The results are out! Congratulations to the winners, and a heartfelt thank you to all of our 312 authors from 47 countries for submitting 597 wonderful, individual, inspiring haiku! | looking for our 2025 Contest & winners? |
BACK FOR 2026: "HaikuFlow" |
| 2026 "EJCA Haiku Anthology" |
(*presenting all the work from participants that had not opted out from getting 'published')
widow's aimless stare
|
|
When Spring had finally arrived and the cherry trees -and in the case of EJCA- the plum tree were blossoming again, following the great successes of the 2022 - 2025 editions of this contest, EJCA once again had called upon everyone's poetic talents, sending out open invitations to get creative and submit a Haiku, suitably themed to celebrate the season. We are privileged to see so many of you re-joining every year, and we enjoyed seeing quite a few more new participants; we hope everyone had fun while contemplating! Kids & Youth: We loved to see again substantially more submissions this year from aspiring young poets, and we also introduced a "Japanese Youths submission" category! Winners and a selection of poems are presented on this page and in the September/October moshi moshi and/or our social media channels. | 春がやっと訪れ、桜の木々が、そしてEJCAの場合は梅の木が再び花開く中、２０２２年 - ２０２5年の各回で大成功を収めたこのコンテストに続き、EJCAは再び皆様の詩的才能を呼び覚ましていました。EJCAは皆様にクリエイティブな才能を発揮していただき、季節をお祝いするのにふさわしいテーマの俳句をご投句いただくよう、ご招待いたしました。 毎年多くの皆様が再参加してくださる光景を目にする特権に恵まれ、また新しい参加者の方々もかなり増えたことを嬉しく思っており、皆様が思索を楽しまれたことを願っております！ お子様・青少年の皆様： 今年は将来有望な若い詩人の皆様からの投句が大幅に増えたことを大変嬉しく思っております！ 入賞者と選抜作品は、このページおよび９月・１０月号のもしもし、ならびに当団体のソーシャルメディアチャンネルでご覧いただけます。 |
|
Jury: Shajin Watanabe, this year for the second time supported by Kiki & Brooklin from STARK Poets, St. Albert. Shajin Watanabe sensei: Watanabe sensei is a protege to Kusatao Nakamura and was awarded the Saitama Literature Award. After his retirement from teaching Japanese literature (kokugo) at Urawa Akenohoshi Girls' Senior High School, he taught haiku poetry at Saitama Police Academy for a number of years. Currently, he is the chair of Haiku Society, "Sumeraki, " while teaching haiku at numerous workshops. | -参加資格 －EJCA会員である必要はなく、どなたでも応募できます。 兼題（事前に課題として出された「季語」の意の語）を「日本語による俳句または英語による3行詩」に詠みこんだ未発表の作品を募集します。 ・投句数：1季語に1作品、計2作品まで応募可。 兼題 －ご自分で選んだ春の季語 ご投稿いただいた全ての作品は選者により審査され、それぞれの部門の入賞作品が決められます。 応募部門・賞 俳句部門（日本語部門）優秀賞賞金３０ドル 準優秀賞 賞金２０ドル 三行詩部門（英語部門）優秀賞賞金３０ドル 準優秀賞 賞金２０ドル １６歳以下の部門（英語もしくは日本語）優秀賞賞金３０ドル
選者：渡辺舎人 渡辺舎人先生： 渡辺先生は中村草田男の弟子であり、埼玉文芸賞の受賞者です。浦和明の星女子高等学校の現代国語の教諭から引退された後、埼玉警察学校にて俳句を長年教えておられました。現在は俳句結社すめらきの代表であり、また数々の講座・句会にて俳句指導をされています。 |
These are the 2026 prize categories. |
Best overall - Japanese language Haiku
(This year, the best and second best overall categories were shared among 3 equally strong participants)
Prize: 20$ / individual
髪を結ふ目にも霾ひと日なり David McMurray （カナダ） | While tying my hair / the falling yellow dust blew / even in my eyes David McMurray (Canada) |
花びらを載せて幼なの爪粧ふ なかやせつお （カナダ） | Petals resting there— / a little girl adorns / her tiny fingernails Setsuo Nakaya (Canada) |
宴尽き週明けの桜所在なく なかやせつお （カナダ） | Parties are over/ Monday’s cherry blossoms have / no place to belong Setsuo Nakaya (Canada) |
はなびらに願いの行方蓮華草 平紀子(カナダ) | Upon these petals— / the fate of my wish is rest/ the milk vetch blossoms Noriko Taira (Canada) |
Second best overall - Japanese language Haiku
(not explicitly awarded)
Best Overall - English language Haiku
Prize: 30$
widow's aimless stare
numb to the beauty
of early daffodils
Chintha Shyamalie, Sri Lanka
Prize: 20$
Who but the lonely
Would gaze at the blooming rose
And think about you
JV Presogna - United States of America
holding hands Darrell Lindsey - United States of America |
Prize: 30$
春一番木々が目覚めふくをきる ビーティみゆう （カナダ） | The first spring gale came/ the trees are waking up and/putting on their dresses (fuku) Miyu Beattie - Canada |
Best overall - Young Poet (16 years of age and under)
Prize: 30$
First autumn morning.
