In early November 1998, Shuntaro Tanikawa and his translators took part in Britain's Poetry International. Among the bards contributing with Tanikawa are Czeslaw Milosz, Derek Walcott, Marge Piercy, Galway Kinnell, W.D. Snodgrass and Adonis.
In addition, to his translators, as announced by The Society of Authors, are the recipients of the inaugural Sasakawa Translation Prize (with prize money of 2,000 British pounds) for this volume under review, an award that has helped assure Tanikawa's place as Japan's most popular poet in and out of Japan.
Due to Tanikawa's adeptness at reading poems aloud -- among the top four Japanese spoken word poets with Kazuko Shiraishi, Nanao Sakaki, and Gozo Yoshimasu -- and to having his translators join him in bilingual performances abroad and in Japan, he has done much to destroy the "Japanese poetry equals haiku and tanka" equation.