The genius and geniality of Santoka Taneda, a wandering Zen poet
‘The Life and Zen Haiku Poetry of Santoka Taneda,’ a biography of one of Japan’s most beloved poets, is a loving tribute compiled by Taneda’s close friend, Sumita Oyama.
Creative women find harmony in Hayama: A haven between hills and ocean
Hayama, a coastal town on the northwest corner of the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture, is a place that draws people to a more old-fashioned, natural way of life, including poet and Japanese culture expert Chieko Hirota.
'Grit, Grace, and Gold' review: The Olympics are postponed, but this book's a winner
On the surface, sports and haiku are an incongruous mix but, as Nagamura notes in the introduction, "Writing good haiku involves the same attention to grace, balance, strength, bravery, restraint and observation that propels athletes to their peak."
'Travels with a Writing Brush': 1,000 years of travel writing, united by a poetic thread
From "The Tale of Genji" to Matsuo Basho, Meredith McKinney travels across Japan through 1,000 years of Japanese poetry.
Be a frog and jump into Basho's pond
We must know, "that a haiku does not express ideas but that it puts forward images reflecting intuitions." — Daisetsu T. Suzuki
'On Haiku': A lifetime's consideration of the genre, distilled
In his latest book, "On Haiku," Japanese translator and poet Hiroaki Sato ruminates on the history of the genre and its defining features as well as its remarkable acculturation within American literary life.
'The Penguin Book of Haiku': Morsels of poetry from the mountaintop to the gutter
According to author and translator Adam L. Kern, there's a pervasive myth that haiku is only nature poetry, that it is always serious and connected to Zen, that there are hardly any women haiku poets. But haiku covers far greater ground.
Lifetime devoted to haiku nets Scottish poet prestigious honor
Haiku poet and novelist Alan Spence was honored with an Order of the Rising Sun for "contributions to developing haiku poetry in the United Kingdom and promoting mutual understanding between Japan and the United Kingdom."
Japanese researchers work to create AI capable of generating haiku from images
The development of artificial intelligence software that can write haiku based just on images is underway, with researchers hoping the project will improve how technology understands human emotion. A team of researchers and software developers led by Hidenori Kawamura, a 44-year-old professor at Hokkaido University's ...
British schoolgirl 13th non-Japanese to bag Ito En haiku contest, trip to Japan
A British schoolgirl has become the 13th foreign winner of a Japanese tea company's poetry competition with her ode to a newly cut lawn in autumn. Gracie Starkey, a 14-year old student at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire, submitted the poem in the English-language category with the ...
'Fractures': Putting together the pieces of a story told in verse
"Fractures" is a slip of a book featuring 27 haiku-inspired poems from author and Japan Times contributor Iain Maloney. It is of course possible to blitz through quickly, but consider this: While each poem can stand independently, taken together, they cover both an emotional and ...
'Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet': Unpacking ancient poetry wars
Teika lived from 1162 to 1241, and was a highly influential Japanese poet. Paul S. Atkins' new study of his work aims to reintroduce him to a non-native audience and to analyze why his verse had such a large impact on the trajectory of ...
