Haiku Travelogue (3)

 

Haiku Travelogue

 “80 years after World War II” (3)

 by Hidenori Hiruta

 

A Narrow Road to Peace

 

Website “Akita International Haiku Network”

UNESCO School’s Cultural Activity

 

 

Why is Thorfinn Tait at UNESCO School?

 

Thorfinn Tait was born and raised in the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland, UK. He majored in English language at University of Edinburgh, where he learned a lot about linguistics and the English language, and discovered his love for Japanese. During his third year at university, he heard about the JET Programme, and decided it was for him.

His interest in Japan began with Zelda and Final Fantasy, and then expanded into studying kanji and learning how to speak the language. So, in July 2000 he found himself on a plane to Tokyo, and shortly thereafter to Akita in rural northeastern Japan.

And he has been here ever since. Along the way he met his wife, became a full time English teacher at Meioh High School, a UNESCO Associated School, bought a house, and had a family.　

 

2009

 

Set up the website “Akita International Haiku Network”

Established the Voluntary Group

“Akita International Haiku / Senryu / Tanka Network”

 

Purposes

 

To help people around the world understand Japanese thoughts and actions correctly through haiku, senryu, and tanka, deepen mutual understanding, translate members’ own works into English, and share them with people around the world.

To disseminate English haiku, English senryu, and English tanka to the world via the Internet, and further foster exchanges and friendships with people around the world.

 

Yearly News Letter

 

 

Dr. Mineo Nakajima

First Chairperson and President

 Akita International University

 

Dr. Mineo Nakajima, the First Chairperson and President of Akita International University, was delighted with the birth of a network aimed at promoting the exchange of haiku, senryu, and tanka, short forms of literature and art that are highly regarded internationally, in Akita, a land blessed with nature and scenery, and wrote a congratulatory message on the publication of the annual newsletter, "Akita, the Land of Poetry." He also gladly accepted the role of advisor to the network. He pleasantly contributed a strip of paper with Basho’s haiku and wrote the title for this annual newsletter too.

Dr. Nakajima's father was a famous haiku poet in Nagano Prefecture, and when he was a child, haiku gatherings were often held at his home. During his junior high school days, he occasionally wrote haiku.

 

猿沢の灯の涼しさを宿にいて

sarusawa no  hi no suzushisa o  yad oni ite

 

the coolness

of Sarusawa Pond's lights

at the inn

 

This haiku was written by Dr. Nakajima, when he came to Sarusawa Pond, Nara, on his junior high school trip.

Dr. Nakajima studied French in high school, was influenced by Takeo Kuwabara's "The Second Art: Contemporary Haiku," and in his youth became absorbed in novels by Stendhal, such as De l'amour (English: On Love), and drifted away from haiku.

 

Note: Takeo Kuwabara's "The Second Art: Contemporary Haiku"

This essay in 1946 argues that haiku should be distinguished from other arts as a "second art" because the form cannot express modern life.

 

However, in later years, haiku again became a familiar part of Dr. Nakajima’s life. He had a discussion about haiku with haiku poet Miyasaka Shizuo (Special Advisor of the Modern Haiku Association) in Nagano Prefecture on NHK Educational TV.  Also, in June, 2008, when former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, was on his "Exploring the Narrow Road to the Deep North," Dr. Nakajima guided him to Kanman-ji Temple in Kisakata, where he briefly discussed haiku in front of a monument bearing Basho's haiku "Kisakata ya ame ni seishi ga nebu no hana." 

 

 

Greeting

 

KONO Minoru

 

Chief Director 

 Akita International Haiku / Senryu / Tanka Network

Professor Emeritus, Akita University

 

We would like to help connect Akita with the world through the dissemination and reception of short poems in both Japanese and English.

Short poetry is a literary art that is rooted in the Japanese nature, but at the same time it has a universal quality that allows it to express any nature or culture in the world, so we hope to expand exchanges with poets from all over the world.

We hope that this network can help to foster people who can disseminate

our country's culture to the world through short poems, by linking Japanese language education with English language education in elementary, junior high, and high schools.

 

 

Congratulations

 

Dr. Akito Arima

President

 HAIKU INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION

 

We are delighted and would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations on the establishment of the Akita International Haiku Network in Akita, the land visited by Matsuo Basho in 1689 during his travelogue, "The Narrow Road to the Deep North."

I understand that your network's motto and the aims of our association are exactly the same. Our association has been active for the past 20 years with the aims of "helping people around the world correctly understand Japanese thoughts and actions through haiku, deepening mutual understanding through haiku, and translating the haiku we write into English and sharing them with people around the world."

I would like to offer my congratulations and hope that your network will continue to disseminate English Haiku to the world, and that communication and friendship with people from all over the world will become even more active.

 

2010

 

Akita Prefecture & the Primorsky Region Government

Sign Comprehensive Friendship Agreement

 

 

Akita International Posture

 

Hiroya Ichikawa

Professor of Akita International University

 

Professor Hiroya Ichikawa of Akita International University kindly contributed a manuscript to our annual newsletter, "Akita, the Land of Poetry."

Here is an English translation of part of it.

