|
|
Judges' Commentary for 2006
2006 Judges' Comments:
We received six anonymous entries for the renku contest this year, two each of thirty-six stanzas (kasen), twenty stanzas (nijuin), and twelve stanzas (junicho). We found much to like in at least one of each length, despite a number of problems. At first, we felt that a kasen is more work, being longer and requiring more time, but we also considered that the shorter forms can be more challenging, since the verses must cover a range of topics comparable to that in a longer kasen while maintaining a sense of continuity. Ultimately, we felt that one of the twelve-stanza works offered the most enjoyable reading experience while exemplifying the renku ideal of linking and shifting. And we found a twenty-stanza work worthy of an honorable mention.
We hope our comments will help all who read renku to enjoy them even more, and those who write renku to deepen their art. We enjoyed reading this year's entries, and encourage renku authors to prepare poems in all three lengths for next year's contest. Though the shorter forms may seem less impressive than the full-length kasen, in fact each length offers particular challenges. Perhaps in the next year or two we can have winners in each division, for 12-, 20-, and 36-stanza renku, with a "best of show" Grand Prize.
2006 Judges: Hortensia Anderson, William J. Higginson, and Johnye Strickland
First Place:
First Place Winner: "Chinese New Year" (junicho) by John Stevenson, Yu Chang, and David Giacalone
The twelve stanzas of "Chinese New Year" move easily through the seasons, starting with the title verse in early spring and a second verse on the mid- spring topic of a "leaking roof"; in the second group of three stanzas we have a "down jacket" of winter. The "orange blossoms" of the third three-verse sequence indicates early summer while providing a lovely blossoming fruit-tree image, a neat haikai twist on the usual blossoming fruit tree of spring in longer renku that makes up for the felt omission of a flower stanza among the opening spring verses. (In fact, the requirement in a junicho differs from that in other renku; any flower in any season fulfills its rubric.) The thoroughly Western orientation of the season words while maintaining the traditional seasonal calendar shows up especially well in the final two verses on autumn, mentioning the "harvest moon" and a "hayride." The phrase "room for all" in the last verse provides a particularly salutary, optimistic note for the conclusion.
Perhaps the greatest strength of "Chinese New Year" is the variety in its linking. As usual, the first and second verses link simply and closely, from the setting for a meal to a tea kettle. But the third verse, the daisan, moves dynamically away from this peaceful scene, from "leaking" to a boating catastrophe, a sunken riverboat. The "dueling pistols" recovered from same both suggest a reason for the boat having sunk, and a possible death by violence. (Note that in a junicho, no topic is excluded from the first "page," the first three stanzas. This is one of the significant traits that sets the junicho apart from its longer cousins, the nijuin and kasen.) Responding to the disasters of the third stanza, the next moves to the riverside with its sighing cattails, which then turn into lovers' sighs. The pleasure of the lovers' candlelight, however, turns dramatically toward religion, exemplified by feuding popes. The brief historical visit fades in "cloud shadows" to reveal the lovely orange blossoms, which suddenly transform into those on a new Florida license plate, revealing another side of human vanity and lack of concern for our fellows. The brilliant leap from the doctor to the privacy of a bathroom mirror sets the stage for another play of light on the face of the harvest moon, with its reassurance that while many things come and go, that moon returns. Finally, the moonlight becomes a simple setting for the final hayride.
There are a few problems with "Chinese New Year" which kept us from moving it to the Grand Prize level, as can happen in this contest. While "cattails" is a nice link from the riverboat in the previous stanza, it is also a summer season word, in both Japanese saijiki and American wildflower guides. As such, it grates against the wintry "down jacket" in the following verse. This points up the need for expanded season-word lists being available to renku writers, as including season words that go unrecognized by one's colleagues can undermine the flow of a poem for other readers who do notice them. Meanwhile, though each verse works very well in its context and shifts beautifully away from immediately preceding materials, the "retaliatory excommunication" of the popes in verse seven might be construed as somewhat of a throwback on the same theme as the "dueling pistols" in the third verse; this probably would not bother most Japanese renku masters, but some Western renku writers would feel a pinch. Also, "Chinese New Year" could use more attention to person- place, both in avoiding throwbacks and in increased variety of person verses. Having both the first and last stanzas "public" verses—that is, showing undetailed groups of people rather than clear-cut individuals—seems a large percentage for so short a renku. In shorter renku, such problems may stand out more than they would in longer poems. These comments should not discourage the authors, however, as "Chinese New Year" reads well and was enjoyed by all three judges.
