About the World Haiku Club

Honorary President: James W. Hackett, US
Chairman & Founder: Susumu Takiguchi, UK
Development Advisor: Debra W. Bender, US
Policy Advisor: Mitsugu Abe, JP
Educational & Regional Director: Paul Conneally, UK
Spanish Director: Carlos Fleitas, UY
Japan Directors: Yasuomi Koganei, Takashi Nonin, JP
Academic Director: Daniel Gallimore, UK
Beginners Director: An'ya Petrovic, US
Multimedia Director: Ray Rasmussen, CA
Art Director: Kevin Ryan, UK
and WHC Advisors, worldwide

Founded in 1998, the World Haiku Club has planned, organized and now runs the World Haiku Festival 2000 which is in its finale, the London Mark II Conference of May 2001. The Festival began with the "Prologue to WHF2000" in 1998 with various haiku-related events and in 2000, it ushered various programs "for real", first with the launch of our website and mailing lists on the Internet on 1 January. It culminated in the six-day London - Oxford Conference of August 2000, a resounding success. In May 2001, following the "Epilogue to World Haiku Festival 2000 & Advent of JAPAN 2001", events of the WHC will be held under the banner of the "World Haiku Festival".

With the two main themes, "Challenging Conventions" and "Charting Our Future", the WHC/WHF started something new in the world haiku scene. Participation in the WHC activities is on an individual basis, though the Club is supported by numerous organizations and haiku movements.

We are now pleased to announce the creation of a new world-wide haiku magazine by the World Haiku Club for its members and for those who share our aims and aspirations in all corners of the earth. This quarterly publication is based on a completely new concept in aims, scale and scope and initially issued on the Internet. Called World Haiku Review, this on-line magazine is the organ of WHC and as such, is comprehensive in coverage and large-scale in size, embodying WHC's philosophy.

Contemporary haiku is enjoying unprecedented prosperity and popularity. However, it is also in a state of flux and confusion. World Haiku Review will address all key issues of haiku today in addition to providing an ideal outlet for Members' oeuvre. In so doing, the magazine will carry on the two main themes of the World Haiku Festival. It will re-examine all these issues in depth and give them critical reappraisal. It is therefore not the place for the faint-hearted or prejudiced. It is, however, for all those open-hearted and genuine lovers of haiku. World Haiku Review will treat readers and contributors fundamentally on an individual basis, although they will enjoy benefits from WHC's friendly relationships with numerous haiku and other organisations in the world.

The new magazine is created to stimulate innovations in haiku and haiku-related genres, while exploring lasting values and spirit of its long tradition. On all levels of competence and experience of the member poets, "World Haiku Review" aims at the highest standards and quality.

This "revolutionary" online project to teach the Japanese how to write haiku, especially English-language haiku, is a long-term project arranged by Mitsugu Abe, WHC Policy Advisor and Susumu Takiguchi in association with premier educational publishers in Japan. WHC has set up this cyberspace school in Japan where the "Haiku in English Class" is given to an increasing number of Japanese readers. Programmes are introduced step-by-step for the Japanese participants.

Mission Statement of The World Haiku Club

The World Haiku Club is a non-profit-making organisation, established for the purpose of creating a world-wide network of haiku poets through which to help disseminate and develop haiku, and also to raise standards and quality of the genre. The WHC seeks to establish a synthesis between tradition and innovation ("fueki-ryuko") as well as a balance between different schools of thought. Therefore, WHC is a broad church not siding with any specific organisation nor supporting any single poet. WHC maintains friendly and co-operative relationships with other like-minded organisations and individuals, united with them in the common goal of celebrating and developing the world haiku movement.

The WHC aims at maintaining free, civil, friendly and creative culture in our search for permanent poetic values ("fuga-no-makoto"), where the motto is "the maximum freedom of poetic expression within the framework of minimum restrictions".

