MITSUAKI KOJIMA

Hydrangea, the woody vine with purple flowers that blooms during the rainy season, is a favorite of haikuists. Color is the main allure of the shrub, write veteran poet Satoru Kanematsu in Nagoya and university scholar Yoko Aisaka in Osaka.

Hydrangea
mom's favorite blue
in the rain

Hydrangea
named Hawaiian blue
deeper than sky or sea

Hiking up to a mountain retreat, Masako Yamada was delighted to find hydrangea in full bloom everywhere she looked. Michael Corr also discovered a perfect mountainside setting to compose his haiku.

Mountain temple
surrounded by hydrangea
misty drizzle

At glade's heart
whispering white mountain
hydrangea

Hydrangea seem to long for the rain in the same way that sunflowers seek the sun notes Janette Cheung, a student of haiku in English at Tezukayama Gakuin University. In the hot summer sun, Yukiko Yamada, a correspondence student at the Asahi Culture Center, was likely feeling as sluggish as the water-loving flowers that she wrote about.

Hydrangea
opens itself
towards the rain

Languidly
under the glaring sun
hydrangeas

Michael Claxton penned his haiku while passing windows on his way to work in Goteburg, Sweden. He also reports that he's getting closer to writing a book of haiku. Murasaki Sagano connected the stars one summer night. She's delighted to announce she's completed her third book of haiku, "Colored Breeze."

We all hurry across
glare--no glare--glare
long commute

Air drawing
one star to the next
summer night

Published by Win-kamogawa in Kyoto, the new collection includes 30 of Murasaki Sagano's best haiku previously printed in the Asahi Haikuist Network. "Colored Breeze" introduces her artisan skills of woodblock carving.

The pictorial wind design that blows from cover to cover in the book was initially carved in the end grain of a woodblock. Green and blue pastels were then applied to the block and pressed onto the pages by the author.

Green gales and green winds can be seen when windstorms rush through summer foliage. Blue breezes can be seen along the beach where the wind whips through waves.

Here are two haiku from the delightful new book distributed by Kamogawa Shuppan.

Colored breeze
curtains billowing
pistachio green

Summer fatigue
stamp on a postcard
upside down

Want to try composing haiku ?

Back numbers

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Aug. 4. Readers are invited to send haiku about their summer vacations to David McMurray at the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011, by fax to 03-5541-8539, or by e-mail to <is@asahi.com>.