colors of hope

gradations of red - a sight of hope for the New Year ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The Bell Tower ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: a spot of red amongst the pebbles . . . down by the riverside

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. Temple Tanjo-Ji
Winter Walk 2009 . Photo Album



Tempel Tanjo-Ji 誕生時 in Okayama
The Big Buddha and further information

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My Invitation to a Haiku Walk (ginkoo)


. GINKO
Willie Bongcaron 　Philippines



Ginko by Julie Cain

monkey puzzle--
tell me old pine, "How
shall I trim our sky?"

above the temple
winter pines spread their needles--
a green beginning

tiny stream
tiny rocks, tiny ripples--
big winter light

hole in the roof--
the ancient cedar ignores
the carpenter

old kanji-carved stone--
the moss around the edges
finding it's own way

truncated tree--
each lump of new limbs
shrieking to the sky

before you come
to the sliding temple screens--
heavenly bamboo berries

how green the leaf
how very red the berries--
temple courtyard sun

funny little boxes
under the temple roof--
how light catches things


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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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New Year Coming

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仕事ある人
仕事が無い人も
お正月








some people have work
some people have no work
New Year is coming



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. Temple Tanjo-Ji in Okayama
Start your walk from HERE !
Look at the New Year preparations !



. The Big Buddha of temple Tanjo-Ji




. NEXT
the colors of hope 　



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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QUOTE dance with daffodils

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Margaret Prescott Montague


I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.





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The fact that we can't see the beauty in something doesn't suggest that it's not there.
Rather, it suggests that we are not looking carefully enough or with a broad enough perspective to see it.

Richard Carlson




looking for beauty
looking for something
looking for haiku


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Daffodil, Narcissus and Jonquils KIGO



MORE
My quotes with haiku


. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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our cat is ill

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long cold night . . .
I play some Mozart
for my suffering cat



O-Tsu must have eaten some poison somewhere ... she came home around nine last night and started with terrible cramps and foam around her mouth ...
The cramps got worse, lasting about three minutes, every 30 minutes or so, she would stretch to almost double her length, then fold and bend to a tiny little ball, then tremble all over. Her breathing was fast and forceful, her pupils huge dark black circles ...

After a fit we would place her on the towel in a more comfortable position and watch her hard breath. Then the next fit distorted her small figure again ...

Around eight this morning, after a sleepless night, she had her last fit, then fell into a deep coma and we thought, well, this is it.

But after about one hour later, she opened her eyes again, this time here pupils were focused and she seemed a bit oriented and recognize us ... and then she becan to recover, sleeping most of the day.

Now (it is about six in the evening as I write this) she is still not oriented and whimpers a lot, but at least she has drunk some water and used her in-house toilet.

We hope she will recover more during this night.

Friday evening
Pray with us !


Saturday morning
Another night with watching over O-Tsu.
She is still afraid of all sounds and even her own shadow makes her shriek in fear and jump backwards. Finally she hides in a corner of the room and dozes off.

It was minus five degrees centigrade cold outside at night and we had to keep the house warm as best as we could.

This morning, at least she is oriented in the room and finds her place with the water, even jumps up on the table to drink.
This is going to be a slow process of recovering ...




Yakushi Nyorai Buddha of Healing



Saturday evening
What a day ! Cats are quite amazing.
O-Tsu spend most of the day sleeping (happily) in her bed, even licking her hair for a moment when she woke up.
Haiku-kun also finally relaxed (he had been quite upset with his mother's illness) and started snoring like usual.

We hope for a night to get some sleep!



Sunday morning
Sunshine !
A good night for all of us, and O-Tsu is now eating her food. She is still quite wobbely on her legs, but her sleep seems sound and her eyes are clear.
And her son Haiku kun has "talked" to her again, so it seems the cat family is fine again.



Cats in Paradise ..
O-Tsu and Haiku-Kun お津と俳句くん


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Feburary 24, 2010

This morning, Haiku kun was standing in front of his cat entrance outside, crying with pain and in utter confusion ...

Then he started with the cramps ... now he is in the cat cage in stupor, it is lunchtime by now, and he is very ill, biting his tongue and dripping blood from his moth.
Seems the same poison as O-Tsu.

Evening
Haiku had some bad cramps, then calmed down for the day and had a lick of food in the evening (now), so I hope to see him back on his feet tomorrow.




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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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first ice

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first ice -
a sparrow picks
at its reflection


The bird bath is covered with thin ice,
and the sun is just coming up ...


