayu) and I will try to tell you a little bit more about this classical kigo for summer.
The ayu or sweetfish, is a species of fish. It is the only species in the genus Plecoglossus and family Plecoglossidae. It is a relative of the smelts.
Native to East Asia, it is distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean along the coast of Hokkaidō in Japan southward to the Korean Peninsula, China, Hong Kong and northern Vietnam. It is amphidromous, moving between coastal marine waters and freshwater lakes and rivers. A few landlocked populations also exist in lakes in Japan such as Biwa. It is an introduced species in Taiwan.
The name "sweetfish" was inspired by the sweetness of its flesh. In reference to its typical one-year lifespan, it is also written clled "year-fish". Some individuals live two to three years. The ayu is the prefectural fish of Gunma Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture.
I found a nice haiku by Basho (written in 1689) translated by Gabi Greve about this sweetfish (ayu):
ayu no ko no shirauo okuru wakare kana young ayu sweetfish are seeing off the whitefish and say good bye
This is what is said about this haiku: The whitefish are the first to go upstream to spawn, the ayu follow them one month later. Basho and Sora are ready to depart for "Oku no Hosomichi" and he has to leave his young disciples (ayu no ko) behind at Senju.
Sweetfish (ayu) woodblock print by Utagawa Hirosighe (1797-1858)
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 25th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, luxurance (shigeri), later on. For now ... have fun!
By the way here is the winter kigo for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere: wicker fishnet (ajiro)
Share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all here at our Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry.
I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and for the fathers ... did you have a nice Father's Day? I really had a wonderful Father's Day, because I could go walk with my grandson and my son-in-law along the most beautiful Oldtimers. Every year on Father's Day the city were I am living is organizing the so called "Oldtimer Day". Just around the corner of my home there were hundreds of Oldtimers and I enjoyed watching them and sit in them. My grandson was enthousiastic too, just like me and my son-in-law. Yes I had a wonderful Father's Day together with my kids and grandchildren. Awesome ... so to say.
Okay enough about my weekend, back to the business of every day ... creating a beautiful episode for our wonderful Kai. This month we are exploring classical kigo for summer and today that will be a nice one I think. Today's kigo is: half-year's end festival (nagoshi).
Nagoshi Festival Fireworks
Nagoshi is a great Japanese festival. Nagoshi (half year's end festival) and it's one of the 100.000 festivals which occur in Japan. Nagoshi is a kind of 'end summer' festival and it lasts for three days. Let us take a closer look at this festival.
Omura Nagoshi Matsuri (Festival) is a summer event held on the evenings of August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Nagoshi is a shortening of “Nagoshi no Harae” which translates to “summer purification rites.” The original event brought to Japan from China occurred in the summer, usually on the last day of the 6th lunar month (June 30). However, because Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar rather than the Chinese calendar, many ancient Chinese rituals take place a month later than the original date. Therefore, Nagoshi no Harae takes place on July 31. On this day, People visit one of Omura’s 25 Shinto shrines to be purified of their sins and then, beginning August first is the celebration of that cleanse. A fireworks show is held over the bay on the first evening, displaying 3,000 to 4,000 rounds.
On the evening of the second and third, there are many vendors selling an array of food, drinks (alcoholic and non), toys, candy and Omura specialty products on the main road that leads from Omura Train Station. There are also various performances, visual arts and games for your entertainment. The main event, happening on the night of the third, is a two-hour parade/dance competition featuring many local Omura groups. Everyone dances the Omura Ondo, the region dance, while parading around Nagoshi Yume Dori (Dream Street) otherwise known as Omura Station Road.
Nagoshi Festival
What a joyful festival to celebrate the end of Summer. I don't know if there are such festivals in other regions of the world. Not in my country by the way, we celebrate the start of Summer, but never the end of it.
leaves are coloring at the end of summer days become shorter
What a wonderful festival this must be. It feels really like the end of summer and I hope that I caught that essence in my second haiku.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, sweetfish (ayu), later on. To conclude this episode here is the winter kigo for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere, year market (toshi no ichi).
