The Masaoka Shiki International
Haiku Awards
1. Purpose and Background of the Awards The inaugural Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards were held in the year 2000. These awards were established based on the principles set forth in the internationally-transmitted Matsuyama Declaration, which was adopted at the Shimanami Kaido '99 International Haiku Convention held in September 1999. It is hoped that the Awards, named after the renowned poet and founder of modern haiku, Masaoka Shiki, will not only significantly contribute to raising international awareness of both Shiki as a universally-praised poet and haiku itself as the shortest form of poetry in the world, but that this event will also play a major role in promoting the Prefecture of Ehime and stimulating cultural activities in local communities.
In September 2000, the first Grand Prize was awarded to the French poet Yves Bonnefoy, with four other poets becoming Haiku Prize recipients. Following this, the Grand Prize of 2002 was awarded to the American author Cor van den Heuvel, alongside two other Haiku Prize recipients, and in November 2004, Gary Snyder won the Grand Prize and other Haiku Prizes were given to three recipients. Again this year, for the fourth time, the Grand Prize and several other Haiku Prize winners have been selected.
2. Prospectus
Whether in the East or West, the ever-widening popularity of haiku appears borderless. Haiku is said to be the most actively written and widely read form of artistic literature in the world today. Unlimited in its creative potential and unparalleled amongst short poetry forms in its unique sense of familiarity for the reader, the future of haiku as a leading literary form for the 21st century and beyond seems boundless.
These international haiku awards honoring the life and works of Masaoka Shiki, the founder of modern haiku, are presented to exalt outstanding achievement in the creative development and evolution of this literary genre, regardless of nationality or language. Recipients of these prestigious awards are expected to have a deep interest in haiku, and to possess a broad International perspective. This being so, it is important to note that the awards are not limited to already renowned haiku poets or to any specific field of specialization. Candidates from all professions and walks of life, such as poets, writers, researchers, translators, essayists, editors and so on are all considered equally.
3. Organizers
Ehime Culture Foundation, Ehime Prefecture, Ehime Prefecture Board of Education, NHK Matsuyama Broadcast Station, Ehime Shimbun, Japan Center for Local Autonomy
The 2008 Awardees
The Masaoka Shiki
International Haiku Grand Prize
(one recipient)
Main prize: Certification
Additional prizes: Prize money of 2,000,000 Japanese yen, the NHK Matsuyama Broadcast Station Award (commemorative gift), and the Ehime Shimbun Award (commemorative gift)
Mr. Tota Kaneko, Japan (Age: 89)
Mr. Tota Kaneko is one of the most active post-war authors. Realizing more faithfully than anyone else one of Shiki Masaoka's original ideas that "Haiku is part of literature" ("Haikai Taiyo (Essentials of Haiku)"), Mr. Kaneko voluntarily took the initiative in advocating and stressing the importance of sociality, plasticism, and avant-garde qualities in haiku poems. His campaign marked one of the landmark events in the post-war haiku history, which deeply penetrated not only a limited number of schools but the entire haiku population. This is exemplified by the fact that, although avant-garde haiku tends to be labeled anti-traditional, Mr. Kaneko's efforts have, on the contrary, inspired and animated classical haiku to an undeniable extent. His pursuit of avant-garde qualities in haiku actually helped clarify what traditional haiku has endeavored to achieve and, as a result, gave birth to a new movement of classical haiku. Mr. Kaneko has been devoted to nouvelle haiku, without losing respect for popular poets such as Issa Kobayashi or other wandering haiku poets, as well as for indigenous poems associated with his own hometown Chichibu.
Furthermore, in the process of a sincere quest for what literature in the form of short poems beyond the genre of haiku should be, he did not hesitate to openly dissent from Kusatao Nakamura's viewpoint on modern literature and Kenkichi Yamamoto's interpretation of traditional haiku, and attempted to figure out a genuine standpoint of modern haiku. His achievement through such struggle is well represented in, among others, "Tanshi-kei Bungaku-ron (Perspectives on Literature in the Form of Short Poems)" co-authored with Takashi Okai.
By chairing a haiku group called "Kaitei" and by serving for a long time as the President of the Modern Haiku Association, not to mention in his works such as "Kyo no Haiku (Haiku of the Day)," Mr. Kaneko has contributed enormously toward popularizing and inspiring a new style of haiku and fostering a younger generation of haiku poets. In addition to the large number of honors and prizes he has already received, including the Modern Haiku Association Award, the Museum of Contemporary Japanese Poetry, Tanka and Haiku Prize, the Dakotsu Prize, and the Modern Haiku Grand Prize, he was awarded Person of Cultural Merits certificate in 2008 to celebrate his long-term commitment and achievement in the field of haiku.
