Carpe Diem #1658 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (5) Wintry gusts

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new TRC episode here at CDHK, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. This month we are creating Tan Renga with eachother. Tan Renga looks similar with Tanka, but instead of being written by one poet it's written by two poets.

A Tan Renga has two stanza. The first stanza is 3-lined ("hokku") and the second stanza is 2-lined ("ageku"). To create the second stanza you have to associate on images and scenes in the first stanza. Together the both stanza are called Tan Renga or Short Chained Verse.

Today I have a nice haiku for you to work with. The haiku for today is written by a not so renown haiku poet, Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927). Let me tell you first a little bit about him and after that I will give you the haiku to work with.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927)

Akutagawa Ryunosuke

A Japanese writer active in Taisho period Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story", and is noted for his superb style and finely detailed stories that explore the darker side of human nature.
... Akutagawa published his first short story Rashōmon the following year in the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku ("Imperial Literature"), while still a student. The story, based on a fantasy from late Heian period Japan, with a sharp twist of psychological drama, was largely unnoticed by the literary world, except by noted author Natsume Sōseki.
It was also at this time that he started writing haiku under the haigo (or pen-name) Gaki, Hungry Ghost. (Source)

Sardines

Here is the haiku to work with:

kogarashi ya mezashi ni nokoru umi-no iro

Wintry gusts:
on the sardine still lingers
the ocean's color.

© Akutagawa Ryunosuke a.k.a. Gaki (Tr.: Ueda)

A wonderful haiku as I may say so. I however couldn't come up with a good 2nd stanza to complete the Tan Renga, but maybe you are more inspired.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 13th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new TRC later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (11) the dim glow of a campfire

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

After an easy going weekend I have a new TRC for you. Today I have chosen another episode of our Hineri feature. So today I will give you the 2nd stanza of approximately 14 syllables spread over two lines. This time I don't have chosen a quote by a haiku poet, but by a young Japanese novelist.

First I will give you the quote to work with and than some background on this young Japanese novelist and I will end this episode with the two lined stanza I created inspired on the quote.

[...] "He felt so lost, he said later, that the familiar studio felt like a haunted valley deep in the mountains, with the smell of rotting leaves, the spray of a waterfall, the sour fumes of fruit stashed away by a monkey; even the dim glow of the master's oil lamp on its tripod looked to him like misty moonlight in the hills."[...]

© Akutagawa Ryūnosuke

Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927)

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, pseudonym Chōkōdō Shujin or Gaki, (born March 1, 1892, Tokyo, Japan—died July 24, 1927, Tokyo), prolific Japanese writer known especially for his stories based on events in the Japanese past and for his stylistic virtuosity.
As a boy Akutagawa was sickly and hypersensitive, but he excelled at school and was a voracious reader. He began his literary career while attending Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo), where he studied English literature from 1913 to 1916.
The publication in 1915 of his short story “Rashōmon” led to his introduction to Natsume Sōseki, the outstanding Japanese novelist of the day. With Sōseki’s encouragement he began to write a series of stories derived largely from 12th- and 13th-century collections of Japanese tales but retold in the light of modern psychology and in a highly individual style. He ranged wide in his choice of material, drawing inspiration from such disparate sources as China, Japan’s 16th-century Christian community in Nagasaki, and European contacts with 19th-century Japan. Many of his stories have a feverish intensity that is well-suited to their often macabre themes.
In 1922 he turned toward autobiographical fiction, but Akutagawa’s stories of modern life lack the exotic and sometimes lurid glow of the older tales, perhaps accounting for their comparative unpopularity. His last important work, “Kappa” (1927), although a satiric fable about elflike creatures (kappa), is written in the mirthless vein of his last period and reflects his depressed state at the time. His suicide came as a shock to the literary world.
Akutagawa is one of the most widely translated of all Japanese writers, and a number of his stories have been made into films. The film classic Rashomon (1950), directed by Kurosawa Akira, is based on a combination of Akutagawa’s story by that title and another story of his, “Yabu no naka” (1921; “In a Grove”).

Rashomon (movie by Akira Kurosawa)

I wrote the two lined stanza to work with inspired on the above quote of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927)

Haunted valley deep in the mountains
The dim glow of a campfire

© Chèvrefeuille

I think this 2nd stanza will inspire you to create the first stanza of the Tan Renga. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on today.