A Report: The 4th WHA Japan Conference

Kuniharu Shimizu (WHA Advisor, The Judge of the WHA Haiga Contest)

It seems to have become customary to hold the Japan Conference of WHA on April 29 every year. The 4th Conference was held on the day at Kantoku-Tei restaurant in Koishikawa Park in Tokyo. I attended the conference though I had another engagement. Being an advisor of WHA, I try to put priority on its activities. The WHA members in Japan spread throughout the country. Some reside distant places so coming to Tokyo takes a little determination. Some others who reside in the city are busy people. This makes it difficult for every member to be present at the conference, but this time, thirty members showed up. They, though almost everyone is Japanese, are all internationally-minded people. One participant, Karin Doegl, was a student from Austria, and her presence contributed to the international atmosphere.

Participants occupied two rooms of Kantoku-Tei, and the conference began at 2:00 p.m. Ban'ya Natsuishi, the WHA Director, greeted everyone in three languages: Japanese, French, and English. The greeting was video taped, uploaded on YouTube website, and broadcasted to members outside of Japan. Also uploaded were haiku readings done by 22 members.

Improved data transmission on the internet has enabled the service like YouTube, which along with the blog, an easy way to make the homepage, is the necessary service and tool for anyone who try to reach the world. For haiku, which deals with the text, the internet has been a friendly tool since the early stage of its development. Haijin in distant places exchanged their haiku through the internet. As the transmission speed increased, haiga (the image data), and haiku reading (sound and movie data) can be enjoyed so comfortably now by haijin throughout the world. Haiku is practiced generally by the elders in Japan, but the elders in other countries seem to have more literacy in the internet so the active use of this medium is a must for an worldwide association like WHA.

In his greeting message, Natsuishi mentioned about the coming WHA event, the 5th WHA Conference to be held this fall in Lithuania. The conference will be held in Vilnius, one of this year's Cultural Capital of EU, and in a local city of Druskininkai. The WHA Conference will join the international poetry festival called Druskininkai Poetic Fall, hence a rather long conference name "Druskininkai Poetic Fall and the 5th WHA Conference, 2009". Natsuishi called for the active participation to this event, and concluded his greeting by saying "We are convinced that haiku is the essence and the future of the poetry". After the greeting, Natsuishi referred to one of WHA mission statements "To promote haiku in all languages, and translation practices which will further the sharing of haiku, while respecting Japanese as the matrix of haiku and acknowledging the use of English as the current international language of haiku". This mission is successfully achieved in World Haiku Anthology, an annual WHA publication. This anthology that contains haiku written in various languages is only one of its kind, and is said to be a valuable publication. Languages characters we Japanese normally do not see, for example Mongolian characters, are printed in this book. I appreciated all the editorial efforts put into this publication. Such efforts certainly contribute to the worthiness of this growing association.

Followed after the director's greeting was self-introductions by the attending members. They talked about their involvement in haiku, their present interests, and engagements, their comments on WHA, and so on. Each member has his/her own haiku activities other than WHA. Each has various life time experiences. As such, some of the things they say touched me time to time. From the elders, I heard things that encourage me, and in the young I saw promising future. Being surrounded by persons of this diversity excited me great deal.

Members of WHA are of different races and cultures, and they speak different languages. Like Japanese members, they have their own haiku activities other than WHA. Speaking of the life experiences, there must be amazing diversity. The diversity in people naturally gives birth to diversity in haiku. It seems as if there are uncountable numbers of so-called Kessha (haiku group or society) in the world . What does it mean to organize such people under WHA, I wondered as I listened to the self-introductions. A meaningful aspect, I think, is that members gather at the WHA Conference, which is held bi-annually, and bring in all the diversity, share it and use it to heighten the art of haiku for each participant. And even unattended members can benefit from reading the records of what is discussed at the conference. The core responsibility of WHA, I think, is to provide a place where various knowledge and information are exchanged, and transmitted.

WHA try to bind haiku societies, and individual haijin so it would not do if WHA assumed the character of one Kessha. Rather, WHA recognizes and be kind to the diversity, corrects misunderstandings, and advocates a common goal for all the members. The goal, I believe, is to let the world know the true value of haiku, that is, "Haiku is the essence and the future of the poetry", as Natsuishi mentioned in his greeting.

The self-introduction ended with two nominations by Natsuishi: Chuei Yagi (the former editor-in-chief of Gendaishi Techo, a nationwide poetry magazine) as an honorable member, and Bin Akio as a public relations officer. The nominations were approved by all the members present.

Natsuishi went on to mention about the newest edition of "World Haiku 2009". He said that improvement in the quality of haiku included in the anthology was evident in every new issue. It has become clear, according to Natsuishi, that Japanese haiku with a sound content is just as sound in the translation. I took it meant that haiku with the poetic essence could be appreciated both in the original langurage as well as in the other languages. The editorial works of the anthology, such as editing itself, translation, and typing requires more man power, and Natsuishi welcomed more of such power.

A treasurer's report followed and was done by Sayumi Kamakura. I note here just two matters from the report; WHA made a monetary donation to Tokyo Poetry Festival 2008, WHA has good chance of getting a financial support from a company in Tokyo.
　Natsuishi spoke again and explained about WHAC5: its program, travel itinerary, and expected attendants. At the moment, some fifty poets from 18 countries are expected. Those who attend Druskininkai Poetic Fall will get to have their poems and haiku published in the anthology of the Festival. Natsuishi is planning a haiku and haiga contest for this event.

In the miscellaneous reports, Bin Akio, who acted as the chief administrative officer for Tokyo Poetry Festival 2008, mentioned about the event, which ended with big success, and gave a few words of thanks to the attending members for WHA's donation, and supports. Natsuishi, then introduced various haiku publications, such as the anthology of the past Druskininkai Poetic Fall, and a number of other haiku books recently published in foreign countries. The books were passed around. As I skimmed through them, I noticed the high quality of design and artwork in each book. Just looking at the cover tells how good the contents are. Fine design and artworks are indeed necessities for any poetry books.

The conference then moved on to the haiku readings by the attending members. This time, the readings were accompanied by Shamisen, a traditional Japanese string instrument, played by Yoshisaburo Wakei. Yoshisaburo is used to doing this, and we all got a ball out of the readings.
Some of the haiku read:

Tange Sazen (name of a samurai)
with sunglasses on
rushes by
(Chuei Yagai: read in Japanese)

Sparsi qua e la
per un'isola
elementi di vita
(Ban'ya Natsuishi, read in Italian)

An icefish!
when its eye meets another
time stops
(Yuko Tange: read in English)

To shine again
a camellia flower
falls
(Sayumi Kamakura: read in Japanese)

Cold teeth,
skull's plan went wrong
a thousand year's of grudge
(Hideki Ishikura, read in Taiwanese)

Sun setting,
light on my face and
shadow on my back
(Karin Doegl: read in Japanese)

The excitement of the readings continued on to the dinner party held there, and for some, on to a little drink at a bar in Shinjuku, where hundreds of cat dolls welcomed the haijin.

Flying Pope
being invited by cats,
drinks neon
(haijin unknown)