April,
Match 1:
Report by Doris Kasson |
 |
The first round of The Global Haiku Tournament has been completed. The
tournament, which is being sponsored by the World Haiku Club, runs through June
of this year.
In the weekend elimination round, two of the four competing teams jousted for
three hours on the Tournament's Web site
The two participating teams were:
THE SEVEN
SAMURAI:
Linda Robeck (captain), Mark Brooks, DeVar Dahl, Paul Miller, Fay Aoyagi, Alan J
Summers and Billie Wilson
http://www.haikai.org/7samurai/index.html
and
THE
SHICHIFUKUJIN:
Judith Gorgone (captain), Karina Klesko (vice captain), Michael Baribeau,
Eiko Yachimoto, Mary Angela Nangini and Semi (Terrie Relf).
http://www.netpro.ne.jp/~aminet/pages/whcght_shichifukujin/shichifukujin.html
Each poet had been asked to pen three haiku, two using a kigo (season word) plus
one poem in free form. A renku-maki (multi-authored linked poem)
from each team was also a part of the competition.
The kigo were "spring clouds" and "snowmelt," set by
judges Michael McClintock and Paul McNeil respectively. Variations of
"snowmelt" considered acceptable were "melting snow"
or "meltwater."
For the renku-maki, the hokku:
spring wind
blowing mares' tails and clouds
along the ridge
was offered by Judge Janice Bostock .
The session began with preliminaries being posted two hours before the actual
match. Leading the cheering from the sidelines was Rob Scott with a sports
cliché,
Remember a champion team will always beat a
team of champions.
And so the bantering began.
During the match, the captain of the Seven Samurai team, Linda Robeck, seemed
well prepared for introducing her teams' haikus by making generous use of the
allotment of words allowed team captains. This put the Shichifukujin team on the
defensive from the very start as they allowed team members, whose word allotment
was deemed smaller, to make some presentations. A few cries of "foul"
were heard but died out as the teams settled down to the battle of comment and
critique.
[The entire match, including all individual haiku and renku has been archived by
WHC Policy Coordinator Debi Bender and can be found using the following URL]:
http://www.netpro.ne.jp/~aminet/pages/whctournament2002.html
After the renku-maki and all the the kigo and/or free form haiku had been
presented, c & c (comment & criticism) began. This gave observers
insight into what the poets themselves thought constitutes a "good"
haiku (or, in some instances, makes a haiku at all). This is the part of the
tournament that seems most appealing to the spectators, as it is a part learning
experience and a part emotional one. Linda Robeck (Seven Samurai) summed
it up quite well saying,
I truly enjoy hearing the views of the many
authors as to what makes a strong poem and what might weaken it.
Judith Gorgone of the Shichifukujin Team summarized her team's feelings about
the contest as a whole saying
...in working together as a team to create,
we shared not only fond names, but fond memories. Most of all we shared our
souls. We learned from each other all while learning more about ourselves.
Together we celebrated this unusual art form in the great splendor of "Haikai's
hai"!
After the presentations along with all the critiques had been completed, an
international panel of judges began their deliberations. Finally on Tuesday,
April 30, the results of these deliberations were tabulated with the final score
being: Shichifukujin 6 - Seven Samurai 22, and the
winner was declared to be:
THE SEVEN SAMURAI
So it is The Seven Samurai who will face the winner of next month's round in
final competition on June 29th. The next round of the tournament will be held on
May 25: Pointed Radishes vs The Tapping Woodpeckers.
The tournament judges were: Janice Bostok (Australia), George Swede (Canada),
Michael McClintock (USA), along with Yasuomi Koganei (Japan), Paul MacNeil
(USA), Susumu Takiguchi (Japan/UK) and the Chief Judge, Ferris Gilli (USA).
Paul Conneally, World Haiku Tournament Director, commented:
Congratulations to both teams who both wrote
some stunning haiku and
two wonderful renku.
He noted that the judges' comments on their
selected best haiku from each section would be posted online on the
WHCtournament site soon.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WHCtournament
All whose involved in the competition this past weekend expressed a debt of
gratitude to Paul Conneally, Tournament Director, for his help, patience
/forbearance. Kudos also went to Susumu Takiguchi. WHC chairman, The Japan
Times, for their interest, to the panel of judges, and to Mitsugu
"Mitty" Abe whose idea all this was in the first place.
Votes for favorite haiku, renku and comments from spectators and contestants
alike followed the close of the match.
Schedule of Events and
Announcements:
http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wa/inter-arts/
The
teams' homepages are accessible from:
http://www.netpro.ne.jp/~aminet/pages/whctournament2002.html
Prizes are presented to winners by the World
Haiku Club and by the Japan Times.
The Final Match took place online on 29 June
from 12:00~16:00 at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WHCtournament/
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