Haiga 464 Hashimoto Takako haiku

Haiku by Hashimoto, Takako. Artwork by myself.

Takako(1899~1963) was a well known woman haijin in Japan. Originally an painter, she took up haiku when she met Takahama, Kyoshi of Hototogisu haiku group. She also learned haiku under Yamaguchi, Seishi, and Mizuhara, Shuoshi. Since 1944, she lived near Nara city, which is not far from my hometown.

Haiga 463 Santoka haiku

Haiku by Taneda Santoka. Artwork by myself.

Haiga 462 Alexis Rotella haiku

Haiku by Alexis Rotella. Artwork by myself.

We had the first snow the day before yesterday here in Nara. Nara is surrounded by mountains so it gets pretty cold but only a little snow falls. I heard there was heavy blizzard in north east coast of US. I hope all the haijin I know living in that area are doing ok.

Haiga 461 haiu by Marlene Mountain

Haiku by Marlene Mountain (USA), artwork by myself.
Marlene is one haijin who is eager to explore possibilities in haiku writing. This one here is written in conventional way, but the message is inspirational, hence my haiga.

Nice warm day today. A lot of sunshine. I am going to family cemetery this afternoon to pay respects to my ancestors. This is one of the usual things we do at the end of the year.

Haiga 460 haiku by Visnja McMaster

Haiku by Visnja McMaster of Croatia. Artwork by myself.
Another haiga I made long long time ago.

Haiga 459

Haiku by Jim Kacian. Artwork by myself.

This is one of the early haiga of mine. Jim is the first foreign haijin I met in person. Before the time when I took up haiku and haiga, Jim approached me via email, asking me to do a cover and inside drawings for his "Twelve Tongues" haiku anthology booklet. He later visited me in my hometown during his world-wide haiku tour. I learned from him situations of haiku scene in both Japan and the world, especially USA. This was like more than 10 years ago so we go way back. I met him a couple of times after that meeting, at haiku getherings and such. See the image of computer. It is one of Mac early version.

Haiga 458 Snow Country haiga

Haiku by myself. Photo by Vytautas Serys.

I can almost hear someone in the car yelling, " Hey, close the window, shut the cold wind out".
This photo reminded me of Kawabata, Yasunari's "Snow Country". The haiku got a hint from the first sentence of the novel.

When I had chance to visit the same snow country, which is in Niigata, I took Jyoetsu Shinkan-sen train. It is the super express train with fixed window so nobody cannot open it. When a long tunnel ended, snow covered fields and mountains of Echigo-Yuzawa sprawled before my eyes. It was so nice to view such a pristine landscape from the warm and comfortable seat of the train.

Storyboard: I'm flying

Story and artwork by myself.

Haiga 457 Christmas Haiga

Haiku by myself. Photo by Stephen Alvarez.

Some thought on how love started, was nurtured, grew, and spreaded.
The man's love embraced the woman, who was his fiance but bore a child of another (of supreme being). The woman' love embraced the child, who 'd grown to be a man who could share the love to the world.

Seeing from a human point of view and considering the strict norm then, I am quite impressed by the man's unconditional love to his fiance.

Season's greetings to all.

Haiga 456

Haiku and artwork by myself.
I saw repainting at work on the main street of my town, and then this haiku came to my mind.

Haiga 455

Haiku by myself. Photo is by Toni Piccini of Italy.
Toni sent me a batch of photographs of snow. This one caught my eyes, and then added a haiku. The Nature is so huge and complex. Artists have been tackling with it: some imitating it, some attacking it....only to the extent of small addition to it.
This photo shows a nice addition, scraping snow like this. Very creative. Jasper Jones, a NY painter in '50s, used this scraping method often. It kind of shows the passage of time, and enhances the flatness of the picture plane.

Haiga 454

Haiku by myself. Photo by my youngest brother.