 

　 I was intrigued by this bold attempt to disseminate Japanese poetry culture from Akita to the international community. It seems that Akita international posture, which seeks to open itself to the world, dates back to ancient times.

　The ancient Tohoku region was the end point of the Sea of ​​Japan circular trade route, and the historical fact of exchange between Akita and the Balhae Kingdom is evidence of this. The Balhae (698-926) was a country established by the remnants of Goguryeo and the Mohe people, and the main window of exchange between them was Dewa, centered around Akita Castle. The birth of this network gives us a real sense that Akita international posture has been maintained to this day. (The End)

 

To the delight of our network, in 2010 Akita Prefecture concluded a comprehensive friendship agreement with the administrative government of Primorsky Krai, Russia, which is located where the former Bohai Kingdom was. Returning to the origins of Akita's international posture, which seeks to open a window to the world, we have renewed our determination to spread the culture of Japanese poetry throughout the world.

 

2011

 

The Introduction of Haiku in Vladivostok

 

Hidenori Hiruta was dispatched to Vladivostok as part of a cultural exchange program based on the Comprehensive Friendship Agreement between Akita Prefecture and the Primorsky Krai government.

His haiku travelogue was featured in the HIA's official publication, "HI," in 2012 as below.

 

Haiku Talk at Eastern School

 

Khokina Marina, who was a teacher of Japanese language there, guided Hidenori to the school. He gave haiku talk to the children and pupils who studied Japanese as their selective subject.

 

Haiku Workshop

at Far Eastern Federal University School of Regional and International Studies

 

Aida Suleymenova, associate professor of FEFU and President of the Yosano Akiko Memorial Literature Society, and Ilya Dyakov, a FEFU student interpreter, showed Hidenori around FEFU School.

 

Talk on ‘Haiku and Tea Ceremony’

at Tea Club Gathering of Japan Center

 

2012

 

Japan-Russia Haiku Contest

 

Hiruta gave four-day workshops of 90 minutes on writing haiku, short poems, at the FEFU School of Regional and International Studies. Students learned to write haiku through these workshops.

The article on the workshops at Far Eastern Federal University has appeared in the homepage of Far Eastern Federal University.

It says as follows.

The workshops were conducted by “Haydzin” Hiruta Hidenori — a poet who writes haiku specially arrived to Vladivostok. Students, studying the Japanese language, listened with interest to the explanations of how to write haiku in various languages — Japanese, English and Russian, and then created their own poems.

Mr. Hiruta arrived from Akita Prefecture, which has friendly relations with Primorsky Region. Next year there will be the 20-th Anniversary of sister-relationships between Akita and Vladivostok. Universities in these cities have students and teachers exchange agreements, so Far Eastern Federal University students may participate in the Haiku contest in Russian as well as in Japanese and English.

 

Alexander Dolin, Professor of Japanese Literature and Civilization Studies, and Ibuki Aiba, Teacher of Japanese Language Program at Akita International University, kindly made a haiku contest poster as below.

 

 

Akita International Haiku Association

 

On July 1, Akita International Haiku Association was established with Dr. Mineo Nakajima, Chairperson and President of Akita International University, as Honorary President and with leading figures in the Akita haiku world, such as those from the Akita Haiku Forum, the Akita Prefecture Branch of the Haijin Association, and the Akita Prefecture Contemporary Haiku Association as advisors or consultants.

   The purpose of its establishment is to promote the haiku world in Akita Prefecture and to contribute to the dissemination and exchange of haiku literature across borders and language barriers.

President Jin Wada, who is HIA member, says, “Thanks to the encouragement of many people, we have been able to establish the Akita

International Haiku Association, the first of its kind in the nation at the prefectural level.”  He also says, “Haiku is said to be the shortest form of poetry in the world. However, its murmur-like fragmented nature allows it to capture even the vastness of the universe. This profound and mysterious form of poetry has the potential to spread worldwide.” 

Japan-Russia Haku Gathering

 

 On September 22, a lot of Akita people gathered to attend the prize-presenting ceremony of Japan-Russia Haiku Contest, to listen to the report and talks on haiku, and poetry recitation. They also enjoyed haiku walk.

That evening, the welcome and exchange party was held with many Akita people from various fields, such as Akita Prefectural Government, Akita Municipal Office, Akita International Association, Akita International University, Akita University, ‘National Institute of Technology, Akita  College’, the Akita Haiku Forum, the Akita Prefecture Branch of the Haijin Association, the Akita Prefecture Contemporary Haiku Association, ‘Akita International Haiku / Senryu /Tanka Network’, Akita Branch of the haiku group Ten'I (Providence), Akita Russian Language Association, and Akita Japan-Russia Association. They welcomed a prize-winning poet and a scholar of literature of FEFU from Vladivostok as well as a judge from Tokyo. 

At the Award Ceremony, ‘International Haiku Contribution Award’ was presented to Dr. Mineo Nakajima, who helped and encouraged haiku poets in Akita to more actively and harder show Akita international posture in their Network or Association.

 

 

Hidenori Hiruta

Akita International Haiku network

蛭田　秀法

秋田国際俳句ネットワーク