Touching the Moon: Twenty-Four Shikishi

First published in Frogpond 41:1, Winter 2018, pages 75–86, in celebration of the Haiku Society of America’s fiftieth anniversary. A PDF version of this essay is also available on the Haiku Society of America website. These shikishi were also exhibited at the California State Library in Sacramento, California, from December 2017 to April 2018 (see photo below). Also see the September 1978 exhibit photos.

For the annual meeting of 1978, the critic Kenkichi Yamamoto and the haiku poet Sumio Mori were invited by the HSA to come from Japan to speak on haiku. Held on September 17 at Japan House in New York City, this historic occasion was opened by HSA President Cor van den Heuvel welcoming the distinguished speakers and thanking those who had helped make the event possible, especially the co-sponsor, Japan Society, HSA vice president Yasko Karaki, Kazuo Sato of Tokyo’s Museum of Haiku Literature, and Japan Air Lines. [See 1978 exhibit photos.] A short address by Yukio Sugano, representing the Consul General of Japan, stressed the universality of haiku and the value of the HSA’s efforts on its behalf. Yasko Karaki introduced the two speakers. Takako Lento interpreted for them as they gave their talks.

Kenkichi Yamamoto (1907–1988) is described in A Haiku Path as being “the most influential haiku critic and commentator in modern times” (163). Sumio Mori (1919–2010) was editor of the haiku journal Kanrai (Cold Thunder) from 1957 to 1971, and was one of Japan’s leading haiku poets. The talks given by these two poets and scholars appeared in Frogpond 1:4, 1978, and in A Haiku Path (pages 163 to 173).

As is common among the Japanese, the two visitors came with a generous gift, as described in A Haiku Path (174):

Messrs. Yamamoto and Mori brought with them a set of twenty-four haiku written on shikishi by contemporary Japanese haiku poets as a gift from the Museum of Haiku Literature in Tokyo to the Haiku Society of America. A shikishi is a more or less square decorative paperboard and is commonly used by the haiku poet to write his haiku for presentation or display. The twenty-four shikishi were displayed at Japan House during the HSA annual meeting.

Those in the audience each received a copy of Haiku Selected for Shikishi, with one-line translations of the twenty-four haiku by Hiroaki Sato. The booklet was published by Ikuta Press in Kobe, Japan, in an edition of 500 copies, which were also given to current and future HSA members until they ran out. The following poets were represented by the shikishi (names given here in Japanese order, surname first):

Over the years, the shikishi were displayed occasionally at HSA meetings, and were featured at the Dalton School in New York City at the 2003 Haiku North America conference. In 2006, the HSA deeded the shikishi to the American Haiku Archives, where they joined the rest of the HSA’s official archives at the California State Library in Sacramento. At about this time, William J. Higginson estimated the value of these shikishi at between $100,000 and $120,000, based on the typical rate at which original shikishi by these famous poets would sell individually. In the decade since then, their value has gone much higher. As a set, their value is now perhaps as much as $500,000, but as a gift their value is priceless.

On September 26, 1998, HSA president Kristen Deming wrote to Dr. Kevin Starr, California State Librarian. She said “Thank you for your letter of congratulations on the Haiku Society of America’s 30th Anniversary. . . . You can rightly be proud of the Library’s haiku collection, surely the richest and most inclusive in the country.” She also said that the society “has an important collection of haiku shikishi (original calligraphy on special paper display cards) by some of Japan’s most famous haiku poets, which we would like to send to the Archives in the future. Perhaps someday you would like to exhibit them at the Library along with translations and some information about the poets.”

These shikishi also resonate with importance for the entire United States and beyond. In Japan, the moon is revered as one of haiku’s most important kigo, or season words. Through haiku, Japan has shown the moon to the world in a new way. And through the efforts of countless poets, translators, and scholars, the world can now see haiku. The poems in these shikishi represent not just their authors but also the light of the haiku moon as a gift to the world. As with Teijo Nakamura’s poem included among these shikishi, we are perpetually invited to come outside to celebrate the moon. We trust that these shikishi created by twenty-four of Japan’s leading poets of the twentieth century will continue to inspire all ages of haiku writers in the United States and beyond for many years. The Haiku Society of America and the American Haiku Archives extend much gratitude to the Museum of Haiku Literature in Tokyo and to all the contributing poets for their lasting generosity.

Twenty-Four Shikishi

Translations by Michael Dylan Welch and Emiko Miyashita

Names are given in the Japanese order, surname first. Image scans courtesy of the American Haiku Archives, California State Library, Sacramento, California.