My brother, Tommo, works for Sharp Electric Co. He and his family recently moved to Dubai, where the climate is apparently different from Japan. Tommo's little boy is looking at something, but he did not tell. So, I just let my imagination work, and wrote the haiku. Dad is working at one of those high-rise, and the boy is at beach playing with crab.

Storyboard: Worrisome Carrots

Story and artwrok by myself.
I made the illustration of rabbit and carrots many years ago. I added haiku to it and made a haiga. Then a story came to my mind so I made this picture book story.

Haiga 453

Haiku and artwork by myself.
This haiga shows my idea of how the world is constructed.

Moon-sun is the symbol of something great in the universe, sometimes refereed as god. Moon-sun is always with us, providing impartial blessing to all of us, 24 hours a day.

And it is also looking after us fairly. Whatever we do is reflected on its surface so we cannot hide anything. If we do good, it gives us gift. If we do wrong, it will guide us.

If you operate only on "you and me" basis, you might do something wrong if nobody is watching. You might be making all kind of excuses when things go wrong. On triangle basis all these activities become meaningless. We all can engage in more constructive activities.

Storyboard: S0S

Story and artwork by Kuniharu Shimizu.
While I was looking at my illustration "SOS", a story came to my mind, and within the next 30 minutes or so, this picture booad materialized. You do not need words for what you can show with picture. The rule of picture book seems to apply to haiga, too.

Haiga 452 Masaoka Shiki haiku

Haiku by Masaoka Shiki. Artwork by myself.
If you have noticed in this Shiki haiga series, the wire man is always holding a ball. Shiki loved baseball, so it is a baseball ball. And at the same time, it is a symbol of his life, the core of his life, like his soul.

Haiga 451 Shortest haiku yet

S. O. S.
Shortest haiku and artwork by myself.
I made this illustration many years ago. Thought about adding a haiku to it to make a haiga. Then I noticed "SOS", said to myself, "Hey, this could be something resembling haiku".

Season's greeting for Max san

Maxenne san: I tried to send this greeting via email but it kept on coming back.
I thought about sending it via postmail, but decided to post it on this blog so many people wlll know there is a splended editor, to whom i am thankful.
Thank you for all you have done to publish "Baker's Dozen 3".

Haiga 450 Supplement

I digitally erased the bear from the photograph here.
As a photograph, it looks nice to look at, but looses the impact, offering only a weak visual statement. But as a haiga, it still works, because the verse acts as the focal point. There is no bear in the photo, but because the verse mentions the animal, you can see in your mind an imaginary bear. Juxtaposition is working here.

The photo and verse together make a strong statement, and that is what a haiga is.

Haiga 450 Photograph and Haiku

Haiku by Kuniharu Shimizu. Photo by Paul Nicklen.

In this photo, the focal point is the polar bear. Expanse of the icy sea is the background. Bear and the icy sea are juxtaposed, and well composed, which make the photo a strong visual statement, both structurally and poetically. An icy sea without the bear would have made a weak photograph (see Haiga 450 Supplement).

In the haiku, the first line mentions the background, and the remaining two lines about the bear. Two things are juxtaposed.
In haiga, the haiku and the photo are also juxtaposed. In this case, the two are rather too closely related. There should be a bit more distance between them so that the effect of juxtaposition would be greater. But to make the point of the importance of the focal point, this example serves well.

Painting and Haiku

There is a painting of a snow covered forest. Everything, trees, snow on leaves, ground, is skillfully painted. I like the quietness emanating from the whole canvas. Then I notice. Something is lacking. Something that enhances the mood already present there, is missing. I tentaltively name that something a focal point.

Haiku is a very small poetry, yet it is powerful. The reason resides in its structure, juxtaposition of two things. Basho called it "Toriawase". Placement of two unexpected but somehow related things seems to evoke new awareness, pleasant surprise, and the switch of your imagination goes on, enabling you to appreciate it to a great extent.

I think that the juxtaposition applies to painting, too.

