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Winners of the Three Main Competitions of the World Haiku Festival 2000 THE WORLD HAIKU CLUB, 16 January 2001 "Congratulations!" As part of our New Year’s celebrations in progress during the whole of January, the World Haiku Club (WHC) is pleased to announce formally the final results of the three main competitions of the World Haiku Festival 2000: The World Haiku Poems Competition, The World Haiku Essays Competition and The World Haiku Achievements Competition. On behalf of WHC and of all the organisations and individuals who have supported WHF2000, I wish to extend our heart-felt congratulations to the winners. We would also like to salute all those who have enthusiastically taken part in the Competitions from all parts of the world and also to those who have been nominated and recommended for the Competitions on the strength of their own talents and efforts. The winning haiku poems were chosen anonymously by a panel of 14 judges out of 61 short-listed works. In selecting winners of the other two Competitions, the organisers have taken into consideration how much each nomination reflected the aims, the overall motto, two main themes, philosophy, spirit and other requirements of the WHF2000 in addition to the intrinsic merits it has demonstrated. Well-established reputation or high positions in haiku hierarchy have not been the main criterion. The overall motto of the WHF2000 is "World haiku for the 21st century - binding people’s minds and hearts together through haiku: the wild flowers of poesy". The two main themes are "Challenging Conventions" and "Charting Our Future". Priority was given to those works and achievements which are new, critical, thought-provoking, challenging and innovative. Young generations and relatively unknown talents and works have been given special attention. Prizes and official letter of congratulations will be sent to the winners during the New Year’s celebrations. Winners, will you please let me have your postal address as soon as possible (they were lost with our computer crash). These results will also be announced on WHC website. Yours sincerely,
Susumu Takiguchi
The World Haiku Poems Competition: Name and Country of Residence
spring sunbeam
summer solstice
moss-hung trees
Seven Honourable Mentions
spring evening
fetching firewood
catching snowflakes
autumn evening
no attachments
Air-raid alarm
winter leaf
The World Haiku Essays Competition
"Beyond The Haiku Moment: Basho, Buson, and Modern Haiku Myths", Modern Haiku, Vol. XXXI, No. 1 Winter-Spring, 2000 As one of the most important papers on haiku in recent years, Professor Shirane’s essay has created a critical watershed for North American haiku (and by extension haiku in English in general and beyond) to reassess itself and thus has given the world haiku community an opportunity to review haiku from different and wider perspectives. The reaction in the West, which is widespread, has so far been rather defensive, but the true impact and full implications of this essay will increasingly be felt for a long time to come. The WHF2000 London - Oxford Conference 25 - 30 August 2000 had a special session in honour of Professor Shirane’s essay by presenting five special papers which were sequels to it. Professor Shirane was unable to come to the Conference due to another academic conference he had to attend at the time.
"From 5-7-5 To 8-8-8: An Investigation Of Japanese Haiku Metrics And Implications For English Haiku", published in Language Issues: Journal of the Foreign Language Education Center, March 2000, No. 1, Prefectural University of Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan By this mammoth study, the authors have brought the metrics of haiku in English into the central arena of academic enquiry. The question of form in haiku has been a concern largely among practitioners of haiku rather than scholars and more academic examination of this subject is needed. This paper is expected to have the effect of stimulating such academic debate, adding to the status of haiku as a form of literature. Based on the recent trend in Japanese poetic theory applied to haiku in terms of 3 lines of 8 beats each, the 5-7-5 - on are shown in a new light both in theory and practice. The paper investigates the implications of this for English haiku form and proposes that both Japanese haiku and English free haiku may fit into a similar metrical form. The authors hope that this type of metrical analysis may "help clear up some misconceptions regarding the Japanese haiku in the West, while providing an impetus to bridge the widening gap between the Japanese and world haiku movements.", which is exactly one of the aims of the World Haiku Club
Based on his deep understanding of haiku and also on his long and illustrious career as an international haijin, Mr. Codrescu responds in this elegantly-written essay to the challenging question, "Is Haiku Poetry?" and asserts with conviction that haiku is indeed poetry as are other types of lyrical verses. His analysis, centred around the major question of the dichotomy of form and spirit in haiku aesthetics, is comprehensive and balanced. He paints an optimistic picture of the future of haiku as a universally applicable poetic form, with a memorable phrase, "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."
