Yamazaki Hisao (
) 1927
Yamazaki Hisao was born on November 29, 1927, in Tokyo. He studied haiku under Kishi Fusanro, who had been a follower of Yamaguchi Seishi. Hisao was employed at NHK television and is now both vice president of the Haiku Poets Association (Haijin Ky
kai) and the executive director of the Haiku International Association (HIA). He also heads the haiku group Seizan (Green Mountain) and its magazine of the same name.
An example of Hisao’s haiku on other subjects than baseball is the following favorite: “autumn wind—/ wetting the gravestone / the name appears” (akikaze ya nurashite haka no moji ukabu). When paying one’s respects at some gravesites, you can take water with a dipper from a rectangular stone basin (like a shelf with water in it) at the base of the gravestone and pour it on the stone to purify and clean it. The wind dries the face of the stone first and the still wet incisions of the carved letters are darker and stand out. In the poem, the name appears almost magically, summoned by the autumn wind.
Among Hisao’s books are Jinnan (1984) and Hayakunin Cho (1991). The “scorecard” haiku is from his book Seizansho (Green Mountain Notes), published by Furansudo (Chfu City) in 2004. It had originally appeared in Shinkiyose (New Saijiki), published by Kagyusha (Tokyo), in 1995.
spilled ice
has wet the edge
of the scorecard
kachiwari ya sukoabukku no hashi nurashi