Honorable Mention:
Honorable Mention: "Dappled Light" (nijuin) by Andrew Shimield, Diana Webb, and Frank Williams
The twenty stanzas of "Dappled Light" have a sense of cohesiveness that most of the other entries lack. Some high-quality runs of successive stanzas help in this regard; for example, the run from the Buddha to meditation and a "fix on the moon" to the love verse beginning "she presses his gift" moves very nicely, though a first person or "self" verse would have been welcome for variety of person-place at #5, and "fallen" tends to give the autumnal maple leaf a wintry touch. (Some careful editing after-the-fact can help with problems like this that may not be evident during composition, but are easily repaired.) In the latter half, a "frozen" moon links well with the waiting cat, and the arrow's sound suggests the release of the tension we see in that previous verse.
"Dappled Light" also contains a number of technical problems that keep it from placing above honorable mention. There are three proper nouns in the opening page or section, one of which involves religion; while this would be acceptable in a twelve-stanza junicho, it runs against the grain in longer renku forms, where such things are restricted to later in the poem. There's also a throwback between the painter in the second verse and a "relief" sculpture in the fourth, both referring to visual art. A run of five consecutive "place" verses slows things down as the poem moves past the middle, and indeed, seven of the last ten are place verses. The seasonal work seems a little unsure. A run of autumn verses including the British holiday "Bonfire Night" (October) and a maple leaf drops away after only two verses, while autumn normally continues for three verses in a twenty-stanza renku. The only reference to summer seems to be mention of "Blackpool sands," evidently a vacation destination, but not a clear reference. (In renku composition, if the collaborators agree on the seasonality of a verse, it may stand as such; as a competition entry, however, seasonality should not be in question for other readers.) The two successive winter stanzas contain, respectively, "frosty" and "snow" in the first and "frozen" and "ice" in the second—surely repetitive use of similar language over and above the frowned- upon inclusion of multiple season words in single stanzas. In its favor, "Dappled Light" does have a three-verse spring sequence at the end.
[Top] |
Judges' Commentary for 2005
Judges' Comments:
There were seven entries for the renku contest this year, six kasen of thirty-six stanzas and one nijžin of twenty stanzas, all of which we received without knowing who had written them. After an initial read-through, we found that each of us had selected the same four entries, including the nijžin, as the best of the group. On re-reading, we were able to agree on a rank order for the three kasen, and we all felt that the nijžin ranked very close to the top. While our initial feelings were that a kasen is more work, being longer and requiring more time, we also considered that the shorter form is more challenging in some respects, as the verses must cover a range of topics comparable to that in a longer kasen while maintaining a sense of continuity. On closer inspection, we each felt that the nijžin had done the best job of offering a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience while the renku ideal of linking and shifting.
Winner:
"City on the Hill" (nijžin) by John Stevenson and Merrill Ann Gonzales
While it maintains variety and forward momentum, "City on the Hill" simultaneously establishes a sense of complex unity by the cross-association of several overarching themes. It establishes a sense of doublenessÑ"city on the hill" seems both a real and present place and a utopian space in imagination. This doubleness works through the preface; after a more general opening verse, the wakiku brings the context of the city down to earthÑthis is a real place, home to one particular urban person, with a specific plant in a real garden. Then, the daisan opens up the fanciful, utopian dimension of this place: "the language/ of the honeybee/ in wide use". The wide is particularly effective in letting the reader re-contextualize the "place" as an imaginative invention like the spaces of Hesiod's Works and Days or Thoreau's Walden channeled through Yeats. The fourth stanza moves further into the realm of the shaping imagination and its connection to patterns in nature with Bach's "Little Fugue". Thus the opening section suggests a link between a utopian community and a real human place in nature, between the community at large and the individual, with the emphasis on the community.
The piece shows some wonderful tonal control. For example, the move from "we wander/ pathless heavens/ in our hot air balloon" to "fewer this year/ at the class reunion". On one level there is a mysterious elegiac backward pull that can let us read the hot air balloon ride as a kind of afterlife of the dead classmates. On another, there's the link between hot air and the empty small talk of the reunion that pulls in another direction without canceling or muting the previous association. We enjoyed these subtleties here and again, as in the expostulation that identifies "I'm supposed to be / Rumplestiltskin!" as relating to Hallowe'en, rather than using an obvious season word. This humorous tone plays well against an unpretentious use of cultural references that includes Bach and Shakespeare as well as the fairy tale. The images are concrete, but a subtle sub-text of relationships between people and between us and our environments runs throughout. All this despite the great variety of shifting images and situations that renku demands.