Share your haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry inspired on this classical kigo for summer (and winter for the Southerns) with us all. Let us celebrate the end of summer ...!
!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 17th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Time flies ... I have said that very often here at CDHK, but it is so true. Time slips through our fingers like grains of sand. I remember that I started writing haiku back in the late eighties and than several years later, 2005, I published my first english haiku. And now ... look were we are now. In 2012 I started CDHK to promote the beauty of haiku and later other Japanese poetry forms like tanka and sedoka. We are "running" towards our 6th anniversary and I hope you all will celebrate that we me next October.
Time ... also a prompt we have seen here often e.g. back in January 2017, while we were on our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I made an episode about Time (here)or what do you think of this episode written by our friend Hamish Manaqua Gunn back in February 2016 (here).
Okay ... up we go ... no sentimental journey here (smiles). This weekend meditation I love to challenge you again to create a Troiku with a "fusion"-haiku. And this weekend I love to challenge you to create a "fusion"-haiku with the following haiku themed "time":
I can almost hear you all think ... what have these haiku to do with time? But I think you can relate to the "time"-theme in these haiku.
The goal? Create a "fusion"-haiku from these two haiku and than use your "fusion"-haiku to create a Troiku with (more on Troiku? above in the menu).
Well .... have a great weekend full of inspiration .... awaken your muses and enjoy creating your once in year masterpiece ...
This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday June 17th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until Sunday June 24th at noon (CEST). Enjoy your weekend!
PS. Do you have ideas for our 6th anniversary in October? Than please let me know.
Share your Troiku created from your "fusion"-haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai. Have a great weekend!!
A new day of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to share your Japanese poetry. And this month is already awesome through all those beautiful classical kigo for summer (and winter of course). It's a challenge for me, because I ask you to create haiku and tanka in the classical way, but I am not really into the classical way of writing haiku. I am more of the way of Santoka Taneda and Jane Reichhold, without those rules we all know (and can read in CD Lecture 1 above).
And I hope that our kigo for today will be a great source of inspiration for you too. Today our kigo is swimming (oyogi). It is taken from the summer sub-division Humanity. A nice one I think and one we can all relate to.
There are several sources that talk about "swimming (oyogi)", in the list I have used it's called a classical kigo, but other sources say that it is a modern kigo, so ... what to do ... with this kigo?
I searched for haiku with "swimming" in it and I ran into a nice series of haiku on swimming written by Issa. Let me give you an example of one of his haiku with this kigo:
mizu oyogu nomi no omoi ya kumo no mine the swimming flea thinks to reach them... peaks of clouds
Let us take a look at Jane Reichhold's "Dictionary of Haiku" ... if this is a modern kigo. Well ... it's also a modern kigo for summer and one of Jane's haiku I love to share here with you. It's a nice one with a little bit of humor:
an old woman swimming the August stream the mossy smell
Hm ... not as strong as I had thought, but I had some problems to create a haiku with this kigo. So I came up with a kind of experimental haiku. For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have a nice winter kigo taken from the winter sub-division Humanity: searching for plum blossoms (tanbai).
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 21st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. As you already have read I think I was very busy today with creating a few new posts. I hope you did like our new "chapter" of "Wandering Spirit" and I hope you can appreciate our new feature on renga. I had a lot of spare time today, so I had the opportunity to be working on our Kai.
This month we are exploring the beauty of the classical kigo (seasonwords) as used in Japanese poetry and especially in haiku and tanka. Today I have another kigo taken from the Saijiki division summer. This time I have chosen a kigo from the sub-division Earth: dripping (spring-water)(shitatari). Water is essential for life and with this kigo is sais that water is important in summer, as we all know of course. In this kigo "dripping" means that drops of water are falling.
dripping (spring-water) (shitatari)
I found a nice haiku in which this kigo is used:
shitatari ya futto kuuki o kamu roojin water dripping over moss - the old man bites a bit of air
I love these classical kigo, but to write in the classical way isn't really my "cup of tea" as you all know.
By the way here is the classical kigo of winter, also taken from the sub-division Earth, for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere: icicles (tsurara)
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 20th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, swimming (oyogi), later on. For now have fun!
Share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