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hatsugoori 初氷 はつごおり first ice, first frozen water
kigo for mid-winter


. WKD
First Ice and more ICE kigo 　
Eis



Googeling for more haiku of FIRST ICE



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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intellect and contemplation

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quote



Ocean inside a skull-cup,
Seeking the universal code in letters.
The mind is like a flower on icy water:
An eye within the petals.




The intellect is one of the thorniest problems for a spiritual aspirant. One cannot do without it—indeed, it is essential—and yet one cannot allow it to remain totally dominant. The intellect must be fully developed before it is brought to a point of neutrality. Unless this is done, it will act as a block, and there will not be any ultimate spiritual success.

Scholarship is thus an important first step. Education is a means of gaining access to the conventional world, of satisfying our curiosity, and of avoiding superstitious tendencies. There can be no talk of delving into philosophical mysteries if one has not even satisfied one’s curiosity about nature, civilization, mathematics, and language. But once mental cultivation is achieved, one must focus increasingly on a part of the mind that is far beyond the scholarly.

The intellect uses discrimination, categorization, and dualistic distinctions in highly sophisticated ways. By contrast, spiritual contemplation involves no discrimination, no categorization, and no dualism, so it has very little need for scholasticism.
It is pure action that requires the totality of our inner beings.
It needs pure involvement, not mere study.
The proper use of the intellect is to give it free play, develop it to an extraordinary degree, and yet to leave it behind when spiritual action is required.
A sage knows how to balance and combine both.

Daily Meditations
Deng Ming-Dao
source : www.duckdaotsu.org




This reminds me a bit of how to write haiku.
There is an intellectual act involved, but also a spiritual "let go" without discrimination.


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. . . more of my quotes with TAO



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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arrr arrrrr

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arrr . . arrrrr . . .
I start talking back
to the crows









They are here in large numbers,
heading for the last persimmons ...




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An interesting discussion :
What Is Your Response to Gendai Haiku?

The Haiku Foundation Blog



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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Temple Ryosanji

両山寺 の　雲海　 too latefor a good shot . . . winter comes fast

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. . 両山寺　Temple Ryosan-Ji
Ryoosanji

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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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inspiration

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Some friends are discussing wheather you should "sit down to write a haiku", just like a potter sits down to make a cup, or a carpenter sits down to work on a piece of wood.



One situation when haiku poets make up their mind to "write haiku" is usually on a ginkoo, a haiku walk.

You meet with friends, walk around for about 2 hours and "compose" haiku as you go along.
Later they are exchanged and discussed.

It is also some kind of advise from my haiku sensei:
Go out for one hour by yourself and see what is there to see ... look intensively .

Next the sensei tells you to study the saijiki as a preparation for "making a haiku", since it is essential that you know your kigo when you need it, not the other way around.

Daily life situations also provide the attentive Japanese haiku poet with plenty of material to write about, the point is the "attention" you pay to your daily situations (I hate the word "AHA MOMENT").

If you lead a "haiku life" then anything can turn into a haiku . . .


staring at this screen -
I try to find some "nature"
to write about





So I guess the Japanese haiku poet has some "tools" like a good carpenter or potter to get into the "haiku mood" ...



When you sit down at your desk and "wordsmith" your haiku, the result is often a

desku ”デス句” desk ku デスク句


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***** Haiku Theory Archives *****


AHA, the HAIKU MOMENT
Haiku no shunkan ?　俳句の瞬間　？？


Creativity ... within the limits ?

Ginkoo, tips for a Haiku Walk 吟行

Imagination in Haiku


. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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WKD - Nobo san Shiki

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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he changes his name
like a career fish . . .
Nobo san



source
http://masuda-takahisa.at.webry.info/200902/article_19.html




Masaoka Tsunenori 正岡常規
Tokoronosuke 処之助 as a child

Noboru 升 as a school boy and student
this name was amicably shortened to
NOBO SAN のぼさん


He was fond of baseball as a student and made a joke of his name

nobooru 野球（のぼーる）"baseball"
野球 is usually read yakyuu and is the Japanese for the game of baseball.
booru is a Japanese way to pronounce BALL.




shiki 子規 Cuculus poliocephalus

He took the haiku name of SHIKI 子規 when he was editor of the haiku magazine HOTOTOGISU, because of tuberculosis, he would spit blood. The inside of the mouth of the cuckoo is so red that it looks like blood when the bird is singing. He started using this name when the tuberculosis hit him.

The word SHIKI can also mean
"The four seasons　四季"　in Japanese.


