Walks in Japanese Gardens

                                                                                                                                jhhymas

This was taken
 on one of our early-summer Yuki Teikei haiku walks 

at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga.

It is possible to sit for a long time 

watching the graceful carp move in the water

and thinking about life, about beauty and about art.
If you can do it with friends like these, you are very fortunate.

cool bronze feet

of the lilypond crane--the carp's

whiskered shadow

June Hopper Hymas

Sanderlings at dawn

This picture was taken on the beach at Asilomar early one morning 

during Haiku Pacific Rim Conference, September, 2012.

The fleeing sandpipers

turn about suddenly

and chase back the sea

James Hackett

The Way of Haiku; an anthology of haiku poems,

by James Hackett

Japan Publications, Tokyo,1968, page 7

Pat Shelley in her Red Hat

          

                                                                                                    photo by jhhymas

This is Pat Shelley in one of her favorite hats. She was a member of 

Yuki Teikei Haiku Society for many years until her death in 1997,

and wrote lovely, gentle, evocative haiku. This picture was taken

on a ginko, one of our haiku outings in Japanese gardens.

She liked to wear these little hats; it saddens me that I cannot now remember

whether this was the hat she liked best, and lost, ot the replacement

that was never quite the right color.

Below is one of her signature poems; it is a tanka, another Japanese form. A tanka generally has five lines and more explicitly stated emotional content than a haiku. In many ways, I think, this was Pat Shelley's preferred form. The poem below has appeared in several places and is often praised as a superb example of tanka form.

Wind, do not tease me 

do not muss my hair 

my joy is too large for the house

and I cannot go in

to await his coming

-Pat Shelley-

Kiyoko considers

Facing a window overlooking Monterey Bay, Kiyoko Tokutomi considers a newly composed haiku.

Born and reared in Japan, she told us so many memories of her life there and her dear parents. 

I still have a small vial with cherry petal shells (tiny pink shells) that she gave to me.

furusato no umi no koishiki sakuragai

How I love it
the sea of my hometown . . .
cherry petal shell

haha no sumu atari ni takaku kumo no mine
Where my mother lives
standing there
towering cumulus

akasugi o sukku to tatete yama warau
With its redwoods
springing to their height
the mountain laughs

Kiyoko Tokutomi

Kiyoko's Sky; the haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi, translated by Fay Aoyagi and Patricia J, Machmiller, Brooks Books, 2002.

This book of her haiku was published shortly before she died. The group read from it to her at our December meeting that year.

Kiyoshi's Smile

I am not sure, now, where I got this picture, or whether I was the photographer. I hope you are dating and labeling your photographs better than I have done. What I do know is that this is the wonderful smile of the co-founder of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Kiyoshi Tokutomi. His life story is better than most movies: born in the USA, he was sent to Japan at a young age to be educated, as his brothers had been before him. Much later, with the war impending, he had his ticket to return to the USA. After Pearl Harbor, the boat did not sail. Kiyoshi had to remain in Japan during the war and became a teacher. He boarded with a local family and contracted tuberculosis there. This eventually resulted in his loss of one lung (and the strength and usefulness of his arm) and total deafness caused by a newer medication whose correct dosage was not  established where he was treated. 

But look at that smile! 

to the other side

I try to toss a pebble

spring melancholy

Kiyoshi Tokutomi

This haiku is cited as inspirational by Clark Strand in his book

Seeds from a Birch Tree

A translated diary Kiyoshi kept is available from 

Amazon, and so is a volume of the letters exchanged by Kiyoshi and Kiyoko, after the war--and after they were married and she had emigrated to the USA--but he had returned to Japan for more experimental treatment, which he hoped would restore his hearing.

youngleaves.org

is the website of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society

Mrs. Noma captures Sunset at Asilomar!

  At the combined haiku conference Haiku Pacific Rim in 2012, 

we all went down to the beach to admire the sunset.

Mrs. Minako Noma from Matsuyama, Japan seems very pleased with her sunset photo!

the head and the last

these two of the migrant birds

how do they choose them?

Hiroyuki Murakami

Scattered Acorns; Yuki Teikei Member's Anthology, 2014, page 34

***

A Toast to the New Year

Here is one of the founders of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Kiyoko Tokutomi (holding the wineglass) with Jane Reichhold, haiku stalwart and translator of Basho. The picture was taken at an annual Haiku Retreat at Asilomar (California) 

which the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society has held there annually since the mid 1980s.

rabbit-ear iris

how much it looks like

its image in water

Basho

Basho; the complete haiku; translated by Jane Reichhold, Kodansha USA, 2013, page 25.