One interesting note: The authors of "City on the Hill" apparently chose consciously to observe the common "astronomical" seasons, rather than the traditional seasons of Japanese poetry that govern virtually all season-word lists. For example, we have "peonies" in the wakiku, which are normally an early summer topic in renku; here they serve to continue the spring imagery of the hokku. Later on, "fallen leaves" appears in a verse that must be in autumn according to its position and surroundings, though the set phrase "fallen leaves" is firmly in winter in the traditional Japanese view of the seasons. These references clearly alert the reader to which seasonal system is in play, and since the whole poem works consistently within this common understanding of the seasons, this feature seems an aspect of the poem's uniqueness, not a fault. (It's a bit like the use of a dictionary in Scrabble; the group has to agree on one, and then stick to it.)
There are a few problems with "City on the Hill" which kept us from moving it to a Grand Prize level, as could happen in this contest. In the preface, there is an immediate throwback of place-person-place. This kind of throwback did not reappear, however, and the general observance of the fine points of person-place variation in this poem is part of what set it above all of the kasen. At the same time, greater variety in linking methods would have improved this poem. A spate of linking by word rather than meaning or scent on the second side threatened to slow down the development, then the third side shifted to mainly meaning linkages. And the stanzas of "City on the Hill" often seem a bit shorter than they need be, with an occasional movement from a very brief three-liner to a two-liner actually longer both aurally and in syllable count. This tends to upset the prosodic rhythm, and is an area that all of our renku poets could pay more attention to. Finally, having two verses about blossoming flowers is nice, though not required in this short form; but having used a non-traditional blossom in the opening, if one wanted a blossom at the end it would be more traditional to at least use a blossoming tree.
These comments should not discourage the authors, however, as "City on the Hill" reads well and was enjoyed by all three judges on each round of reading and commenting on the renku.
Honorable Mention:
Twitter by Peggy Willis Lyles, Mark Brooks, Christopher Herold, Paul MacNeil, Billie Wilson, Carol O'Dell
"Twitter" seems particularly fresh with its move from auditory to visual to tactile sensory images in the first three stanzas. And what has already been a sensuously rich opening ends with smell, from pine to apple. The seasons are particularly well handled throughout.
A number of linked pairs seem memorable: the #2 pencils suggest the beginning of school while also introducing the yellow/orange color of an autumn moon. The writers create first an exotic scene in "moonlight fades / blood on a street / through Pamplona", then move to a more mundane, local contest "another base hit / for the hometown girls." This pair's scent link is followed by a word link with "once organic carbon / now a famous diamond / on display". One judge laughed out loud at the link from a spouse asking "Honey" to help "tie these balloons / and then clean up that room" to "poof! / no more debt". This kind of variety in linking and the shifting meaning as a stanza plays first against the previous verse, then against the following, greatly enhances the readability of the renku.
The main problem with "Twitter" is the authors' apparent lack of awareness of the need for variety in person-place, which tended to bog down in runs of verses all from the same point of view, such as the run of "other" verses from 18 to 24 (verses about an apparent third person), and a preponderance of place verses (no people present) from 25 to 30, with the last three also all "other". Greater variety in this department, along with a little more attention to alternating stanza length and weight and avoiding almost telegraphically short stanzas, would have placed "Twitter" at the top of our list.
We hope our comments will help all who read the renku to enjoy them even more, and those who write renku to deepen their art. We each enjoyed reading all of the entries, and encourage renku authors to prepare poems in all three allowed lengths for next year's contest. Though on first appearance the shorter forms may seem less impressive than the full-length kasen, in fact each length offers particular challenges. Perhaps in the next year or two we can have winners in each division, for 12-, 20-, and 36-stanza renku, with a "best of show" Grand Prize.
hortensia anderson
Judson Evans
William J. Higginson
[Top] |
Judges' Commentary for 2003
We chose two winning poems that generally hold to the formal structure of renku and also capture its playful collaborative spirit. Both poems, in their own distinctive ways, skillfully touch on a panorama of human experience with tenderness and humor.
