Haiga 752 -Toy Haiku 5

Haiku by Arizona Zipper (USA). Artwork by myself.
The Kewpie doll is almost universal. Here in Japan, too, there is a big food company called "Kwepie Mayonnaise". I wonder who created this little adorable figure.
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Yesterday was very cold, and finally, we had snowfall in my town. However, it just pasted and did not remain on the ground. The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to open the curtain and see if the world was cover with snow. No. Not a trace of it. I was disappointed. I prone to act like a kid when it comes to snow.

Haiga 751 -Toy Haiku 4

Haiku by Svetomir Djurbabic. Artwork by myself.

Haiga 750 -Toy Haiku 3

Haiku by Max Verhart (Holland). Artwork by myself.
War related theme seems to inspire artists, for it involves all the dark side of humanity. Interesting thing is that sometimes artists find certain beauty in weapons. Fernand Léger, a French painter of early 20th century, once said that while he was on the battle ground, he was enchanted by the shape of cannons, found them beautiful. The aesthetic is probably a neutral thing, no good and evil aspect in it.

Haiga 749 -Toy Haiku 2

Haiku by H.F. Noyes (USA). Artwork by myself.
Noyes san is a psychiatrist, practiced in NYC, and then moved to Greece for retirement. With all the economic turmoil raging the country, I wonder how he is faring there.
This haiku captures a nice scene. Had I seen it myself, I would have taken photographs.
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Speaking of children haiku, I forgot to mention about a haiku booklet called "A Dozen Tongues 2000", Children in Haiku from Around the World. It was printed in paper version by Red Moon Press. With permission from Jim Kacian, the editor, I converted it into PDF format so you can download it and enjoy on your PC or Mac.

I did illustration for its cover and inside pages. This project marks my first association with haiku. Shortly after the project, I began to make haiga and write my own haiku.

Haiga 748 -Toy Haiku 1

Haiku by Yu Chung (USA). Artwork by myself.
As promised, I am starting "toy" themed haiga series. This haiku by Yu san allows a smooth transition for child theme to that of toy. This haiga is one of the really early ones I made.

Children's interest changes fast, almost like moments to moments,and they cannot be absorbed in something for long time like us grown-ups. This bucket here will likely to be left on beach for a while...
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A copy of "Jelly Bucket" arrived today. My haiga, eight of them, are reproduced in fine color print. I am quite satisfied. More copies come later. I will then send a copy to each of those haijin who contributed tsunami haiku last March.

Haiga 747 Children Haiku 16

Haiku by Alenka Zorman (Slovenia). Artwork by myself.
Here is another exaggerated artwork, like in haiga 740. In this case, I did not receive any question from Alenka san. She understands.
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Last evening, I attended a dinner party of an art show group. The oldest member is a 85-year-old painter, who sat next to me. He wanted to discuss the realism, which we did. We agreed on a point that things would look more real when handled with some deliberate manipulation. Just to depict what you see is often not enough.
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Today is the last day of my haiga show in Osaka. I go to the site in the late afternoon to pack up. Despite the rainy days, the show is having good numbers of visitors.
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I am thinking of posting haiga on the theme of "toy". I think it is the natural move from "children". Haiku about toys are welcome now.

Haiga 746 Children Haiku 15

Haiku by Mirsad Denjo (Bosnia). Artwork by myself.
I am off to Osaka today, to my exhibition site, hold a workshop if people show up, and come back home town to give a short speech for a opening of a art show. It's going to be a busy day.

Haiga 745 Children Tanka 14

Tanka by David Caruso. Artwork by myself.
David san sent me haiku and tanka about children. I thought it might be interesting to pick a tanka for a change, and made this haiga, or tanka-ga.

I have done some artwork for tanka before, namely one of Saigyo. Tanka can convey poetic content with more words than haiku. Often times, tanka is self-sufficient, words can tell everything. To add artwork to such poem is a rather challenging thing.
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One of my haiga ebooks "Narrow Road to the Deep North" has been accepted by a digital art contest. Just a notification email of acceptance for now.
This ebook is in PDF format, it includes 52 haiga, plus English and Japanese text of the Basho's famous travel journal.

Haiga 744 Children haiku 13

Haiku by Rose Hunter. Artwork by myself.
This is a rather challenging haiku to make a haiga from. I try to represent the spiritedness of the boy with new socks.

Haiga 743 Children haiku 12

Haiku by Tzetzka Ilieva. Artwork by myself.
Tzetzka san sent to me a few haiku about chiidren. One of them became haiga.
I am not sure which martial arts this haiku is about. Judo is familiar with me so I drew a boy with a Judo uniform and belt.

My uncle is a Judo man, he led Tenri Highschool Judo team and won national championship once. Tenri, my town, is well known internationally as a mecca of Judo. Athlete like Tadahiro Nomura, four time Olympic gold medalist, is from Tenri. Many children take up Judo lesson here and their objective is always to attain the black belt.

The sense of accomplishment, however small it is, like to tie the belt, is important for children: one thing leads to another, and they grow little by little to be a sound beings.

Haiga 742 Children haiku 11

Haiku by Ruth Yellow (USA). Artwork by myself.
This haiku comes only from women, something we men have no experience at all. Women have more things to write haiku about, I guess.
Challenge in this haiga was to make "unseen" visible.
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First snowfall here. It snowed during the night, which got frozen by morning so I had to melt the ice on the car window with hot water.

Haiga 741 Children haiku 10

Haiku and artwork by myself.
I made this haiga when my haiga reached 1000 several years ago. Since then, I have kept production, but not counting anymore. Probably around 1300 by now. The haiga I am showing on this blog include old ones as well as the new ones.
It was more than 14 years ago when I started making haiga. By now, haiga making has become like a habit, and I think it is a good one.
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My haiga exhibition starts from tomorrow, and I go to Osaka to do preparation this afternoon. All haiga are in A1 size and in a scroll format so I just roll them up and carry them to the site by train.
The flyer of the exhibition is this, but only in Japanese.
On coming Saturday, we will hold a little session where I talk about my haiga and English haiku, and my singer friend will do some singing. Maybe a little kukai, too.

Haiga 740 Children haiku 9

Haiku by Ernest J. Berry (Australia). Artwork by myself.
Exaggeration is one technique in artwork. When I made this haiga, Ernest san protested saying that his daughter was not that chubby. I said it was just a technique. I said I would add a ribbon on her hair so she would look cute. In the end Ernest san was happy.

Haiga 739 Children haiku 8

Haiku by Andre Duhaime (Canada). Artwork by myself.
Andre san is active in haiku scene in French. This haiku here is his English work. Very nice haiku, indeed. The repetition of "hello" is so effective in conveying the inherent nature of the young.
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Only three days absence accumulates many papers on my office desk. I had to stamp my hanko (Instead of signature, we use hanko, a name stamp, for approvals) many times before I was able to check my email, and do browsing. Other than business thing, we use hanko for artworks, too.
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A literary magazine called "Jelly Bucket 2012" has been published. Eight of my haiga are included in it in color. These haiga include haiku written by those affected by 3.11 earthquake and tsunami disaster. I am now waiting for the magazine to arrive.

Haiga 738 Children haiku 7

Haiku by Mehdi laqunanbi (France). Artwork by myself.
I am not sure but I think this haiku by a child named Mehdi won in a haiku contest in France some time ago. Very interesting observation for a child.
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I just returned from 4-hour trip from Tokyo (2hrs and 30mins to Kyoto, and from Kyoto, 1hr and a half, taking Kintetsu Rail and walking to the door step of my house.During my stay in Tokyo, there was one earthquake. It seems the aftershock of 3/11 still remains.