A spiderweb gathers light
the grass cannot hold.
Nataly Almomani - United States of America
Nataly Almomani - United States of America
Second best overall - Young Poet (16 years of age and under)
Prize: 20$
Catkins and Willows Fatima Nadeem - Pakistan |
|
16歳以上 入選作品・句評 ・髪を結ふ目にも霾ひと日なり David McMurray （カナダ） 松尾芭蕉は『奧の細道』の初めの旅立ちの段に「予もいづれの年よりか、片雲の風に誘はれて、漂白の思ひやまず･･････」と記している。掲句の季語の「霾（つちふる）・土降る」とは、春の季節風によってモンゴルや中国北部の黄土地帯で舞い上がった砂塵が降る、意であるが、空を縦横無尽に吹き渡る「風」は我々人間の日々の生活・文学・音楽の世界にもその「影」を落としていく。 「霾る」が季語として認識されたのは大正時代あたりからで、特に西日本では「霾る」現象が多いが、関東平野では「霾る」害は広範に見られ、農家では栽培用に覆ったビニール・シートが強風に捲れ上がり、近くの送電線に引っかかり、電車の通行・停電の害を与えたりする。 掲句では、春の、とある日、道を行くとき吹く強風に髪が乱れたので、髪を束ねているとき、目にも黄砂が飛び込んで来たというのである。 外国の地カナダの暮しのなかで常住坐臥、日本の「俳句」を詠む生活が息づいている。何事もそうであるが、俳句もまた詠もうとしない限り、一句は生れて来ないのである。 文学もまたnext one なのである。 ・花びらを載せて幼なの爪粧ふ なかやせつお （カナダ） 俳句の「花びら」とは桜の花弁（かべん）を云う。そしてその「花びら」に幼い女児が幼いなりにその美しさ可愛さを知っているのである。 女子校に30年余り勤めて知ったのは、女性たち全般の最高級の評価は「可愛い」ということである。「可愛い」とは、対象に「慈しみ」を持ち、「守りたい」という心からの発露の語で、そこに女性の源が宿っていると云えよう。大人の男性諸氏は滅多に「可愛い」の語は発しないが、世の女性たちを幼老に関わらず、至るところ・物に「可愛い」を発する。その「可愛い」には女性本来の天性、特質特性が宿っているのである。 掲句には、幼児自身が「花びら」を指先に飾り、それを美とするこころが宿っている。こういう「爪粧ふ」一場面は大人になってもふっと思い出される美の原点の一つのものである。 宴尽き週明けの桜所在なく なかやせつお 「桜」のパッと咲き,さっと散るその「儚さ」「潔さ」を称賛する心が自ずと、「武士道」と「日本人の心性」を育てて行った。太平洋戦争時はお国のためにためらわずさっと命を差し出す「特攻隊意識」が強調、強要され、国民の憤激、戦闘意欲を高揚していった。 掲句のように我国の100歳近くの方たちには、昭和という時代の思想に翻弄された「所在ない」こころの奧に宿っているのだろう。 はなびらに願いの行方蓮華草 平紀子(カナダ) 前句は「花占い」。花びらを一枚ずつちぎりながら「好き・嫌い」と繰り返し、最後に残った一枚のときの言葉が占いの結果となる。「好き」なら脈あり、「嫌い」なら今はまだ距離がある、ということになる。どちらにせよ、その恋心を応援するものである。 掲句はまだ幼さが強いため、「花占い」よりも「花びら」で指先「粧ふ」の美のこころを主とするものであり、そういう所に幼児の「可愛さ」が強調されている。この「可愛さ」がその女性が天性に備わった「美観」に蓄積されて行くのである。 16歳以下 春一番木々が目覚めふくをきる [] ビーティみゆう 若い人の瑞々しい感性から詠まれた一句。 「ふくをきる」は満開の桜一本をさっと掴み詠んだ。従来にない新しい「桜」観である。「ふく」が「服」であり、「福」であると云いたいのであろう。 | Haiku -Japanese Division Selection & evaluation by Shajin Watanabe, resides in Saitama, Japan Over 16 years old Haiku: Commentary: Matsuo Bashō, in the opening "departure" passage of Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), wrote: "I too, from I know not which year, have been lured by a wisp of cloud drifting on the wind, and the urge to wander has never left me…" The season word in this haiku, tsuchifuru (霾, "earth falling"), refers to the dust that spring seasonal winds lift from the loess regions of Mongolia and northern China and carry down again as it falls. But the "wind" that sweeps freely across the sky in every direction also casts its "shadow" over our daily lives, and over the worlds of literature and music. Tsuchifuru came to be recognized as a season word around the Taishō era. The phenomenon occurs especially often in western Japan, but its harm is also widely seen on the Kantō Plain, where the plastic sheeting that farmers use to cover their crops gets peeled up by strong gusts, catches on nearby power lines, and causes trouble such as train disruptions and blackouts. In this haiku, on a particular spring day, a strong wind blowing as the author walked along disturbed his hair — and as he gathered it up to tie it back, yellow dust flew in even as far as their eyes. Living abroad in Canada, a life of composing Japanese haiku goes on quietly, woven into the author's everyday existence. As with anything, a haiku is never born unless one sets out to compose it. Literature, too, is always about producing the next work (the next one). Haiku: Commentary: In haiku, "petals" (花びら) refers to cherry blossom petals. And in this haiku, a young girl, in her own childlike way, already senses the beauty and charm of those petals. Having worked at a girls' school for over thirty years, I came to learn that the highest praise women in general can give is kawaii ("cute/adorable"). Kawaii is a word that springs