The Grand Prize winner is New Coolness, a nijuin (20-link) renku with four authors. The poem as a whole has a stately tone, set at the beginning with the expansive sense of the outdoors on a fine early autumn day. As expected, the first two verses are tightly linked, followed by a shift in location, topic, and point of view in the third verse. After this calm start, shifts become more lively. A freer range of topics, as well as interesting shifts in scale and focus of each verse quickens the pace. Yet because verses all have a kind of contained intensity, reinforced by similarity in rhetoric and syntax, the poem remains contemplative throughout. The treatment of the flower verses is unorthodox. Normally, these verses must refer to cherry blossoms, but the authors chose to use "bright nasturtiums" and "shadows of magnolia blossoms" instead. The effect is interesting, especially in a 20-link poem in English. However, if you were expecting cherry blossom verses with their complex allusive resonance, these verses, though well-integrated in the poem, might be less captivating.
An Honorable Mention is awarded to Open Convertible, a kasen renku with five authors. This poem has a much wider emotional and rhetorical range than the grand prize winner. In addition to the variety of topics, the authors use quotations, questions, and varied syntax (not just statements). This adds liveliness to fast sections and heightened emotional impact to verses that are already in high relief (such as the first flower verse). More than one set of verses are beautifully composed and linked. For example the sequence from verse 23 to 26 is an elegant excursion from winter verses to the beginning of the series of love verses:
23) I make new clothes/for my granddaughter's doll/ Christmas Eve
24) winter mist—her neighbor/must enter a nursing home
25) Marines play ping-pong/an occasional distant/burst of gunfire
26) "that OLD BLACK MAGIC"/with Louis and Keely
However the poem's opening is not handled as skillfully. Topics are repeated ("sunshine" and "clouds"), and the wakiku (2nd verse) is a bit unfocused. Because the opening verses set the tone for the whole renku, these are serious shortcomings. In other sections as well, repeated topics create parallel links that tend to deflate the energy of the poem. We mention this because in our experience, renku benefits from careful editing, both during and after composition, with a view to formal renku rules.
What might at first seem like prescriptions and prohibitions, are more like efficient reminders to record a playful poetic conversation connected not by subject matter, rhetoric, or point of view, but by sensitivity to the feeling and experience that breathes in each verse. The winning poems do approach this ideal, and we congratulate the authors for their success!
—Alice Benedict & Patricia Machmiller, Judges
[Top] |
Judges' Commentary for 2002
The first thing we both noticed after eagerly opening our thick packages of renku for the 2002 Einbond Renku Contest, and beginning to read was . . . these poets are truly enjoying themselves! Almost every poem showed an under-standing of renku form and rules. But even more, the poets grasped the joy of writing together.
As judges, we concentrated on looking for a strong hokku, followed by a steady opening, a variety of topics, seamless link and shift, and excellent individual verses. No entry was perfect, and our choice of a Grand Prize winner and two renku for Honorable Mention takes nothing away from the delight we felt in reading individual verses and passages in the other renku.
After careful reading and analysis, we decided to award the Grand Prize to the kasen renku "The Wind Shifts". The four poets who participated in this renku seemed to trust one another, comfortably tossing each verse off with a light, playful renku spirit. There were many "ooh" and "ahhs" as we read this renku. The first two verses, however, are weak when compared to other entries. A hokku should have all the qualities of a stand-alone haiku. We felt that this hokku was not well-focused in time. But the remaining verses in the opening are skillful and the linking is elegant. In the ura (the second fold) the energy among the poets flows strongly. The "dream of wild persimmons" verse starting this section is just one example of the inventiveness and sensitive link-and-shift that the poets achieved in this section. It might be said that that the love verses tend to develop a story, how-ever, "such docile lions" tightens the flow. We also debated the use of "the first ants" as a spring kigo. Time should not move backwards in a renku—for example, from Easter (late spring) to snowmelt (early spring). In this kasen, time flows onward, from "plum petals" to "the first ants" to "opening game". We appreciated the clever use of a little word like "first". The second set of love verses are somewhat troublesome. Avoiding cliché is important in a renku. The second moon link "... a smith beats a hammer" is unique and evocative. Finally, the last six verses move to a quick close, with a variety of focus, both on topics and on human senses—touch, hearing, aroma, and sight. We felt the cherry blossom verse was plain. But then, in the ageku, a henro (a Japanese pilgrim who visits eighty-eight temples) at the "eighty-eighth temple" was a nice surprise, ending this renku with a "warm" feeling.
