Written by Samantha.

Momoko Kuroda 黒田杏子 : The haiku 俳句 in the present day

Momoko Kuroda 1

In this articleI would like to propose to you,with a short deepening on her works, a japanese artistic-literary character in the japanese culure panorama. A creator is still alive but that unfortunately, except in the environment and haiku circles, is little known and less talked about than she should: Momoko Kuroda 黒田杏子.

Artistic Life

Who is this woman? Born in 1938, she is Haijin ハイジン and essayist; thanks to her mother, a frequenter of a local group dedicated to the study of poetry, from childhood she was encouraged to practice haiku.
The haiku is a poetic composition, dating back to the seventeenth century (even if in vulgar form it was already present much earlier and ran in all social classes), composed of three verses in 17 more (unit of sound used in phonology, which determines the quantity of a syllable, which in turn - in some languages - determines the accent), divided respectively into 5-7-5.

Her "path" continued during university where he became a follower of Yamaguchi Seison (1892-1988) and back in 1968, in order to better delve into nature from which to draw inspiration, he invented the so-called "Haiku Pilgrimages" around the country, i.e. true full-immersion experiences along landscape paths, including the four circuits of Shikoku, Saigoku, Bandõ and Chichibu.

Finally, in 1990, after the death of her mentor, she continued her "work" founding AOI (藍ラ Aoi haiku-kai 藍生俳句会, link: www.mmjp.or.jp/aoi/), a haiku organisation at national level at first, then a reference point at international level for all the other "twin" associations scattered all over the world, among which also our AIH ( Haiku Italian Association); the same organisation also gave life to a magazine and all this has been directed by herself for over 30 years.

Works

Her works cover the whole of her life, the first dating back to 1981 and entitled "Ki no isu" 木の椅子 ('The Wooden Chair'), with which she received the 'Best Woman Haiku Poet' award and the 'Haiku Poets Association Best New Talent' award; other works and successes followed in her long career, listed below.

Haiku collections

Ki no Isu. 1981
Mizu no Tobira. 水の扉 ('The Water Gate') 1983
Ichiboku Issō. 一木一草 ('A tree a grass') 1995
Kaka Sōjō. 2005
Nikkō Gekkō. 日光月光 ('Sunlight, moonlight') 2010 with this he won the 45th Dakotsu Prize in 2011
Ginga Sanga. 2013

Other works

Anata no haiku zukuri kigo no aru kurashi. 1986
Kyõ kara hajimeru haiku. 1992
Haiku, hajimete mimasenka. 1997
Kuroda momoko saijiki. 1997
Haiku a deau. 1997
Hajimete no haiku zukuri 5-7-5 no tanoshimi. 1997
Hiroshige Edo meisho ginkō. 1997
"Oku no hosomichi" o Yuku. 1997 (with photograph of Ueda Shōji)
Katengecchi. 2001
Shōgen: Shōwa no haiku. Two Vulume. 2002
Kigo no kioku. 2003
Nuno no saijiki. 2003
Shikoku henro ginkō. 2003
Kaneko Tōta yōjōkun. 2005
Haiku rettō nihon sumizumi gin'yū. 2005
Haiku no tamatebako. 2008
Kurashi no saijiki. 2011
Tegami saijiki. 2013
Kataru Tōta waga haiku jinsei. 2014

Awards

1975 Natsukusa New Poet Award
1982 Premio Best Modern Woman Haiku Poet per Ki no Isu
1982 5th Haiku Poets Association Best New Talent award per Ki no Isu
1986 Premio Natsukusa
1995 Premio Haiku Poets Association per Ichiboku Issō
2008 1° Premio Katsura Nobuko

Curiosities

A peculiarity: despite her international fame, Sensei Kuroda does not speak or write in English. This was remedied by one of her American students, Abigail Friedman, to whom we owe two works dealing with this contemporary haijin: the first, "The Haiku Apprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry in Japan", published in 2006, is an autobiography of Friedman herself, who tells us how she "teaches"; the second, "I Wait for the Moon: 100 Haiku of Momoko Kuroda", published in 2014, is a collection of haiku.

みづうみのほとりの寺に月を待つ mizuumi no hotori no tera ni tsuki o matsu

in the temple
by the lake
I wait for the moon

Another rather significant composition of his, with very evocative images, to understand his "technique", traditional in form but modern, powerful and innovative in content, is this haiku, created to recall the disastrous earthquake of 2011, but of which it does not speak, preferring to focus on the tsunami

[ minasoko no / nemuri no soko ni / chiru sakura ]

deep beneath the sea

upon those in deepest sleep

cherry blossom petals fall

Another of his compositions with a very evocative image and addressed to the new generations:

Young people in line

haiku enthusiasts

The Milky Way

Hoping to have intrigued you about the fascinating world of haiku, I invite you to read and who knows, why not, even to practice. Here are some useful information to continue your research on haiku.