from the heart — a feeling of tenderness toward something, a wish to protect it — and one could say that in it lies something of the very wellspring of womanhood. Adult men rarely utter the word kawaii, but women, young and old alike, apply it everywhere, to all manner of things. Within that word kawaii resides women's innate nature, their essential characteristics and qualities. In this haiku dwells the heart of a small child who decorates her own fingertips with "petals" and, in doing so, finds them beautiful. Such a scene — "adorning one's nails" — is one of those origin-points of beauty that, even after we grow into adulthood, suddenly comes back to mind. Haiku: Commentary: Cherry blossoms burst into bloom all at once, then scatter away in an instant. Admiration for the cherry blossom’s fleeting beauty and graceful fall had helped shape both bushidō—the way of the samurai—and a distinctive sensibility within the Japanese spirit. During the Pacific War, this was intensified and forced into the "kamikaze consciousness" — the readiness to offer up one's life for one's country without hesitation — which stirred the nation's fighting spirit and indignation to a fever pitch. As in this haiku, one senses that for those in Japan now nearing 100 years of age, this feeling of being "without a place to belong" (所在ない) still lingers deep within hearts that were once swept up in the prevailing ideas of the time of the Shōwa era. Haiku: Commentary: The preceding poem was about "flower fortune-telling" (hana-uranai). One plucks the petals one by one, repeating "loves me / loves me not," and the word spoken on the very last petal becomes the fortune's verdict. If it lands on "loves me," there is hope; if "loves me not," there is still some distance to go for now. Either way, the practice roots for that budding romantic feeling. The poem discussed above is still very much marked by childlike innocence, so rather than "flower fortune-telling," its main concern is the beauty of "adorning" one's fingertips with "petals" — and it is in this that the child's kawaii-ness is emphasized. This kawaii-ness is what gradually accumulates into the innate "aesthetic sense" a woman is born with. Haiku: Under 16 years old Commentary: The haiku is composed from the fresh, dewy sensibility of a young poet. The phrase “fuku wo kiru” captures, in one swift stroke, the image of a single cherry tree in full bloom. It is a new way of seeing "cherry blossoms" unlike any before. The poet surely means for fuku to carry a double meaning: both 服 ("clothes," as in "putting on clothes") and 福 ("good fortune," as in "cutting into/claiming good fortune"). |
|
From wikipedia: Haiku (俳句) is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a kireji, or "cutting word", 17 on (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a kigo, or seasonal reference. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as senryū. Haiku originated as an opening part of a larger Japanese poem called renga. These haiku written as an opening stanza were known as hokku and over time writers began to write them as stand-alone poems. Haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century. What you should keep in mind: For haiku inspiration, look closely at everything around you in nature, at home, at school, and at work. Write your draft of a haiku, letting yourself be free and creative. Then ask the following questions about your haiku to help you improve them.
| What you should keep in mind (continued):
(adapted from Michael Dylan Welch's excellent blog: https://www.graceguts.com/essays/haiku-checklist) |
Please contact: haiku@ejca.org
Contact us © EJCA 2026 |