O-YAMAZAKI GINKO: E-/Fax-Kukai results

Several days after the O-Yamazaki ginko (May 7, 2006), seven authors (ginko participants) submitted one or more haiku to the organizer and they, with the guest selector (Tito) and without the organizer, (seven in total) chose their 3-6 favorites. Here are the popular poems, in the order of our ginko procession:

10:00 Hankyu O-Yamazaki Station: Light spring rain / Too gentle for hailstones / Gathered at Oyamazaki (J. Wieman)
10:30 Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art: Enjoyed nice artworks of Monet, Bernard Leach et al., and its beautiful garden.

an old paulownia
in full bloom
above the new Villa-Museum (S. Sasaki)

green under green
the rain, licking leaves ...
a small stray from the brook (M. Kawaguchi)

12:00 Houshakuji Temple: Visited Yama (the King of Hell), Eleven-face Bodhisattva (a Buddhist Saint saving all people) and Daikokuten (one of the Seven Lucky Gods). breeze on Mt. Tenno - / sometimes hidden by fresh leaves / an old 3-storied pagoda (S. Sasaki)
13:30 Yamazaki Sokan’s Haiku Monument: May comes - / shrilly cries, / a laughing cuckoo (Sokan, 16th century, before Basho).
At vestige of a hut, where / Ancient poets had a kukai. / A purple paulownia petal fallen. (M. Kawaharada).

After lunch, hurried toward a distillery with a tacit understanding of our ultimate purpose.
before drink / lighting a cigarette - / out of Yama’s stare (H. Miyazaki)
On the way, there was a shortcut through a tunnel with a small stream alongside.
Into Stygian darkness / We plunge on our way / From the King of Hell / To Suntory Distillery (J. Wieman), and also on the way,

in a narrow patch
field peas plump with spring…
f f f f f f f f f (K. Yurugi)

15:00 Suntory Distillery: Studied the zymurgy of whisky making.

at the mash-house door -
a grandmother swallows
the hot, sweet stink of whisky (D. McCulough)

16:30 JR Yamazaki station: Still gently raining. Punctually dispersed.