I think that what the painting mentioned above shows is one of the pair of the juxtaposition. It describes the situation, time, season and such. If written in haiku manner, it is the first one or two lines of haiku. In this case I choose one line.

Pristine snow on forest,

Then I come up with the other pair:

each tree looks as good as
home Christmas tree

What is missing, or what I call "focal point" resembles what these two lines imply. What is to add to the painting in place of these lines is entirely up to the painter. It could be some kind of animal or bird, could be human figure, could be bare tree branch. And that is where poetic mind of the painter comes. I wonder what a painter like Andrew Wyeth would add.

Pristine snow on forest,
each tree looks as good as
home Christmas tree

Haiga 449 Masaoka Shiki haiku

Haiku by Masaoka Shiki. Artwork by myself.

Last night, I commented on someone's painting on Face Book. A flood of responses came from fans of the painter. I only asked the painter what the focal point of the painting was, and all the responses talked about interpretation, and preference. When my concern was about the structure of painiting, they only talk about "feeling". I found that FB was not a proper place for artist to artist discussion on topics like what makes painting, both structurally and poetically. My mistake of choice of place. I chose a market place instead of a quiet art studio.
I remember a discussion I had with Hiro Yamagata at his LA studio some years back. We both know what it takes for a painting to be a sound painting (structure of painting as discussed by someone like Paul Klee). We were able to discuss from there and beyond, to the realm of poetical content of painting.

Abandoned house-
dry hard sponge
left by the sink

Signage words

Signage words by Kuniharu Shimizu. Photo is from somewhere in internet.

I had a year-end party with a group of master Shodo-ka(Japanese calligrapher) tonight.
I showed off to them some of the haiga made by foreigners using sumi and ink in Japanese traditional style. To my surprise, they were not impressed, pointing out that the strokes in all the haiga were the ones by those who do not know the basics of calligraphy. They claimed that one need to be able to write calligraphy before start drawing some image with the same brush. They also had a question as to why the foreigners did not use thier own tools like pens and pencil, and other western tools they are so much more comfortable with. Haiga, they said, does not have to be done in old Japanese way, haiga is an art of poetry plus artwork of any style and any means.

Art lesson,
her favorite tools are
tiny fingers with paint

Haiga 448 Masaoka Shiki haiku

Haiku by Masaoka Shiki. Artwork by myself.
The photo shows a baseball ground Shiki might have played.

Haiga 447

Haiku by Pamela Ness (USA). Artwork by myself.
Another Christmas tree haiga. This one is from NYC.

Haiga 446

Haiku by Florence Vilen (Sweden). Artwork by myself.
Florence wrote an interesting essay on "Repetition" in haiku.

Haiga 445 Masaoka Shiki haiku

Haiku by Masaoka Shiki.
There is a TV program on NHK station every sunday night. In tonight's episode, Shiki passes away.
Shiki-an, his residence in Tokyo, is faithfully reconstructed for the TV shooting, his specially made writing desk, small garden with cockscomb, and such.
The wire man in this haiga is Shiki himself, it represents his poor health condition. And his baseball cap (he is known as a guy who introduced baseball to Japan)

Haiga 444

Haiku by Jack Kerouac (USA). Artwork by Kuniharu Shimizu.
I used various fallen leaves I collected when I took a walk. I then scan them and made this haiga.

Holiday Season Gift

Special offer of my haiga ebooks for only this holiday season.
The offer is effective until the end of December, 2010.

The CD contains my four haiga ebooks plus a haiga ebook of Basho's Narrow Road to Far North.
A special greeting card made by myself will be attached, too.

Send request email to : seehaikuhere@gmail.com

Haiga 443

Haiku by myself. Photo by Michael Buhoizer.
A few years ago, I saw a similar snow field like this photo when I was traveling in Niigata Prefecture, where Basho walked along in his journey to the far north. I was then with an old fisherman. I remember well his pristine black eyes on a suntanned winkled face.

