Renhai Studio Archives

A Collection of Renhai by members of The Renhai Studio

Chromatic Transitions

A Renhai by Vaughn Seward (vs) & Toshiaki Koike (tk)

Rain puddle —
the traffic light changes
green to yellow. /tk

Tall downtown building — /vs
coloured leaves in the window. /tk

Withering bush —
a branch's image ripples
in the pond. /vs

Archive Id: 87
Vaughn Seward: Canada
Toshiaki Koike: Canada (formerly Japan)
Written:: October 1 to November 5, 2008

Theme: Reflecting
Season: Autumn
Kigo: Coloured leaves; Withering bush
Verse Form: 2-3-2, 3-3, 2-3-2 (Rhythm)
Process: Reverse

Links 1/2: Green & yellow; Traffic / Downtown.
Links 2/3: Leaves / Branch.
Links 3/1: Pond / Puddle.

Notes: Toshiaki Koike was born in Iwakura, a town near Nagoya, Japan. Toshiaki attended Shizuoka University where he studied Japanese Literature and was the leader of the University's haiku circle. It was there that he met his future wife Carol who had come to Japan from Canada as an exchange student. Through a later exchange of tanka and haiku poems a romance developed and they were eventually married. Ten years later they moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where Carol's mother was living. Their story is more fully described here:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~publicas/folio/34/20/06.html

Masago met Toshiaki at the 2006 Edmonton Summer Arts Festival where Toshiaki was displaying some of his artwork. They became fast friends and have been meeting regularly every two weeks since then to discuss English language, Japanese language & culture, and haiku poetry. You may remember the Rengay that Toshiaki and I wrote together last January:

http://tinyurl.com/6qvb9g