More Ichoo

outside my kitchen door

the universe explodes -

golden leaves,

blue sky!

leaves on my favorite cherry tree cold autumn wind

(duro jaiye)

Mount Ogura Part VIII

We're twenty or so. An intro to the mountain - and the campaign to revive it with poems - at Tree of Repose. A ninth century tanka read from an iron bridge over Marutamachi. Ogura Pond, with its stagnant green growth; and not far away, old Kensho-san, priest of Jojakkoji, unlocks the shrine of Fujiwara Teika, who glares darkly from within.

Following the monk

With a key as long as a wand ...

Autumn leaves

(Tito)

The most likely site of Teika's villa, ... now a kind of kitchen garden with withering lotus in pots. A day from Basho's Saga Nikki declaimed from Zen's field, opposite the gate to Rakushisha. The tiny gravestone, beneath which Kyorai most probably squats; and then the stone-lined well, boarded away into oblivion, which another poet used when he renounced the world aged twenty-three.

Saigyo's tears -

Rammed down his well

Plastic pipes

(John Dougill)

Trudging up Mt. Ogura, past an Emperor's grave, to Kisen (Turtle Spring). It's seen better days. Could be such a watery welcome to the ancient path to Teika's Vale, which nestles in the hilltop woods three hundred feet above. Instead, it is full of abject ruin - old wires drag, pots and bottles now in shards; the spring seeps by a sack of cement long since set completely rigid.

A house rotted away

In an autumn mountain -

Highway noise

(Mayumi Kawaharada)

Down to the Senou Cafe, where we find the full moon, pale red, floating outside its eastern window. Walking on towards Osawa Pond for a party-of-verse in the twilight ... thinking of the mountain whom so many before us have loved and praised.

Endless the pathways

Redolent of times gone by -

Ogura's shadow

(John McAteer)

Yamanobe Way Haike & Asuka Rengakai

Over the weekend of Oct. 14/15, eleven members of the Hailstone Haiku Circle took part in an extended event: five completed a haiku hike from Tenri 天理 to Asuka 飛鳥 Station in Nara Pref. (overnighting at the Kaikaro Ryokan in Sakurai) via the ancient Yamanobe no Michi 山之辺の道, with another six members walking (or cycling) most or part of the way. In the afternoon of the second day, a rengakai (linked verse session) was held in the Hyohyo organic cafe beside Asukadera in the ginko-no-renga style using verses composed along the Way, particularly those from Asuka. They were chosen to link onto an uncompleted ginko-no-renga Stephen had brought over from Yorkshire, U.K. a few months earlier. Ten verses have now been added to the ten composed by the BHS Roses Group, and it is hoped the final international product will be published next year. We were blessed with halcyon weather, ripe persimmons and some early autumn colour. The first photo was taken from a vantage point near Omiwa Shrine, looking westwards over Emperor Jomei's 'Dragonfly Isle' (Akitsushima 蜻蛉島, see poem 2 in the Manyoshu) towards the three famous Yamato hills of Unebi, Miminashi and Amanokagu. None of us will forget the almost mystical experience we had there! The second photo was taken in Asuka on the last kilometer of the 27 km haike. Five haiku from the event:

Lark on the wing/The rice fields shimmering/For joy

dragonflies/invading the village/over its moat

lotus leaves drag me back/the path leads me on

Paddyfield on paddy/Stacked up to the peak;/Autumn mikoshi/Leaves its cry.

a farm pond/under rainbow-coloured clouds

(haiku by JD, HM, RD, T, and MSb; a mikoshi is a shrine palanquin, usually gilt, in which a Shinto god is carried, with much shouting, around the village on a festival day; a moat 濠 is a water-filled defensive ditch, present in some of the medieval villages we passed on the Yamanobe Way)

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If you wish to contact us about events, publications and other general matters, please do so through the COMMENTS key below this Board.　We will reply to you also through the key. イベント、出版物、その他に関する一般連絡はこのコラム下のCOMMENTS キーにてお願いします。
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***HAILSTONE PUBLICATIONS***
HAILSTONES (2001) a haiku chapbook ￥700 (sold out)
LOST HEIAN (2003) a Japan-in-Asia haiku gathering ￥800 (discount price for last copies)
ENHAIKLOPEDIA (2005) a haiku almanac, incl. haibun ￥1,300 (reprinting now available, slightly larger format)
Lost Heian and Enhaiklopedia are currently available at Junkudo, 7F BAL Building, Kawaramachi, Kyoto, but no discount price for LH
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***HAILSTONE EVENTS***
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
March 12, 2006 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part VII, Saga, Kyoto (Ginko, SG/ACE)
May 7, 2006 Ginko under Fresh Green Leaves, Oyamazaki, Osaka (HM/MK)
August 3, 2006 Summer Evening on the Water, Arashiyama, Kyoto (Kukai, JW/KY)
August 26, 2006 Renga Meeting in Shokado Garden, Yawata, Osaka (GS)
October 14 (Sat) Hailstone's annual Autumn Haike, Yamabe-no-michi, Nara (SG)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please; for Sep/Oct/Nov Hailstone Hibikiai Forum workshops see sep. posting)
November 5 (Sun) Mt. Ogura is Shedding Tears Part VIII, Saga, Kyoto (Lecture-Ginko). Rendezvous: Saga Arashiyama JR Station 13:00. Organizers: SG and ACE
December 9 (Sat) Ginko under Autumn Leaves, Tetsugaku-no-michi, Kyoto. Rendezvous: Hotel Heian no Mori 10:30, W. of Shirakawa-Marutamachi. Organizers: Moya Bligh & Keiko Yurugi
Jan 27 (Sat) 2007 Rengakai, Kukai or Rodokukai sharing? Hankyu Aikawa, Osaka. Organizers: Mari Kawaguchi & xxx.