Genjuan International Haibun Contest 2017 Opens

This is still Japan’s only international haibun contest. Entry is free and there are prizes and certificates. This year we have one new judge, Ellis Avery, who is American, female, a haiku poet, but also a novelist and a fiction writing teacher at Columbia University. She is a contributor to Icebox, too.

Ideally, there will be one Grand Prix, a number of An Prizes (‘Cottage’ Prizes, highly commended), and some Honourable Mentions, too. The authors of entries chosen for the first two of these categories will receive prizes, and all decorated works will warrant a certificate from the organizers. In the late spring, the results will be displayed here on the Hailstone Icebox and elsewhere. You can read last year’s winning pieces on a separate page (‘Genjuan ’16 Winning Haibun’).

Entries to : Ms. Eiko Mori, 2-11-23-206 Jokoji, Amagasaki-shi, Hyogo-ken 660-0811, Japan (to arrive between 1 Oct. 2016 and 31 Jan. 2017)

We have lowered the minimum length stipulation to make it easier for writers using English as their second language. Each entry should total 7 to 35 lines (at 1 line = 80 spaces), with title and at least one haiku (no formal restrictions). Print on one side of A4, if possible, with your name and address, tel. no., and email address typed along the bottom. The judges will not get to know your identity until judging is over and the Genjuan Contest Office already knows the results. We are sorry, but email entries are not accepted.

Judges: Nenten Tsubouchi, Stephen Henry Gill, Hisashi Miyazaki, Ellis Avery.

Full details via the page link (top right) ‘Genjuan International Haibun Contest 2017 Guidelines’.  Please do take part!

Crystal Beads

.
… Glittering crystal beads
… Decorate my body —
… Humid afternoon

… Beads of sweat
… Twinkle on my ears —
… Unlooked-for jewels

My Trip to the North: 2. The Promontory of Oma

… As the ferryboat approached Oma, I was able to see an island with a lighthouse and the Promontory of Oma, so flat that it seemed the sea was ready to swallow it up. Oma is famous for tuna fishing, but I did not sight any boats. After landing, our bus took us to the Promontory, the northernmost point of the mainland of Japan, where I saw a huge concrete image of tuna, and a stone monument to Ishikawa Takuboku with the following poem inscribed.

………. An Eastern Island:
………. On the white sands of its beach,
………. I weep by myself
………. Till I am wet with the tears,
………. Playing with scuttling crabs.

… The Eastern Island mentioned in this famous poem was believed to be Benten Island. It had looked quite distant from the tip of the Promontory when I had seen it from the ferryboat, but now it seemed close enough to reach by swimming. The lighthouse was painted in stripes of white and dark green, and there was a red buoy dancing in the waves before it.

………. Tuna-abounding seas,
………. To the far horizon, blue,
………. Their summer colour.

……………….. The Eastern Island:
……………….. The lively June waves breaking
……………….. Wash its sandy shore.

………………………… On a sunny day
………………………… In the long monsoon season,
………………………… Gulls crossing the strait.

Meandering

For more than ten years now, each summer I have gone back to Serbia, the place of my birth. This summer, my family took a four-day trip to the southwest of the country. On the third day we found ourselves at the Special Natural Reserve, ‘Uvac’. My son and I joined a boat tour along its famous meanders, the longest of its kind in Europe. The emerald body of water snakes its way through the Uvac Canyon for some 25 kilometres. The tour took five hours, yet it was probably the quickest five hours of my life.

Our first stop was at the so-called ‘Ice Cave’. The name does it justice, as it was very chilly indeed, but the cave’s mysterious beauty more than made up for this.

………. The cave floor –
………. as if petrified Buddhas
………. stirred in our torchlight

Our second port of call was the foot of a hill, from where we had to climb a narrow forest path. Young and old, weak and strong, we all reached the viewpoint with only minor scratches. And there was a sight to behold: the meandering Canyon beneath us, in all its glory, last sanctuary of the majestic Griffon vulture.

As we were climbing down toward the boat, I overheard someone saying, as if reading my own mind: ‘May this reserve remain intact forever’.

………. Cruising along 
………. Uvac’s meanders –
………. a vulture’s regal flight

 

My Trip to the North: 1. Tsugaru Strait

… Compelled by my desire to see the Tsugaru Straits, I took a ferryboat from Hakodate to Oma. I first went to look at the Mashu Maru, a retired ferryboat which used to connect Hakodate with Aomori. It was a large boat, but it looked rather lonely moored at a pier. I thought of the tragedy of the Toya Maru caused by a typhoon: the boat sank killing more than one thousand people including the captain. The ferryboat I took was much smaller than the national railway ferryboats, but it was elegantly constructed. The room reserved by the travel agent for our group was an unfurnished carpeted room. I decided to spend most of my time in a chair on the deck. The weather was good. I was able to enjoy the blue sky, the blue sea, and the blue mountains.
… Having left behind the red lighthouse standing at the end of a breakwater, our boat sailed along beneath the steep slopes of Mt. Hakodate. The Big-Nose Promontory was a sharp cliff, black in most places but dotted with white spots. I thought it might be made of ageing limestone. The boat went round this promontory, allowing us to see another rocky place called the Stand-and-Wait Promontory, where the famous poet, Ishikawa Takuboku, has his grave. As the ferryboat sailed into the Tsugaru Strait, unexpectedly, dolphins appeared on the port side as if to welcome us. They came and went so suddenly I did not have time to count them, nor to take their picture, but I regarded this welcome as a special bonus.

………. Sharper than arrows,
………. They cut the dark brine, splashing —
………. A pod of dolphins.

(Sosui is Nobuyuki Yuasa)

Daylight

                          click on the picture to read the poem

Sea Breeze

.. Yesterday, July 23rd, I went to a favourite place, the sacred isle of Oshima 雄島 in North Fukui, to launch my birthday balloon. It was no. 47 in a series going all the way back to Spain in 1970: an annual personal ritual. My stepmother had sent me a bright yellow card on which the silver words “You can have a happy childhood at any age” were printed.

.. Crossing back again onto the mainland, I retreated into Anto’s one-and-only cafe for some ice and shade. At the only other occupied table, two young lads were doing part of their holiday homework under the watchful eye of Grandma. One was trying to squeeze a little more red out of a well-used tube of pigment.

…….. Vermilion bridges
…….. Over cobalt seas:
…….. Two boys’ summer paintings

+ click on the photo to see the balloon! +