"Something that Sings", a nijuin renku is a close contender for the Grand Prize. Its beginning is stronger than "The Wind Shifts". The hokku, in particular, is inter-esting as an example of using indefinite words to convey a precise feeling. But then, there are some lazy verses: ‘shouts/and laughter in #4, and "red wine/in his glass/and hers" in #7. Most of the verses in this renku show the evocative power of brevity. But being brief requires careful consideration of the juxtaposition of lines within a verse. In this renku, the second moon verse occurs earlier than is usual, and is a two-line, rather than a three-line verse. A nijuin has four ori or "folds" (as does the kasen), but arranged as 4-6-6-4 verses, and it includes one blossom and two moon verses. Typically, the moon appears in #1 in the second fold, the second moon in #5 in the third fold, and the blossom verse in #3 in the last fold. You can insert the moon verses earlier or later (but not the blossom verse). The linking in the third section is close in feeling, though topics are varied. We loved the impact of "I'd like to be a-l-o-n-e". And the line break in "scent/of the bending/lilac" is very effective.
"a peacock wanders" showed the strongest start of all the renku submitted for this year's contest. The hokku concentrates the reader's imagination, while presenting juxtaposed images that resonate gently with one another. The wakiku (second verse) closely follows the hokku, yet leaves openings for further development. And the third verse nicely shifts to a new locale and feeling. Then the flow continues from the "marathon" to the "derelict caboose", and the "marked-down pumpkin". The verses are varied in point of view, syntax, topics, and verse structure in a way that is especially refreshing. Unfortunately, the renku weakens after this promising strong start. Several verses have similar topics ("faded soprano" to "billboard for last year's concert" or "iris" to "squirting flower"). In addition, both blossom verses lack focus.
Writing renku is, above all, great fun. The poems we read resonated with that spirit. We hope that all the parti-cipants of this year's contest continue to write together, and to encourage more and more poets to experience the unique thrill of collaborative verse. Thank you all for your contribution to this contest! Viva la renku!!
—Alice Benedict and Fay Aoyagi, Judges
[Top] |
Judges' Commentary for 2001
These comments were written by Shinku Fukuda in Japanese, reflecting comments from Eiko Yachimoto and Fay Aoyagi. The comments were translated into English by Fay Aoyagi.
*
Compared with 12 entries last year, there were 6 entries in the 2001 renku contest. This was rather disappointing. However, we are glad to point out that all the entries were full kasen. In Japan, renku contests only accept half-kasen (18 verses) due to the high volume (700) of the entries. We feel this is unfortunate because kasen is the jewel of renku. We admire the many poets who have made efforts to obtain a deeper knowledge of renku, have had more experience in writing it and are eager to explore this new world.
There are some important elements in kasen renku. There should be close responsiveness between the hokku (the first verse) and the wakiku (the second verse). The omote (#1-6) should be calm and cheerful. In the ura (#7-18) and the nagori-omote (#19-30), the poets should shift and develop verses with the feeling of 'ha' (breaking the rhythm). The kasen renku should contain the compulsory two blossom verses and three moon verses, as well as two sets of love verses. There should be unlimited variations in the materials and the flavor of linking. The topics can be on society and its subjects, human nature, humor and current events. In linking, the poets can find the strings from the previous verse by picking up the flow through the topics, the emotions, the scents, the sounds and the hierarchies. They can also leap. An ideal ageku (the last verse) should have a hopeful and cheerful tone.
To judge with the utmost fairness, each of the three judges first submitted his/her favorites with comments to the others. After thorough discussion, we reached our conclusion. The grand prize is awarded to Winter Stars and the second prize goes to Snowball Snow. Let us discuss why we selected Winter Stars as the winner. We use the terms omote, ura, nagori-omote and nagori-ura here because we believe that awareness of these four parts of the renku is important for best results.
The poets seem to have written this kasen, Winter Stars, with relaxed pens, while keeping their eyes on American life-style and feelings. Basho used the term 'sejo-ninjo' (the feeling of the society and and its subjects). See the omote 3 and 4, the ura 1, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 12, the nagori-omote 7 and 8 and the nagori-ura 3. Each country has its own culture, customs, and human characteristics. We don't have to remind you that those elements of the society where the poets live are often reflected in the renku they write.
