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The new century promises lots of creative haiku poetry and quite possibly the next haiku master. In May 2000, I was among 657 haikuists, including 196 from outside Japan, asked to help with a worldwide search for a poet with a deep understanding and appreciation of the haiku spirit and its techniques to receive the Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Grand Prize and its accompanying Y5 million cash award. The competition was organized by the Ehime Culture Foundation, Ehime Prefecture, the city of Matsuyama and other sponsors, in the hope that the award would enhance awareness of haiku as the shortest form of world poetry. The recipient of the award, announced in August, was Yves Bonnefoy (1923- ), a French poet and university professor. Bonnefoy's recent work has revolutionized traditional French poetry in Europe-a suitable achievement for the first recipient of the prize named for Shiki, who himself brought about a revolution in the tradition of haiku in Japan.
Over the past 400 years, only four men have been recognized among academics, authors and leaders of haiku associations as masters of haiku poetry: Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Yosa Buson (1716-1783), Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827) and Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902). How can a world of difference lie in their ordering of just 17 phonograms, the syllables of the Japanese language? Surely the number of different permutations of these compositions should have been exhausted by now. But haiku continues to flourish, sown in the past and replenished in the present. I composed the following haiku after my father died-then I found that he had passed along many of his things to me that I could continue to use during my lifetime:
Realizing every time I cough father's cough
Basho's introductory poems were able to bring minds together, Buson brought artistry to the fore and Issa introduced the poetry of everyday life found in the city, while Shiki focused on a new individualism. In chronological order, here is one selection from each of the past masters:
Furyu no hajime ya oku no taue uta Poetry began
deep in the heartland rice-planting songs
Yukaze ya mizu aosagi no hagi wo utsu Evening breeze water laps the legs of the blue heron
Yare utsu na hae ga te wo suru ashi wo suru Don't...