Yotsuya Ry () 1958

Born on June 13, 1958, in Hokkaido, Yotsuya Ry is known as both a haiku poet and a haiku, art, and movie critic. He first encountered haiku at ten in his Japanese class in elementary school. He was soon reading haiku guides (“how to books”) by Nakamura Kusatao and Kusumoto Kenkichi, and a saijiki (haiku almanac) edited by Mizuhara Shshi. In 1974 Yotsuya joined the haiku group Taka (Hawk), headed by Fujita Shshi (b. 1926). Shshi demonstrates in his haiku a sensitive approach to the momentary details of nature: “deep in the mountains / thin ice on spring puddles / fades like the blossoms.” Ry also admired the avant-garde work of Nakatsuka Ippekir (1887–1946) and tried writing free-style haiku. His university graduation thesis was on the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), who was a major influence on the surrealists, both poets and artists. Yotsuya published his first haiku collection Jiai (Charity) in 1987. He has written a series of articles about haiku for a French poetry magazine and in 2001 he gave presentations on the subject of “What kind of poem is haiku?” in Bulgaria and Hungary. A revised second edition of his book Jiai was issued in 2004.

until raised to Heaven

I’ll go to fields of green

carrying my glove

Shten suru made gurbu kakae aono yuku

 

 

beyond

the game of catch

drying seaweed

wakame hosu kyatchi bru no mukou gawa