Announcement
Designation of May 2001 as
the Month of Celebrations for WHC
The World Haiku Club is pleased to announce the designation of May as the "Month of Celebrations for WHC". The main reason for this designation is that with the finale of the World Haiku Festival 2000 to take place during May, this five-year marathon project will come to an official end and the torch will be passed to the next generation of WHC development with new structure, scope and vastly strengthened manpower and membership. After May, the banner will become simply "World Haiku Festival" indefinitely, under which various haiku-related events and activities will be encouraged across the world on a continuous basis. In many ways, the month of May will become a turning point for WHC.
 Various exciting plans are lined up for the May celebrations. First and foremost, the aforementioned finale will be held under the title of "Epilogue to the World Haiku Festival 2000 & Advent of JAPAN 2001". This is a three-day event to take place from Saturday 19 to Monday 21 May in London and, on the Internet, world-wide. In the virtual (electronic) world, following a hugely successful world-wide New Year's Eve & New Year's Day Double Kukai, Photo-Haiku and Haibun Contest, another world-wide Internet kukai of a similar kind is planned. The details will be announced nearer the time.
In the real (physical) world, a three-day event is planned to be held in London. On 19 and 20 May, WHC Ginko & Kukai will take place to coincide with the grand "Matsuri in the Park", an extravaganza of all aspects of Japanese culture in Hyde Park, which will form a spectacular start of JAPAN 2001, a year-long festival of Japanese arts and culture, sponsored by the Japanese and British Governments. This will mark the start of WHC's various activities under the JAPAN 2001 programme, which starts today and will continue until March 2002.
On Monday 21 May, a one-day conference will take place to commemorate the centenary of the death of Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902). This is according to Japanese reckoning. It is hoped that WHC will continue to celebrate Shiki's achievement during 2002 which will be the one hundred anniversary of his death according to Western reckoning. Shiki is an important figure in modern haiku. We wish to encourage deeper and wider study of his life, theory and work in the world's context as well as cautioning against some signs of idolatry of this father of modern haiku in the same way as Basho has come to be idolised. We have invited a leading Japanese specialist of Shiki studies to be the main speaker. He is Professor Katsushi Wada of Osaka Seikei Women's College. He will be giving a key-note speech on Shiki's achievements in the reform and modernisation of haiku and also a public lecture in the evening reception. (For details, see the pasted/attached press release)
If you want to know more about the three-day London event, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. It is by invitation only and, except for official guests, will be on the first-come-first-served basis. So, those who wish to attend, please let me know by e-mail as soon as possible at
Another exciting development to celebrate the month of May is the launch of our new magazine. This is a comprehensive world-wide online quarterly and is called "World Haiku Review". We are working flat out to meet the target of getting it up and running during the mid May week. Excellent works in various fields of WHC activities have already been submitted and we are having a difficult job of choosing from among quality submissions the final works to be published in this new magazine. The selection is leaned heavily on the stringent side in order to maintain high standards and quality. World Haiku Reviews is a new magazine based on a new concept and on a new world-wide basis. Being a gigantic project, the magazine will be phased in in four stages. The first issue coming out soon is a prototype issue but we wish to make it as accomplished as we have time to make. After that World Haiku Review will proceed in "evolutionary" growth and new features will be phased in. It has an enormous potential and members and guests of WHC as well as general readers will have an exciting and creative experience. It will be a "living" magazine, which will have an organic growth with the members and readers alike participating in this creative process. It will also be a haiku "dojo" (a place to learn the way of haiku) where aspiring haiku poets are encouraged to test their skills and poetic expression.
Also, in May the new mailing lists announced earlier will take effect and start their new life. The long-waited World Haiku Anthology and Essay Collection from the World Haiku Festival 2000 and its extended events will be compiled during May (we are still accepting "quality" works and works on specific themes) and it is hoped that it will be finally published in the following month.
WHC will also start in May a "revolutionary" and "audacious" project: to "teach the Japanese how to write haiku!". This is a long-term project arranged by Mitty Abe, our Multimedia Director and myself in association with premier educational publishers in Japan. We have set up a cyberspace school in Japan where "Haiku in English Class" is given to an increasing number of Japanese haiku poets who wish to write haiku in English. A great potential lies in this project and Mitty and I are introducing programmes step by step for the Japanese people. What an amazing thing to happen -- what a turning of the table this is -- teaching the Japanese what they have created! What modesty these Japanese "pupils" are displaying!
I wish to encourage you to organise something in your area to join in this celebration, be it a small haiku meeting or a slightly larger activity. You can combine your local event with a similar one to be organised in different locations in the world but connected by WHC network. If you hit on some brilliant idea of such combined local events, please let our Education & Regional Director, Paul Conneally, know about it at:
Apart from anything else, May is a beautiful and pleasant month. From Sunday 6 May, it will be summer according to Japanese haiku calendar. I hope you will enjoy birds' songs and blossoming flowers and create good haiku.