He also made a great contribution in respect to the internationalization of haiku poetry, by visiting China and some western countries to promote haiku and by establishing an international department within the Modern Haiku Association.
Mr. Tota Kaneko was born in Saitama Prefecture on September 23, 1919. After attending Kumagaya Junior High School and the Department of Liberal Arts (German course) at Mito High School, he entered the Department of Economics at the Imperial University of Tokyo (these three schools only existed in the Japanese pre-war education system). In 1941, he first submitted his haiku to a group called "Kanrai" led by Shuson Kato. In 1943, he graduated the University earlier than scheduled and started working for the Bank of Japan, which he had to leave after only three days after enlisting in the Navy. When the War was over in November 1946, he came back to Japan and resumed his career at the BOJ in February next year. He rejoined "Kanrai," and also participated in the "Kaze" haiku group launched by Kinichi Sawaki. In January 1950, he co-published a haiku anthology "Kanae" (issued by Shichiyosha) with Hiryoshi Tagawa and Shuji Aoike. In 1955, he published a haiku anthology "Shonen," and was awarded the Modern Haiku Association Prize in the following year at the age of 37. It was around that time when he made up his mind to dedicate the rest of his life to the haiku poetry. In 1962, he launched and edited a coterie magazine named "Kaitei." In 1974, after retiring from the BOJ, he was appointed Professor of Jobu University (-1979). In 1978, he won the Saitama Prefecture Culture Award. In 1983, he was selected to be the President of the Modern Haiku Association. Since 1986 to present, he has been a regular haiku judge for "Asahi Haidan." In 1988, at the age of 69, he received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, followed by the 1994 4th Class Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette at the age of 75, both issued by the Government of Japan. In 1996, one of his haiku anthologies "Ryojin" won the Museum of Contemporary Japanese Poetry, Tanka and Haiku Prize. In 1997, he was given the NHK Broadcast Cultural Award. In 1999, he engaged in various projects related to the Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards. Since 2000 to present, he has been the Honorary President of the Modern Haiku Association. In 2002, another haiku anthology "Togokusho" won the 36th Dakotsu Prize, and "the Complete Works of Tota Kaneko" (four volumes) was published in the same year. In 2003, he received the Japan Art Academy Award, and was given the honor of being named as a permanent member of the Academy in 2005. In 2008, at the age of 89, he was awarded Person of Cultural Merits certificate. Mr. Kaneko remains a vigorous front runner in the world of haiku.
The Masaoka
Shiki International Haiku Prize
(one recipient)
Main prize: Certification
Additional prizes: Prize
money of 300,000 Japanese yen, the NHK Matsuyama Broadcast Station Award (commemorative gift), and the Ehime Shimbun Award (commemorative gift)
Mr. Biwao Kawahara, Japan (Age: 78)
Adjudicator's comments:
Mr. Biwao Kawahara creates haiku poems not only to represent nature but also to reflect ontological thoughts and recognitions. His haiku achieves exceptional prominence when he structures and visualizes in his mind an extraordinary world of poetic reality that widely differs from our daily experiences, and instantly verbalizes and sublimates such imaginary world into short poems.
Mr. Kawahara has impressed even those outside the field of haiku poetry. Makoto Ooka, for instance, greatly admires him, saying that "what makes his haiku so special and eminent is that it goes far beyond the realistic or objectively descriptive nature of haiku poems and ontologically approaches the mysterious domain of human beings," and that "he has pioneered a unique world that can be called a distinctive internal universe." Kunio Tsukamoto also reveres him, for the reason that "every now and then, the exquisite sharpness of Biwao's haiku, which even his master Koi Nagata was not able to attain, abruptly cuts into the mind of readers." Mr. Kawahara is a rare artist who has earned such enthusiastic praise from premier poets, authors, tanka and haiku poets, and Japanese literature scholars.
A collection of poetic fragments titled "Seifu no Hoho (Manners of the West Wind)" is one of his critically acclaimed works, and has often been rated on par with poems written by Novalis. It is an immense achievement that enriched the world of haiku by incorporating a sense of critique into haiku lines.
Profile:
Mr. Biwao Kawahara was born in Hyogo Prefecture on April 28, 1930.
He graduated from Ryukoku University. He served in a variety of art-related positions including the Administrative Director of the Otani Memorial Art Museum in Nishinomiya.
While studying haiku under Koi Nagata, he joined the "Kotoza" haiku group.
He launched and edited a haiku magazine called "Jokyoku" (last published in 1989). He also used to be a regular contributor to the "Haiku Hyoron" coterie magazine.
He won the 3rd Haiku Criticism Award in 1967 and the 2nd Tategami Haiku Prize in 2004.
