Carpe Diem #1337 Tan Renga Challenge "in the fields"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize, because I miscalculated that our CDHK episode of today (28/12) was the last regular episode of this month. I thought it was already Friday instead of Thursday. So I asked myself "What to do now?" Well ... I think I do an extra CDHK Tan Renga Challenge. So today I have a nice Tan Renga Challenge for you. 

For those who are new let me first explain what a Tan Renga is. A Tan Renga is a short chained poem written by two poets. The first poet gives the "hokku" or "starting verse" and the second adds a second stanza of two lines through associating on the images in the "hokku". A Tan Renga looks similar with the Tanka (5-lined poem), but is written by two poets instead of one poet. (More about Tan Renga you can find above in the menu where you also can find an exclusive CDHK E-book "Chained Together" in which I gathered all the Tan Renga which we created back in May 2016.

For this "extra" episode I have chosen three haiku from which you can start your Tan Renga. Here are the haiku (or "hokku") to use. You may use one, two or all three to create Tan Renga with.

ancient warriors ghosts

mists over the foreign highlands -

waiting for the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

This one is inspired on that beautiful haiku "summer grasses" by Basho.

rice-planting

in the fields

with ripe rice plants for the Gods

the sickle is used . . .

© Takezaki Shisen 

And this last one ... another beauty ...

white poppy

it must have bloomed

from a wintry shower

© Basho

And now it's up to you to create your Tan Renga by adding your two-lined stanza (approximately 7-7 syllables) through associating on the scenes in the given haiku ("hokku"). As I wrote above you may choose one, two or all haiku to use for this Tan Renga Challenge.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new "weekend-meditation" later on.

Carpe Diem #1144 Samurai

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share haiku and tanka (or other Japanese poetry forms). This month we are on a journey through the land of haiku, Japan. Japan the land of the rising sun and a beautiful, very spiritual, country to live I think.

Yesterday I told you all about Edo, ancient Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Edo was build around Edo Castle. let me tell you a little bit more about Edo Castle before I will face the prompt for today, samurai.

Edo Castle (Edo-jō), also known as Chiyoda Castle (Chiyoda-jō), is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is today part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and is located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also functioned as the military capital during the Edo period of Japanese history. After the resignation of the shogun and the Meiji Restoration, it became the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Some moats, walls and ramparts of the castle survive to this day. However, the grounds were more extensive during the Edo period.

Edo Castle as it must have been in the 17th century

Edo Castle was the military capital during the Edo period and the shogun had an army of samurai to rely on. 

Samurai were the military nobility or "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changed to saburai. An early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū(905–914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century.

By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushido. While they numbered less than 10% of Japan's population samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts. 

ancient warriors

between battle and peace

writing haiku 

© Chèvrefeuille

Every samurai had an art next to his military business. That's a real Japanese way of a aesthetic life. A well balanced life ... a hard and a soft side of living and with satisfaction.

Matsuo Basho was the son of a low ranked samurai and for a long time he had the idea to follow in his 'father's footprints'. He even became the page of a high ranked samurai's son, Yoshitada. He (Basho) and Yoshitada became good friends. (Some sources say that they had a relationship). Basho was very sad when his young master and friend died at the age of 22. It was than that Basho said farewell to his idea to become a samurai and started to write haiku to become a well known haiku master.

samurai sword

exposed to the rough weather

washing away the battle 

© Chèvrefeuille

And a last one  inspired on the Boys'  Festival:

striving for success

the young boys play like Samourai

Iris swords in hand

© Chèvrefeuille (from my archive)

I hope I have inspired you to create haiku or tanka. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 8th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Emperor, later on.

Carpe Diem, #11 samurai

Dear visitors, haijin and travelers,

Today another prompt samurai is on. What do I know about samurai? Not much, but of course we have the Internet. So I have search for some information on samurai. 

Samurai (侍^?) were the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany persons in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominal zed to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū(905–914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century.

Credits: Samurai Warrior

By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi (武士), and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushido. While they numbered less than 10% of Japan's population samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts. (Source: wikipedia)

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Matsuo Basho was the son of a low ranked samurai and for a long time he had the idea to follow in his 'fathers footprints'. He even became the page of a high ranked samurai's son, Yoshitada. He (Basho) and Yoshitada became good friends. (Some sources say that they had a relationship). Basho was very sad when his young master and friend died at the age of 22. It was than that Basho said farewell to his idea to become a samurai and started to write haiku to become a wellknown haiku master.

Maybe you can remember our first Carpe Diem special prompt in which I gave a haiku of Basho as an inspiration. That haiku was his first haiku he ever wrote.

Well ... that was the background for this new Carpe Diem prompt samurai let's do some haiku writing.

ancient warriors
between battle and peace
writing haiku 

Every samurai had an art next to his military business. That's a real Japanese way of a aesthetic life. A well balanced life ... a hard and a soft side of living and with satisfaction.

Another one:

samurai sword
exposed to the rough weather
washing away the battle 

That was the prompt for today. Hope you enjoyed the read and ... I hope it will inspire you to write a new haiku (classical or non-classical).

This prompt will stay on 'till October 12 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post the new Carpe Diem special prompt #2 today around 10.00 PM (CET).
 
Here is the new haiku for Carpe Diem special prompt #2

white poppy
it must have bloomed
from a wintry shower

(Basho wrote this haiku in Summer 1683).