Monday, September 20, 2010

One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each

Dear Friends of Haiku,

We have a book, One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each, with much of any profit we eventually make going to charity - the charitable act of cleaning up Japan's Hill of Poetry! Our NPO needs funds for this.



The 100 contemporary poems comprise 68 haiku and 32 tanka, of which 40 were originally composed in English and 60 in Japanese. All are translated into the other language, with bilingual notes furnished about the literary history, natural history, and environmental issues to which they may allude.

Mount Ogura is situated in the Sagano area of rural Kyoto, and was where Priest Saigyo built his first hermitage, where Fujiwara Teika compiled his Hyakunin Isshu (100 classical poems collection that became the karuta card game), and where Basho wrote his Saga Nikki.

For the past six or seven years, a few of us have been taking groups of haiku poets, local people, students, resident foreigners, etc. up the mountain to clear the tons of rubbish illegally tipped there, and to help with conservation of pine and bamboo forest.

It is a gem of a hill - with views on all sides, some into a gorge - but it needs love. It took 6 years before the editors felt they had enough good poems from which to select. We are there now - the book has been launched - and I (as one of the editors) am wondering to whom to send a review copy.

The 136-page book is unique in its mix of both Japanese and English, haiku and tanka, and in its local literary/environmental thrust. We would like the poems to get a good airing and the haiku/tanka community to enjoy them - some by respected poets (a few well-known), others by locals who until the day they went to Mt. Ogura had probably never written a poem in their lives.

If you, or your journal/site editor would like a copy, ostensibly for review, please shout! If you would like to order one personally, that would be appreciated, of course, and to that end the prices are given below. We will have to see how the stock goes with our free allocation. The full-color covers by Yoshio Kawagoe (two scissor-cut works of Saga and of some rubbish cleared!) are viewable on our Icebox site at quite near the top (or on the Publications page accessed at top right).


Stephen (Tito)

Following the monk
with a key as long as a wand ...
autumn leaves


Prices for anyone wishing to order copies
Ordering from abroad: US$ cash double-wrapped inside your order and another blank sheet in an envelope to Hisashi Miyazaki, 54-16 Hamuro-cho, Takatsuki-shi, Osaka-fu 569-1147, Japan. Prices incl. p & p and have been specially discounted for foreign orders. Pounds sterling also accepted. Please do your own conversion. Hisashi is very efficient and will send you the book(s) by return. hmyzk1307@iris.eonet.ne.jp

1 copy $ 15, 2 copies $ 32, 3 copies $ 49, 4 copies $ 64, 6 copies $ 90, 8 copies $ 116, 10 copies $ 140.

If ordering within Japan, use genkin-kakitome 現金書留 available at your local post office (this cash-secure envelope costs about ¥500). Put your order letter and the exact cash necessary for your book order in the envelope and address it to Mari Kawaguchi, 6-62C-907, Senriyama-nishi, Suita-shi, Osaka-fu〒565-0851 大阪府吹田市千里山西6-62C-907河口万理様 mjk-marik@aria.ocn.ne.jp tel. 06-6821-6074. Prices incl. p & p. Mari is also a longterm member of the Hailstone Haiku Circle. Please trust her.
1 copy ¥1,690, 2 copies ¥2,840, 3 copies ¥4,140, 4 copies ¥4,950, 6 copies ¥7,050, 8 copies ¥9,190, 10 copies ¥10,690.

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