For a while, he used the name
Ochi Tokoronosuke 越智処之助（おち ところのすけ）



Nobo Guide
Haiku Mailing List
http://haiku.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/~sumioka/htdocs/nobo-guide.html



On his sickbed, a friend taught him how to paint. This sharpened his eyes even more for SHASEI, to sketch from nature.
And this in turn sharpened his eye for haiku, to see the little things in life and report them in simple language ...
He encouraged people, so not only poets could write haiku, but anyone with a keen eye and a good vocabulary.


almost like TWITTER
he encourages folks to communicate ...
Nobo san


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SHIKI, Masaoka Shiki
正岡 子規（まさおか しき)
(1867, October 14 - 1902, September 19)

3 kigo for mid-autumn / September 19

Shiki ki 子規忌 memorial day of Shiki


hechima-ki 糸瓜忌 (へちまき) Sponge-gourd anniversary
This naming stems from the sponge-gourd (hechima), used as a medicineal plant against phlegm for tuberculosis. He used the word HECHIMA in many of his haiku.


Dassai Ki 獺祭忌（だっさいき）Dassai memorial day
Otter Festival Anniversary
He referred to himself as dassai, and published "Dassai Sho-oku Haiwa 獺祭書屋俳話" in Meiji 26 (1893).
"Haiku Talks from the Otter's Den"



Dassai is a name of the Otter Festival, also an ancient name of part of the prefecture Yamaguchi. Fishotters catch fish and place them on the riverside, almost as if they wanted to show them as offerings. This custom has been the subject of many old poems.

Masaoka saw himself as one who scattered his books around on the floor of his small room, just like the otter spreads out the fish he caught. His room was always cluttered and it was hard to walk around in it.
He kept notes and collected many words in small "encyclopedias" for himself as reference to improve his vocabulary and thus his poetry. Even when forced to lie down almost all the time, he had books scattered all around his pillow.

He even called his home
Hermitage of the Otter 獺祭魚庵 Dassaigyo An
and he was the" scatterer of books"
獺祭書屋主人 Dassai Sho-oku Shujin



The details about his work are here
. Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規
and Matsuyama City 松山



うち晴れし淋しさみずや獺祭忌
uchi hareshi sabishisa mizu ya Dassai ki


Kubota Mantaro 万太郎

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. kigo for early spring 　


kawauso uo o matsuru 獺魚を祭る (かわうそうおをまつる)
otter festival
oso no matsuri 獺の祭（おそのまつり）
..... dassai 獺祭（だっさい）
..... dassaigyo 獺祭魚（だっさいぎょ）


One of the 72 seasonal points of the lunar calendar.

shichijuuni koo 七十二候 72 seasonal points


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- Shared by Joys of Japan, September 2012 -



X-Ray Clinic
as I wait for my turn
I read Shiki poems

Sandip Sital Chauhan




on his lips
names for the colors of red ~
Shiki Day

Elaine Andre


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Memorial Days of Haiku Poets


. WASHOKU
Shusseuo, shusse uo 出世魚 "career fish"



One more from my archives, June 2010:

. "Twitter is like haiku,
It is so Japanese."
Rocky Eda, manager for Digital Garage


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weeds and roses

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winter preparations . . .
too many weeds
between my roses






Click the image for more photos !


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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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chives for ascetics

gyoojana ya - I climb the mountains of my dreams

gyoojana 行者菜 Gyojana,
"green chives for mountain ascetics"



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En no Gyoja 役行者、E no Ozunu 小角

Fudo Myo-O and Mountain Ascetics




. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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autumn walk

bamboo bent over a patch of forest - colors of autumn ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: the perfect shape for a christmas tree - blue autumn sky ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: my dragon on the old roof - watching autumn distant mountains ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ths sky is blue again - harvest time ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: susuki fingers strech toward the sky - on my way home

. My PHOTO ALBUM
Start the walk from HERE ! 　



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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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unkai sea of clouds

late autumn morning - the splendor of colors and sunshine ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 南無阿弥陀 南無阿弥陀佛 南無阿弥陀

. START
my morning walk in the sea of clouds


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September 3, 2012


this sea of clouds -
so short-lived and yet
unforgotten


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. MORE
My UNKAI haiku about sea of clouds



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[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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cutting branches

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枝打ちの伝統ありて今もなお
eda-uchi no dentoo arite ima mo nao

keeping the tradition
of cutting cedar branches ...
even now





Check out these beautiful trees and their bonsai versions

. WKD
Forest Work in Winter




Inspried by a TV special about the
Kitayama Daisugi 北山台杉 of Northern Kyoto.
I watched these guys on TV, climbing the thin strong trees straight like a pencil and cut off the branches ... I had just covered this kigo before, in a sort of "prosaic" way out of the books, and suddenly it came to life !

I am always surprized at coincidences in life
and this was one.



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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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