However, the WHC, as an organisation solely concerned with the creation and appreciation of haiku and related genres, is non-political, non-religious and non-faction and aims at avoiding all manners of prejudice. Any movements or propaganda activities in these areas are not allowed. Also, abuse of any sort is forbidden, including personal attacks and counter-attacks, blatant self-aggrandisement, unacceptable bad manners and language, or any form of negative haiku politics. WHC operates on levels which transcend national, regional or individual organisation levels.

As we study, re-examine and uphold the proven values of the past, our main focus is on the future, stimulating creative experiments, innovations and search for new horizons in haiku and related genres. In this light, WHC celebrates diversity, promotes individualism and local initiatives and champions new talent, while at the same time honouring universal commonality and achievements of the established poets.

In this spirit, our driving force is manifested in the two mottoes: "Challenging Conventions" and "Charting Our Future."

"The Conference resolved: -

to join in the international haiku movement in order to enhance the quality and standards of haiku and to increase effective communications among haiku poets throughout the world;

to respect and encourage diversity, individuality and regional initiatives;

to co-operate through specific events and activities with other haiku organisations, movements and individuals in order to put these aims into practice." (The WHF2000 Conference Manifesto)

"… to those who respect and identify with Basho’s devotion to the natural world, divorcing haiku (and ourselves) from the reality and myriad wonders of natural Creation is a travesty, and worse. Ecological science has shown that the myopic anthropocentrism which has dominated Western culture for millennia is a dangerously limited view: one which humanity must grow from, if life on Earth is to survive." (J. W. Hackett)

"The present anthology [KNOTS] is without doubt an important step on the way towards a new, different haiku. Its contributions to the renovation of this form lies in the originality of inspiration, strong personalities of both women and men who express the parts of themselves in this book, in their sharp talent provoking a slight loss of balance which shakes every certainty, every indifference, every conformity." (Alain Kervern)

"Remember that the richness of haiku begins within the individual, combining a love of life and a love of literature with the experience of this moment. But it does not end there. Rather, haiku goes on to offer some microcosm of that combination of inner life and momentary experience of others through sharing the poem. And that sharing requires the best work we can do with the words of our own language, and the work of translators to make as much as possible of that poem available even beyond the borders of our own language." (William J. Higginson) See full statement of W. J. Higginson for WHF2000.

"Poetry is like a free bird that knows no boundary, like seeds that are carried along by the wind, that grow, bloom and bear fruit where they find good soil without asking anyone’s permission" (Ion Codrescu)

"We are united in the common goal of celebration and development of international haiku movement" (Declaration by the Global Haiku Festival and the World Haiku Festival 2000)

"Some devoted poets of the world have yearned for haiku, this short poem that is at the forefront of world poetry and offers the highest level of completeness. Haiku provides a means for these poets to break free of this situation. The only way we can return haiku or poetry to the common people is by responding to the wishes of these poets." (the Matsuyama Declaration)

"A way forward, which is our challenge in this new century, is to try and expand our imagination and open our hearts. That way, we can reach out to the sense and sensibility of haiku poets around the world. What is good in the Japanese haiku tradition can thus be combined with the new poetic values being generated in other haiku nations." (Susumu Takiguchi)

The World Haiku Club, The WHF2000 London-Oxford Conference Manifesto, 25-30 August 2000

James W. Hackett, The Twaddle of An Oxonian - Haiku Poems & Essays, 2000, Foreword

Alain Kervern, KNOTS - The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry, 1999, pp. 216-217

William J. Higginson, Personal Message to the World Haiku Festival 2000 London-Oxford Conference, 25-30 August 2000.

Ion Codrescu, Rules of Form and Freedom of Spirit in Haiku, a key-note speech at the World Haiku Festival 2000

The Matsuyama Declaration, the Matsuyama Declaration, 1999, p. 88

The Global Haiku Festival & the World Haiku Festival 2000, the GHF, Decatur, Illinois, April 2000

Susumu Takiguchi, The Twaddle of An Oxonian - Haiku Poems & Essays, 2000, p. 146