The Ashiya international Haiku Festa

Ashiya International Haiku Festa '98 received more than 9,000 entries , including many haiku from abroad. In addition, the international haiku symposium, which was held in Ashiya and was broadcast live in the NHK TV program"Haiku Ohkoku(kingdom)" in October 1998, was a great success. These events displayed the great interest in haiku.
The city of Ashiya, which has close ties to the great haiku poet Takahama Kyoshi, has decided to continue holding the Ashiya International Haiku Festa, and, starting the year 1999, presents an award honoring Kyoshi -- the first award of this kind in Japan.

Japanese | English

Schedule

Haiku Grand Prix in honor of Takahama Kyoshi
Friday, March 3rd, 2000 from 14:00 to 16:30 in the Ashiya Luna Hall 　

Awards ceremony 　
Review 　
Special lecture by Teiko Inahata entitled "Nature and Humanity" (free of charge)

(About 400-person attended.)
Awards ceremony

Haiku Reception
(participation fee: 7,000 yen per person)
Friday, March 3rd, from 17:30 to 19:00 in the multi-purpose hall of the Ashiya Civic Center
(245-person attended.)

The Sixth International Haiku Symposium
sponsored by the Association of Japanese Classical Haiku (free of charge)
Saturday, March 4th 2000, from 13:30 to 16:30 in the Ashiya Luna Hall
(290-person attended.)

　　Special lecture by Akito Arima
　　The symposium entitled "Nature's Perspective"
　　　Coordinator: Hisashi Inaoka (board member)
　　　Panelists (in random order):: Akito Arima (former Minister of Education, Science and Culture and the honorary chairman of the International Haiku Exchange Association)
Teiko Inahata (president of the Association of Japanese Classical Haiku)
Keiji Katoh (professor emeritus, Tsukuba University)
Robert E. Garrity (professor, the University of Hawaii)
Kim Tae-Jung (Professor of Japanese at the graduate school of Korea Foreign Language University)
Schaumann Werner (associate professor of the International Culture Department at Taisho University)

NHK's "Haiku Ohkoku(kingdom)" was broadcast live to celebrate its completion.
On Saturday, March 4th, 2000 from the kyoshi Commemoration Hall

Sponsors:	The city of Ashiya, Ashiya Foundation for the promotion of Culture, the Kyoshi Commemoration Hall
In cooperation with:	The Ministry of Education, Science and Cultrue, The Yomiuri Shimbun