Monday, May 1, 2017

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge Month 2017 #2 "the well digger"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's on our Tan Renga Challenge Month 2017. Today I have a nice haiku by Yokoi Yayu (1702-1783), a samurai poet and also the poet who made the haibun, as started by Basho, more beautiful and better. Let me tell you a little bit more about him.

Yayū was born in Nagoya, the first son of Yokoi Tokihira who served the Owari Domain. He inherited the Yokoi House's patrimony at twenty-six and held important posts of the Owari Domain. He was for example yōnin (manager of general affairs), Ōbangashira (chief of guard) and Jisha-Bugyō (manager of religious affairs). In 1754, at age 53, he retired for health reasons. Yayū moved to Maezu (now in Naka-ku, Nagoya), and lived in the Chiutei hermitage. He was a prolific and respected composer of haibun, Classical Chinese poems, waka and Japanese satirical poems, and was an adept of the Japanese tea ceremony.

Yokoi Yayu
And this not so well known haiku poet from the 18th century is the deliverer of our "hokku" for today's Tan Renga Challenge.

the well digger
comes out into the floating world—
the heat!

(c) Yokoi Yayū 

A nice one I think, but maybe not really a haiku, but a senryu. But as you all know in my opinion haiku and senryu are the same, so I don't use the name senryu. So this haiku, or "hokku", is the source for you to associate on to create the second stanza of the Tan Renga.

Have fun!

This eoisode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 6th at noon (CET).

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