A meeting of haiku poets from Japan and the United States took place on November 8, 1987, at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco under the auspices of Japan Airlines and the Association of Japanese Haiku Poets. About 160 American and 40 Japanese poets attended. Presentations were made by Americans Makoto Ueda, Jerry T. Ball, Garry Gay, and Tom Tico, and by Japanese Kin’ichi Sawaki, Shigeru Ekuni, and Yoshiko Yoshino.
the 1987 U.S.–Japan Conference on Haiku Poetry
The first meeting between large groups of haiku poets from Japan and the United States took place on November 8, 1987, at the new Hotel Nikko in San Francisco under the sponsorship of the San Francisco Branch of Japan Airlines and the Association of Haiku Poets (社団法人俳人協会 Shadan Hojin Haijin Kyōkai) in Tokyo. The Japanese delegation comprised 40 haiku poets, and about 160 Americans attended. Presentations were made by Americans Makoto Ueda, Jerry T. Ball, Garry Gay, and Tom Tico, and by Japanese Kin’ichi Sawaki, Shigeru Ekuni, and Yoshiko Yoshino.
Kazuo Sato, professor at Waseda University and director of the International Division of the Museum of Haiku Literature in Tokyo, provided an “Afterword” for the booklet of proceedings in which he described the conference. His text in its entirety follows.
This U.S.-Japan haiku conference was held on November 8, 1987, in San Francisco through the auspices of Japan Air Lines and the Association of Japanese Haiku Poets. Participants included forty Japanese haiku poets from Japan and about 160 American haiku poets from the Bay Area. In addition, one American came from Hawaii and another from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Professor Makoto Ueda spoke both in English and Japanese. Professor Kin’ichi Sawaki, Mr. Shigeru Ekuni and Mrs. Yoshiko Yoshino spoke in Japanese. Translations were provided for the American audience by Mr. Tadao Fujimatsu, public relations manager of the New York office of Japan Air Lines. Translations for the Japanese audience of papers by American poets Jerry T. Ball, Garry Gay and Tom Tico were provided by myself.
Prior to the conference, participants and other interested parties were invited to submit their haiku either in English or Japanese. The theme for the haiku was “fog.” First, second, and third prizes were awarded in both the Japanese and English haiku categories and were announced at the end of the conference. About 300 English and 50 Japanese haiku were submitted in total. The respective selectors for the English and Japanese categories were Professors Ueda and Sawaki. This conference was very unique in bringing together both Japanese and American poets for an exchange of ideas on haiku despite obvious language differences. Of interest also is the fact that both groups of poets were writing on the same theme, whether in English or Japanese.
All of us who were connected with the conference believe it was an important step forward in the internationalization of haiku. We are very pleased this internationalization is occurring so successfully, as it was shown at the conference, and within a climate of such friendship and good will. East and West, I believe, are truly meeting through haiku.
Conference attendees heard the following presentations:
- “Welcome”—Kazuyoshi Miyazaki, Vice President and Western Regional Manager, Japan Air Lines;
- “Frog that Swam across the Ocean: Japanese and Western Reading of Haiku”—Makoto Ueda, Professor, Stanford University;
- “The Spirit of Haiku”—Kin’ichi Sawaki, Professor Emeritus, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music, and President, Association of Haiku Poets;
- “Writing Haiku Abroad”—Shigeru Ekuni, haiku poet and essayist;
- “Basho, Poet of the Universe”—Yoshiko Yoshino, President, Hoshi Haiku Society;
- “What Is It that Falls Under the Name of ‘Haiku’ This Autumn Morning?”—Jerry T. Ball, Associate Professor, Chabot College;
- ‘‘Haiku Activities in the Bay Area”—Garry Gay, haiku poet; and
- “An Ancient in Modern Times: A Reading of Santoka”—Tom Tico, haiku poet.
A haiku competition was held in conjunction with the conference. Before the conference began, all poets—not only conference participants—were invited to submit haiku in either English or Japanese on the theme of “fog.” The English-language entries were judged by Makoto Ueda, the Japanese by Kin’ichi Sawaki. Contest results were published in the conference proceedings booklet.
Prize-winning haiku in English
| First Place | Jerry Kilbride, San Francisco, California | fog … just the tree and I at the bus stop |
| Second Place | Jane Reichhold, Gualala, California | unpainted porch sea fog comes to a closed door |
| Third Place | Edwin A. Falkowski, Campbell, California | From Bielawski hill under overcast—heron wings winnow the fog |
| Honorable Mention (20) | Garry Gay, San Francisco, California | Seal voices carry from the rocks … the fog |
| Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Santa Fe, New Mexico | New Year’s Eve all the whistles, all the bells but in the fog ghosts | |
| Ruth Weiss, Albion, California | fog there there the bridge is— every so often | |
| Richard Tice, Salt Lake City, Utah | morning fog: only the crunch of old snow and my neighbor’s lights | |
| Margaret Molarsky, Ross, California | Closed in … fog out of nowhere creeps into alleys | |
| Tom Tico, San Francisco, California | fog and foghorns silence the city | |
| Helen J. Sherry, San Diego, California | forest fog— sound of the woodpecker on a vanished tree | |
| Jerald T. Ball, Livermore, California | surrounded by fog the sound of muffled footsteps becomes a person | |
| David E. LeCount, La Honda, California | Autumn solitude — the deepening fog fills an empty bird’s nest. | |
| Jennifer Brutschy, Dublin, California | lost in beach fog … cry of the gulls slap of the waves | |
| Lequita Vance, Carmel, California | school crossing a small parade passes from nowhere to nowhere | |
| Nicholas, Sunnyvale, California | Here it is again. You know what the season is. Fog is everywhere. | |
| Barbara McCoy, Raleigh, North Carolina | Autumn morning fog— At the mountain overlook lovers holding hands | |
| Mary L. Hill, Palo Alto, California | in a fog cocoon that only sound penetrates … as from a distance | |
| Virginia Golden, Portola Valley, California | Clouds cover the hills with softness of summer fog … The Bridge is hidden | |
| Darold D. Braida, Honolulu, Hawaii | the thick fog drifts in— grounding all the jumbo jets and the gray sea gulls | |
| Tom Arima (Manzen), El Cerrito, California | All engulfing fog— Benignly a fishing boat Just rises and falls | |
| Violet Kazue DeCristoforo, Salinas, California | Swirling fog of Golden Gate constantly shrouding hundred thousand souls of internees | |
| Paul O. Williams, San Francisco, California | the city goes gray— fog droplets run down the twig, fall in the cupped leaf | |
| Louis Cuneo, Berkeley, California | Talking to bull frog about just being laid off; autumn leaves falling near by. |
Prize-winning haiku in Japanese (English translations by Jack Stamm)
| First Place | Sakiko Tagami, Japan | Kani seseriori taigan ni kiri ugoku crabs working their digs over on the other shore fog begins to move |
| Second Place | Satoru Yoshida, San Francisco, California | Wanko no kyoto akashi kiri o nuki at the bay’s entrance Golden Gate’s portals piercing redly through the fog |
| Third Place | Tokuko Arai, Japan | Kyusuito teru asagiri no kangokuto in the morning fog Alcatraz holds up shining its water tower |
Adapted from: Japan Air Lines, ed., U.S.–Japan Conference on Haiku Poetry
SOURCES / FURTHER READING
- Japan Air Lines, ed. U.S.–Japan Conference on Haiku Poetry. Trans. Kazuo Sato and Jack Stamm. San Francisco: Japan Air Lines Foundation, 1988.