BAMBOO LEAVES RUSTLE (HAIKU)

Bamboo Leaves Rustle

Bamboo leaves rustle


Dancing on warm summer breeze –


Shadows through shoji

WALK IN THE PARK (HAIKU)

Walk In The Park

walking in the park

gold and green beneath my feet -

autumn's golden rain

HAIKU, PART I

HAIKU, PART I

Haiku is a style of Japanese poetry a modification or alteration of the older form, hokku (the opening verse of a coupled verse form referred to as Haikai no renga, in the 19th Century by Masaoka Shiki. A conventional hokku consists of a pattern of 5, 7, and then 5 morae or “phonetic units” which one can relate to syllables in English, but not totally. A traditional hokku also contains a special kigo or “season word” which tends to describe the season of the year in which the renga is set. Hokku often joins two and occasionally three different components into a cohesive sensory thought, with a key grammatical pause or kire, which is, as a rule, located either at the conclusion of either the first set of five morae or the second set of seven morae. These fundamentals of the older hokku are held to be indispensable to haiku as well, although modern writers of more “free-form” haiku may not always include them. Senryu is a related poetic form that tends to put emphasis on humor and human idiosyncrasies and shortcomings instead of seasons.

Masaoka Shiki (1867 – 1902) was a Japanese author, poet, critic and journalist. He is honored as the last of the great masters of Japanese poetry and is often credited being solely responsible for the revitalization of Japanese poetry, particularly the old waka form, then referring to it as tanka and using the term haiku to take the place of “hokku”.

SAMURAI ARMOR

Samurai Armor

A modern ukiyo-e print showing samurai full armor and decorative helmet, by Tokuriki Tomikichiro (1902-1999). The print itself is dated about 1950. Tomikichiro Tokuriki was one of the members of the Sosaku Hanga movement. He was born in Kyoto where he attended the School of Fine Arts and Crafts. After World War II he established his own publishing company, Matsukyo Publishing Company. Tomikichiro Tokuriki was a passionate Sosaku Hanga printmaker. However he earned his living with prints in Shin Hanga style. Today everybody knows him for the Shin Hanga style prints published by Uchida and Unsodo

TANKA FOR TAMAKI

Tanka For Tamaki

Squirrels come for food
Gently touch her hand in thanks
Old friends meet again

A SMALL WISDOM

A Small Wisdom

"To love nature is to become one with the spirit of the way" (doshin),
Which is one step on the way to enlightenment.


From Muso's "Muchu Mondoshu” (lit. "Dialogues In A Dream")

AKI APPROACHES

aki approaches
crickets sing, cicadas cry –
trees begin to blush

-Tokugawa