Honorable Mentions
Metonymy and Synecdoche in Haiku: Towards a Poetics of the Fragment
Style and Mood in French Haikus
On a M” bius Strip’s Rims
Zen Interpretations of Haiku: A Reappraisal
Haiku In Education: A Case Study in Croatia - Haiku as therapy for war trauma, and as a means of encouraging fee thinking in a new democracy
Staying With The Moment - Our Western Haiku Tradition The World Haiku Achievements Competition
Outstanding contribution to the appreciation, teaching and dissemination of haiku outside Japan and excellent leadership in the scholarship and true understanding of the form through publication, lectures, initiatives on the Internet, as well as playing a key role in the development of international haiku movement, giving inspiration to the countless number of aspiring haiku poets not only in America but across the world and setting high standards against which the quality of haiku poems could be determined.
An ambitious and worthy publication project which has put the Balkans firmly on the world map of haiku, demonstrating the importance of regional initiatives for creating new style, subject matter and poetic values in modern haiku and pointing to new possibilities in areas which have not been major haiku countries in the world since the World War II. The publication, in the form of a single book, has proved to show the incredible cultural and literary development which has made the meeting of minds through haiku possible among the peoples of notorious political and ethnic complexity.
Mr. Lanoue’s academic research into Kobayashi Issa has resulted in an enormous translation project of Issa’s poems into English. The project has coincided with the progress of the WHF2000 and Mr. Lanoue has been putting up the translation on his website as he goes along. He has taken a "participatory" approach, involving other scholars and haiku poets alike in this project and by taking their comments and criticism into account he has improved his translation, a truly new way of democratic research activity in the Internet age.
Honorable Mentions
Mr. Abe has successfully spread one of the most enjoyable new ways of creating and appreciating haiku - photo-haiku - on the Internet whereby participants put up their photo images of nature and/or human subject matter while haiku poets compose poems inspired by these images. Mr. Abe’s photo-haiku website has now become one of the most popular sites and enjoyed by many haiku lovers across the world. He has also brought these photo-haiku achievements to be exhibited at the WHF2000 Achievements Exhibitions both in London in August 2000 and in Japan in October and November 2000
This quality international haiku magazine has been the source of inspiration and delight for so many international haiku poets. It has shown how individuals and regions in all parts of the world can share and communicate on matters of haiku in friendly and creative ways. Many important activities have taken place around Albatross, most notably the two successful international haiku conferences in Romania, which have become a model for subsequent conferences, including the World Haiku Festival 2000
JAL’s long contribution in the area of children’s haiku is legendary. JAL sponsored the now famous world haiku contest in 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics. This led in 1990 to the establishment of the bi-annual World Children’s Haiku Contest, which has helped spread haiku among young people around the world. The results have been published as charming anthologies with illustrations by children themselves. The educational merit and cultural impact of JAL’s efforts world-wide are incalculable
There could be no haiku poet in the world who does not know Mrs. Kato. Mainly through her excellent international haiku journal, "KO", she has not only disseminated Japanese haiku to the rest of the world but also she has introduced overseas haiku into Japan. An international haiku leader as well as an accomplished haijin in Japan , Mrs. Kato has made a major contribution in promoting friendship between the Japanese haiku poets and those abroad.
Mr. Lanoue’s academic research into Kobayashi Issa has resulted in an enormous translation project of Issa’s poems into English. The project has coincided with the progress of the WHF2000 and Mr. Lanoue has been putting up the translation on his website as he goes along. He has taken a "participatory" approach, involving other scholars and haiku poets alike in this project and by taking their comments and criticism into account he has improved his translation, a truly new way of democratic research activity in the Internet age.
As the oldest and largest Internet haiku and tanka mailing lists, Shiki Salon has achieved pioneering work by disseminating this Japanese genre across the world through cyberspace, ushering in a new age for haiku writing and studies. The Salon has produced many excellent haiku poets and given the joy of haiku to hundreds of beginners. It has also stimulated many people to set up their own haiku websites of various kinds, expanding the haiku web even further afield. Based in Matsuyama, the Salon’s contribution to the true understanding of Japanese culture in the rest of the world is also highly commended. Shiki Salon has forged a friendly and co-operative relationship with WHC in common goals of celebrating and developing world haiku
Little needs to be said in praise of this exceptional individual and his invaluable contribution to the dissemination and understanding of haiku through his excellent editorship of The Haiku Anthology - Haiku and Senryu in English, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, Expanded Edition, 1999. The Anthology is now a standard reading, excellent textbook and a Haiku bible. Note: Investigation is under way to determine if there has been a breach of the requirements and spirit of the World Haiku Festival 2000 and in case of a serious breach prizes could be rescinded |