ebb tide
watching my daughter
fall in love
--Wendy Toth-Notarnicola (Long Valley, New Jersey)

* * *

green seashell
washed ashore a while ago
moving by itself now
--Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta (Hyderabad, India)

* * *

winter waves
wind turbines moan
no one can return
--Yukiko Yamada (Yoshikura, Fukushima)

* * *

first of the year
footprints of men and birds
together
--Daniela Misso (Umbria, Italy)

* * *

boat festival
every oar caressing
its own moon
--Aparna Pathak (Haryana, India)

* * *

thoughts scatter
walking the high tide
of the mind
--Jill Spealman (Glen Ellyn, Illinois)

* * *

sinking
the illusion
of us
--C.X. Turner (Birmingham, England)

* * *

autumn sea
again reminded about
being a woman
--Richa Sharma (Ghaziabad, India)

* * *

return of the fishing boat ...
smoke from the fisherman’s pipe
vertical
--Silva Trstenjak (Strigova, Croatia)

* * *

harbor lights--
sounds of washing dishes
from a yacht
--Tomislav Maretic (Zagreb, Croatia)

------------------------------
FROM THE NOTEBOOK
------------------------------

deep summer’s yellow
the whole mountainside turns
to face the sun
--Mark Miller (Shoalhaven, New South Wales)

The photo-haikuist received a grand prix award in the 12th Setouchi-Matsuyama International Photo-Haiku Contest for a photo-haiku that moved mountains. His late summertime haiku vibrantly interacted with a photo of a sunflower-covered hill in Higashi-Matsuyama Agriculture Park in Saitama Prefecture. Higashi-Matsuyama and Matsuyama have an agreement to mutually promote tourism to each other’s sightseeing spots.

Karin Hedetniemi, a Canadian photo-haikuist living on Vancouver island in British Columbia, won an award for excellence by composing a haiku that braced readers to be on the alert for a pending ocean storm. A lighthouse and watch-keeper’s hilltop house loom in the foreground of the photograph supplied by the city of Yokosuka, which has an agreement with Matsuyama to exchange tourist information. Her first line called for our immediate attention, and captured the trepidation of a stormy night. In contrast to the wildness of the weather, stacking books by the fireside added a sense of comfort and warmth.

The 10 haiku highlighted at the top of this column were entered into a contest category that requested contestants to take a photo of the sea and write three well-considered lines that could suggest a new dimension for the viewer to reflect upon. A grand prix was given to Wendy Toth-Notarnicola, who watched her daughter’s dreams take hold. Her text mirrored a photo of a calm sea with a romantic couple wading into an effervescent ebb tide in the foreground.

In all, the contest attracted 4,312 artistic works. This time 2,483 contestants wrote in English, exceeding those composed in the Japanese language.

Vandana Parashar won an award for excellence in a category that asked contestants to write about one of seven photos of Japanese tourist spots provided by the organizers in Setouchi-Matsuyama. The haikuist’s challenge was writing about a photo that was taken at sunset in front of Mitsuhama Station in Matsuyama. She wrote this endearing text about slowly becoming friendlier with her new neighbors, but not too friendly.

evening walk
the new neighbor knows me
by my dog’s name

British haikuist Anne-Marie McHarg received the grand prix in this category for narrating a journey to another world. Directly facing a photo supplied by the contest organizers of a red bridge that leads to a small temple, she wrote this haiku.

I take this path
From one world to the next
Summer pines

Mircea Moldovan received honorable mention for a tranquil haiku penned while looking out at the sea from Nakajima island, Ehime Prefecture.

soft waves
between fishermen
moonshine

Tracy Davidson from Warwickshire, U.K., won an honorable mention in the contest for this haiku that matched well with a photo of a keeper feeding his deer on Kashima island, Ehime Prefecture. During this inflationary time and higher grocery bills, her readers can empathize with these thoughts.

more mouths to feed
stretching out
the vegetables

Inspired by the contest organizer’s photo of four empty seats beside a vending machine in front of an old bread shop, Vladislav Hristov submitted this commiserating haiku from Bulgaria.

the smell of fresh baked bread
I open my grandmother’s
recipe notebook

An entry by Emiko Miyashita in Tokyo received honorable mention for catching the colorful sounds from downtown Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture.

vermilion streetcar
rattles down the street
the first star in the evening

Luminita Suse, a Canadian poet from Ottawa, caught the attention of readers saddened by unrequited love.

expired amulet
now I am in love
with my solitude

Three university students were honorably mentioned for their haiku efforts in the category for cities that cooperate on promoting tourism with Matsuyama. Chinatsu Hamada wrote a haiku about visiting Natsume Soseki’s former residence in Kumamoto. Raichi Uchida wrote about touring the Yuzo Saeki Memorial Museum in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Motohisa Nagakari contrasted the ever-changing trends of the times with a sense of nostalgia for a photo taken along the ancient road of Ikaruga in Nara Prefecture.

summer winds
taking the sound
a pen moves

* * *

Memorial museum
With a friend
The autumn of art

* * *

on the road
the trend of the times and
old days

Congratulations to everyone who contributed to the success of the 12th Setouchi-Matsuyama International Photo-Haiku Contest in cooperation with The Asahi Shimbun.

* * *

David McMurray has been writing the Asahi Haikuist Network column since April 1995, first for the Asahi Evening News. He is on the editorial board of the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, columnist for the Haiku International Association, and is editor of Teaching Assistance, a column in The Language Teacher of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT).

McMurray is professor of intercultural studies at The International University of Kagoshima where he lectures on international haiku. At the Graduate School he supervises students who research haiku. He is a correspondent school teacher of Haiku in English for the Asahi Culture Center in Tokyo.

McMurray judges haiku contests organized by The International University of Kagoshima, Ito En Oi Ocha, Asahi Culture Center, Matsuyama City, Polish Haiku Association, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seinan Jo Gakuin University, and Only One Tree.

McMurray’s award-winning books include: “Teaching and Learning Haiku in English” (2022); “Only One Tree Haiku, Music & Metaphor” (2015); “Canada Project Collected Essays & Poems” Vols. 1-8 (2013); and “Haiku in English as a Japanese Language” (2003).