Haiga 442

Haiku by myself. Photo by Bernadett Szabo.
Suddenly, winter is here. Morning and night temp hitting the freezing degree. Trees are stripped of all the leaves. The new season, however, brings other things to enjoy, such as what this photo shows.

Jim Kacian of Haiku Foundation invited me to join its Haiku Registry, which I did and now my info is on the website.

The theme of the 2nd. Tokyo Poetry Festival is going to be "神話へ、その彼方へ With or Without Mythology"

Haiga 441

Haiku by Kalamu ya Salaam (USA). Artwork by myself.
The haijin is an Afro-American, more known as a poet. I made a sereis of haiga based on his haiku. All his haiku seem to carry something only Afro-Amercan can convey.
I rode train many times while in Tokyo, so I picked this haiga for today's posting.

Tokyo stay haibun 2

I was a bit in a rush this morning for I had to catch a certain train to be on time for an appointment. I run down the staircase and jumped in the train. As I tried catching my breath, I let my gaze swim around the car. Something was different, something was unusual. I saw there were only female passengers in the car. Then I realized that I had mistakenly caught the women only car. I instinctively turned around to face the door to hide myself, but of course you can not hide your presence that way. Feeling tens of unfriendly stares on my back, I remained in the pose and wished hard the train would arrive at the next station soon so I can switch the car.

Ladies' toilet,
going in is ok but
going out takes some guts

Tokyo stay haibun

Since this summer, I am visiting Tokyo every month. Each stay last for a several days. So far, I covered Shinagawa, and Ebara area, and this time I am visiting places in Shinjyuku area. My lodging, however, is not in Shinjyuku, where there are a lot of night life, but rather in a very quite area, near British Embassy, which occupies a huge estate by the Emperial Palace. If my lodging were near US Embassy, which is in busier and more populated Akasaka area, things would be different. Guess I have to be a good boy and sleep early tonight.

Tokyo central,
black hole swallows lights of
dusk and neon signs

Haiga 440

Haiku by myself. Photo is by Michael Buholzer.

I will be in Tokyo for a several days starting tomorrow. I may not have time to post new blog during the time so I am posting an extra haiga today. A haiga befitting to the Christomas season, I think.

Haiga 439

Haiku by myself. Photo by Perry Backus.

Today, Nara Marathon is going to be held. It is a full marathon, and its turning point is just outside of my office. Ms.Naoko Takahashi, a gold medalist in Olympic is a guest runner. There is the traffic control all over, I had to use my bycicle to commute.

Haiga 438

Haiku by myself. Photo is from boston.com. Sasanqua flowers bloom in the early winter here in Japan.

I updated Tokyo Poetry Festival website. The event is the 2nd. one, and will be held next September in Tokyo. Like the 1st festival, I have been assigned to handle all the design works and website management. The 6th WHA Conference will be held together with this festival.

Big printouts

The wall of my office has been bare for a while, so I had two of my digital paintings printed out large and hung them there. These paintings are from a series called "Alive and Fit". Fitness consciousness is so pervasive in our contemporary society. Nevertheless, there is no artworks that deal with this already popular trend. So, why not me, take up this theme and explore.

Haiga 437

Haiku by Ban'ya Natsuishi. Artwork by myself.
Ban'ya wrote this haiku and many more when he visited Genova, Italy, to attend some poetry festival. The original Japanese haiku is superb that my imagination just expands and extends. It is always a challenge to visualize haiku like this.

Haiga 436

Haiku by John J. Polozzolo (USA). Artwork by myself.
John is known as "Zolo" in haiku circle. Since we both make haiga, we became friends. John's haiga are usually done with brush and ink, in the traditional way, whereas I, who is from that tradition, use computer to make haiga.

Haiga 435

Haiku is by myself, photo by Jason Hawkes.

Yesterday, I received a photo+haiku calendar from Dr. Ikuyo Yoshimura. The photos are by the CEO of Kawai Musical Instruments, and Ikuyo adds Jp and Eng haiku to them. The calendar series has been decorating my room for over 6 years now.