The Masaoka
Shiki International Haiku Prize Sweden Award
(two recipients)
Main prize:Certification
Additional prize: Traditional Swedish Pottery
Mr. Sonoo Uchida, Japan (Age: 84)
Adjudicator's comments:
Mr. Sonoo Uchida started composing haiku when he was a primary school student. After graduating from the Department of Law at the University of Tokyo, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the Ambassador to Senegal, Mr. Uchida organized a haiku competition with the cooperation of the then president and a prestigious poet L.S. Senghor, which has gained great popularity over the last 30 years. The Moroccan haiku competition that he also initiated during his ambassadorship to the country has marked the seventh anniversary. Furthermore, when he was the Ambassador to the Vatican, he launched the "Italian Haiku Fellowship" to introduce and familiarize Italian people with haiku.
Upon retirement from the Foreign Ministry, he played a core role in establishing the International Haiku Association and, as its first chairman, endeavored to open the way for international exchange by means of haiku. His efforts at that time to promote mutual exchanges between countries by utilizing the momentum of haiku internationalization are detailed in his recent book "Sekai ni Hirogaru Haiku (Universally-recognized Haiku)." What he has achieved in terms of international exchange via haiku and its familiarization is totally unparalleled.
Yet he approaches international haiku in a very relaxed manner. "If you compare the Japanese classical haiku to the standard Sumo ring," he once said, "international haiku can be said to have a larger, square arena."
Profile:
Mr. Sonoo Uchida was born in Singapore on March 28, 1924. After coming back to Japan, he attended a kindergarten situated in his father's hometown, Uwajima, for two years. Together with his father, he learned haiku under Tannu Ozaki, an old classmate of his father's at Uwajima Junior High School, who was one of Kyoshi Takahama's haiku pupils and who chaired the "Saezuri" haiku group. Mr. Uchida's first haiku was composed while he was only a primary school student.
He graduated from the Department of Law at the University of Tokyo, and further studied Graduate Studies at TCU (U.S.A.). His professional career started in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When he resided in Senegal, Morocco, and the Vatican as the Japanese Ambassador, he introduced and familiarized the local people with haiku. Upon retirement from the Foreign Ministry, he played a core role in establishing the International Haiku Association, where he was later appointed first Chairman. His efforts at that time to promote mutual exchanges between countries by utilizing the momentum of haiku internationalization are detailed in his recent book "Sekai ni Hirogaru Haiku (Universally-recognized Haiku)."
Mr. Uchida belongs to the Japan Art History Society and the International Association of Art Critics Japanese Section. He also advises the International Haiku Association, the Modern Haiku Association, the Association of Japanese Classical Haiku, and the Haiku Association of Japan. He used to contribute his haiku to the "Saezuri" haiku magazine. His haiku pen-name is Ensei.
Mr. O-nyong Yi, South Korea (Age: 74)
Adjudicator's comments:
Mr. O-nyong Yi is one of the most prominent South Korean scholars interested in Japan and its culture. Soon after graduating from the Seoul National University, he emerged as an editorial writer for major South Korean newspapers such as "Hankook Ilbo" and "Chosun Ilbo." Concurrently, he released a wide variety of literary reviews as Professor of Ewha Womans University. In 1982, while teaching as an Affiliate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Mr. Yi published "'Chijimi'-shiko no Nihonjin (The Japanese tradition of 'Smaller is better')," a phenomenal top best-seller that harshly criticizes its geographically-nearest neighbor country, yet tries to understand, the Japanese people who tend to blindly admire western culture, by comparing them to sunflowers ceaselessly following
the sun (= the West).
One of the crucial elements that inspired him to take particular note of the Japanese orientation toward the concept of "smaller is better" was haiku poetry, a super-short form literature. His interest was fully represented in "Haiku de Nihon wo Yomu: Naze 'Furu-ike no Kawazu' Nanoka - Nihonjin no Bi-ishiki, Kodo-yoshiki wo Saguru (Reading Japan with Haiku: Why 'a Frog in an Old Pond': An Analysis of Sense of Beauty and Behavior of the Japanese)," and was further detailed in "Kaeru wa Naze Furu-ike ni Tobikondaka: 'Haiku' to Nihonjin no Hasso (Why Did the Frog Jump in the Old Pond: 'Haiku' and the Japanese Imagination)." They are remarkable, philosophical critiques that, by effectively citing famous haiku poems by Basho, Buson, and Issa among others, succeeded in analyzing haiku’s charm and mysterious power that reflect the life, society, nature, and universe within the compact verse by mixing these themes altogether and then perfectly harmonizing them.