Responding to the hokku with the winter stars by describing the warmth of home, the wakiku shows us happiness in everyday life. The shift in No. 3 verse is excellent. The flow from No. 5 (moon) to No 6 (a stag) tightens the renku. All three moon verses deal with different situations. The moon eclipsed by the smog in Los Angeles is inventive. (Please remember that 'no moon' and 'the invisible moon' should be avoided in the moon verse.)
The first blossom verse is about withered cherry trees responding to the Living Dead in the previous verse. Skillfully, the poet focuses on a single branch with blossoms. The second blossom verse is picturesque and shows sensibilities often seen in Japanese-style renku. Are the first love verses (the ura 3 and 4) about a man falling into the trap of a prostitute? These verses about contemporary urban life are entertaining. However, the second love verses in the nagori-omote 8, 9, 10 are a little weak as love verses. The stronger love verses do not deal with children in love.
In the omote 4 and 5 and the ura 1 and 2, we see good shifting from the inside scene to the outside scene. The shifting and linking in the omote 5 and 6 is excellent, as well. The development in the nagori-omote 2 (tuba), 3 (elephant) and 4 (barnacles seal) is clever. The nagori-omote 5, 6 and 7 with the rejected manuscript in the middle demonstrates excellence in developing the flow.
Unfortunately, we don't see much variation in the nagori-omote 11 and 12 and the nagori-ura 1 and 2. The poets could have shown more movement here. Another flaw in this kasen, we must say, is there are too many animal verses (the omote 6, the ura 6, the nagori-omote 3, 4, 12, the nagori-ura 1, 6). It is better to have no more than one verse with a four-legged animal in the whole kasen. Also, too many outside verses in the middle are inhibitors of variation. In addition to the nagori-omote 8 (the kids' smooch) verse, there are several humorous verses.
The omote 4, ura 9 and 12, the nagori-omote 8 are superb examples of haikai. We can feel the kind eyes of the poets. The ageku with a frog is well done and evokes warm feelings. Some English-language renku have artificially long verses with forced three-line-breaks and occasionally even a short verse in 2 lines is too lengthy. In this winning renku, we don't see these shortfalls. The choice of words in this kasen is simple but powerful. Equally important is the pleasant rhythm and sound. We hope that many English-language poets will be inspired to write with relaxed and cheerful pens as shown in the winning renku.
Let us briefly comment on the second winner, Snowball Snow. The shift and development in the omote 2 and 3, the omote 5 through the ura 5 are skillful. Three round-figure images in a row in the ura 5, 6 and 7 are somewhat disappointing. The cherry blossom verse with Madam Butterfly in the ura 11 is unique and evocative. The response to the ura 12 is cheerful and clever. A pair of herons in the nagori-omote 1 is answered by the human marriage verse in the nagori-omote 2. Here, the poets show effectiveness by twisting the flow. A gypsy in the nagori-omote 5 and refugees in the nagori omote 6 are a little close, image-wise and a little inert, link-wise.
Too many dark verses appear in the nagori-omote 8 through 11. However, the development in the nagori-omote 1 through 4 is skillful. The second blossom verse could be about cherry blossoms as in the traditional-style Japanese renku. The ageku is excellent with a bright and hopeful tone. We see excellent linking rather than dramatic shifting in this kasen. We believe the readers can feel how much the poets enjoyed writing it. Compared with the non-winning entries, this kasen follows the renku rules diligently and is a very high-level, powerful work. We truly respect the poets in the U.S. who are beginning to establish their own world while they enjoy writing high quality renku. We all thank the poets who entered this contest.
Lastly, we are so grateful for being given this opportunity to judge the contest and we enjoyed reading all the entries.
December, 2001
—Shinku Fukuda, Eiko Yachimoto, Fay Aoyagi, Judges
Note
In October 2000, the Global Renku Symposium was held in Japan with Shinku Fukuda as a coordinator. The international renku panelists were William J. Higginson from the U.S., Ian Cordescu from Romania, Mr. Zu Yao-Ming from China and Ai Yazaki from Japan. To promote renku which we can share as a global treasure, we issued "Global Renku Tokyo Manifesto." For the poets who are interested in English-language renku, Shinku Fukuda wrote "Introduction to Global Renku". Please contact Shinku Fukuda to obtain this book:
Shinku Fukuda
1-3-2 Kurihira
Aso-ku, Kawasaki
Kanagawa-ken 215-0031
Japan
[Top] |
|