sorrow may turn to joy
melancholy may blossom into smiles
in the brilliant month of May (Ryuseki)
Kengin,
Susumu
Susumu Takiguchi (Mr)
Chairman
The World Haiku Club
(World Haiku Festival 2000)
Managing Editor
World Haiku Review
http://www.come.to/worldhaiku/
http://www.netpro.ne.jp/~aminet/
[Pasted ]
WORLD HAIKU FESTIVAL
THE WORLD HAIKU CLUB: Leys Farm, Rousham, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX25 4RA England Tel: +44 (0) 1869 - 340261 Fax: +44 (0) 1869 - 340619 E-mail:
Central Website: http://www.come.to/worldhaiku/
1 May 2001
PRESS RELEASE
Epilogue to World Haiku Festival 2000 & Advent of JAPAN 2001
Sat 19, Sun 20 & Mon 21 May 2001: LONDON & WORLD-WIDE (Internet)
The World Haiku Club (WHC) is pleased to announce our three-day major haiku event to be held in London and on the Internet this month. "Epilogue to World Haiku Festival 2000 & Advent of JAPAN 2001" marks the finale of this five-year marathon haiku project, which has made history in the development of haiku on the world stage. The event also marks the start of WHC's various activities under the banner of JAPAN 2001, a year-long celebration and festival of Japanese arts and culture, sponsored by the Japanese and British Governments. After May, World Haiku Festival 2000 will become simply "World Haiku Festival" and will be continued as a permanent fixture of WHC world-wide.
Under WHF2000, numerous haiku and haiku-related events have taken place and become a source of joy, educational initiatives and poetic inspiration, with the highlight being last August's historical six-day London-Oxford Conference. Its developments in cyberspace with a quality website, active mailing lists, Internet kukai and competitions have been phenomenal. WHC has become a virtual and real world-wide network of haiku poets and organisations in all corners of this planet.
Epilogue to World Haiku Festival 2000 & Advent of JAPAN 2001
Sat 19 and Sun 20 May 2001 (Ginko=haiku walk in Hyde Park, London and its environs & kukai=haiku meeting; also WHC's 48-hour simultaneous world-wide Internet Kukai, see WHC website for details)
Open to the public. No participation fees. The WHC world-wide Internet Kukai: open for 48 hours.
For two days, JAPAN2001's "Matsuri - Japan in the Park" will be performed from 10 am to 8 pm on the North East side of Hyde Park. So, start your ginko on your own or with your friends any time from 9 am onwards in and around Hyde Park (e.g. London streets, St. James's Park or Kensington Gardens). It is recommended to write haiku about the Matsuri as well.
We then assemble at 12.00 noon at the New World Chinese restaurant and have our kukai over lunch (on a "go Dutch" basis): 1 Gerrard Place, London W1V, Tel: 020 7434 2508/0677/0396.
After lunch, we go back to the Matsuri in Hyde Park, do more ginko and enjoy the performances of the Matsuri.
From 6 pm onwards, people can "drop in" at the nearby Hotel Inter-Continental (Ground floor: Observatory and/or Le Souffl, Bar) where we continue our kukai over a drink or a light meal on a "go Dutch" basis.
Send your haiku poems by Friday 25 May to the Head Office of the World Haiku Club (see letterhead).
Monday 21 May 2001 (One-day London Conference: "Reappraising Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)
By invitation only. No participation fees. Except for the official guests, admittance will be on the first-come-first-served basis.
The year 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Masaoka Shiki (according to Japanese calculations), providing an apt opportunity to study and reassess this father of modern haiku. The Conference aims at exercising critical reappraisal in the area of haiku which Shiki reformed and modernised in order to elevate it to the status of "literature", a new notion imported from the West during the Meiji era. As haiku has now spread across the world, the Conference will look at Shiki's achievements from the perspective of world literary history.
Shiki was one of the most influential figures in modern Japanese literature and certainly one of the most prolific writers of his time. His disease, however, crippled him and cut short his life when he was only 35 years old.
Venue: SOAS, University of London, Brunei Building Room B102, 10 Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H, nearest tube: Russell Square
Registration: 9.00 am
Morning session: 9.30 am - 12.00 pm
Afternoon session: 14.00 pm - 17.00 pm
Evening Reception: 18.30 pm - 20.30 pm
Papers will cover various aspects of Shiki, including his haiku modernisation and reform, critique on his own haiku poems, his influence on his followers and some personal views about him. The main speaker will be Professor Katsushi Wada, a leading scholar on Shiki, of Osaka Seikei Women's College, Japan, who will make a special visit to this Conference on a Japan Foundation's scholarship.
Asked about the significance of the three-day London event, Mr. Susumu Takiguchi, Chairman of The World Haiku Club and the organiser of the event, commented, ".. It is significant, because it will be the bridge between the World Haiku Festival 2000, which is a one-off project, and the lasting values and continuous activities which the World Haiku Club has come to represent on the long path of world haiku movement. It will also be a bridge between Japanese and non-Japanese haiku poets."
For further information and/or invitation, please contact Head Office, The World Haiku Club (see letterhead)
THE WORLD HAIKU CLUB: Honorary President, James W. Hackett; Chairman, Susumu Takiguchi
World Haiku Festival: Patrons, His Excellency Mr. Sadayuki Hayashi, Japanese Ambassador; Sir Peter Parker, KBE LVO
Supporting Organisations: Poetry Society, Global Haiku Festival, Haiku Society of America, Modern Haiku Association of Japan, Haiku North America, Oxford Brookes University, National Poetry Day, Ehime-Ken Matsuyama Declaration, Gunma Prefectural Museum of Literature, Constantza Haiku Society-Romania, Association of Croatian Haiku Poets, Obayashi Seisakusho, Japan Festival Education Trust, Barbican Centre, British Library, SOAS, Donnington Grove Society, Embassy of Japan, BBC,
Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Japan Foundation, Japan Society, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
01/05/01
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