Profile:
In 1934, Mr. O-nyong Yi was born in Chungcheongnam-do (South Chungcheong), South Korea. Following graduation from the Department of Korean Literature at the Seoul National University in 1956, he obtained a master's degree from the Graduate School of SNU in 1960. He then served in a variety of high-ranking posts such as a lecturer at SNU, editorial writer for "Hankook Ilbo" and "Chosun Ilbo," and professor of Ewha Womans University, as well as the first Director of the Culture Department (equivalent to the Minister of Culture and Education) in South Korea. He is also a literary critic who organizes and edits the "Philosophy of Literature" magazine.
His major works include: "'Chijimi'-shiko no Nihonjin (The Japanese tradition of 'Smaller is better')" (1982), "Haiku de Nihon wo Yomu: Naze 'Furu-ike no Kawazu' Nanoka - Nihonjin no Bi-ishiki, Kodo-yoshiki wo Saguru (Reading Japan with Haiku: Why 'a Frog in an Old Pond': An Analysis of Sense of Beauty and Behaviors of the Japanese)" (1983), and "Kaeru wa Naze Furu-ike ni Tobikondaka: 'Haiku' to Nihonjin no Hasso (Why Did the Frog Jump in the Old Pond: 'Haiku' and the Japanese Imagination)" (1993).
Previous Awardees
The First Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards
September 2000
Grand Prize: Yves Bonnefoy (France)
Haiku Prize: Li Mang (China), Bart Mesotten (Belgium), Robert Spiess (, United States of America)
EIJS Special Award: Kazuo Sato (Japan)
The Second Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards
December 2002
Haiku Prize: Cor van den Heuvel (United States of America), Satya Bhushan Verma (India)
EIJS Special Award: Shigeki Wada (Japan)
The Third Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards
November 2004
Grand Prize: Gary Snyder (United States of America)
Haiku Prize: Hidekazu Masuda (Brazil), Ko Reishi (Taiwan)
EIJS Special Award: Bansei Tsukushi (Japan)
The Adjudication Process
Timeline
July 2008: Nomination of candidates for the prizes from the nominators (207 in Japan and 87 abroad)
September 8, 2008: First assembly of the Award Selection Committee in Tokyo to reach a consensus on general selection criteria and to fix the timeline
October 25, 2008: Meeting of the Organizing Committee in Tokyo to screen candidates
November 20, 2008: Second assembly of the Award Selection Committee in Tokyo to finalize the awardees
December 12, 2008: Awardees officially announced
February 15, 2009: Official Award Ceremony at the Himegin Hall (Ehime Prefectural Convention Hall) in Matsuyama
February 16, 2009: Commemorative Lectures in Tokyo
The Award Selection Committee
Chairman:
Akito Arima (Haiku poet, Chairman of the International Haiku Association)
Vice Chairman:
Toru Haga (Honorary President of Kyoto University of Art and Design)
Members:
Sagicho Aihara (Haiku poet, Chairman of the Ehime Haiku Association)
Teiko Inahata (Haiku poet, President of the Association of Japanese Classical Haiku)
Willy Vande Walle (Professor of Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium)
Kiyoko Uda (Haiku poet, President of the Modern Haiku Association)
Koji Kawamoto (President of Otemae University)
Yukitsuna Sasaki (Tanka poet, Professor of Waseda University)
Kazuko Shiraishi (Poet)
Shugyo Takaha (Haiku poet, President of the Association of Haiku Poets)
Miki Takeda (Director of the Matsuyama Municipal Shiki-Kinen Museum)
Haruo Shirane (Professor of Columbia University, U.S.A.)
Tsunehiko Hoshino (Haiku poet, Vice Chairman of the International Haiku Association)
Gozo Yoshimasu (Poet)
Lars Vargö (Swedish Ambassador, scholar of Japanese literature)
Lee Gurga (Haiku poet, haiku scholar)
Consultant:
Gania Nishimura (Haiku poet, former Director of Ehime Prefecture)
The Organizing Committee
Chairman:
Koji Kawamoto (President of Otemae University)
Members:
Shuri Kido (Poet)
Shinji Saito (Haiku poet, President of Shinyasoshosha Publications)
Bansei Tsukushi (Haiku poet)
Yasuko Tsushima (Haiku poet)
Toshinori Tsubouchi (Haiku poet, Professor of Bukkyo University)
David Burleigh (Haiku poet, Associate Professor of Ferris University)
Kiwao Nomura (Poet)
Mamoru Murakami (Author)
Rie Yokoi (Haiku poet, Associate Professor of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
Advisor:
Toru Haga (Honorary President of Kyoto University of Art and Design)
Consultant:
Gania Nishimura (Haiku poet, former Director of Ehime Prefecture)
