New Release
KYOTO HAIKU
Celebrating World Book Day and commemorating Madoka Mayuzumi’s 30 years as a haiku poet, we are glad to announce the launch of Madoka Mayuzumi’s new book, “KYOTO HAIKU – English Edition,” on 23 April 2024!
111 haiku and essays introduced on this account are now in the beautiful book. Paperback and Kindle app versions are available on Amazon worldwide. Please get a copy at Amazon in your country.
Profile
Madoka Mayuzumi
Haiku Poet
Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Madoka Mayuzumi first received acclaim when poems she submitted won an award from publisher Kadokawa Shoten in 1994. Her haiku are notable for their romantic and urban flavor and for bringing new elements into the tradition.
Her first book, B-men no Natsu (B-side Summer), enjoyed unprecedented sales for a haiku collection, and the devoted following it earned led to the formation of the “Hepburn” Club, the only all-female coterie in Japan. The club launched the monthly haiku magazine Gekkan Hepburn in August 1996 and disbanded in March 2006 after publishing 100 issues.
In 1999, Mayuzumi successfully trekked the Way of St. James (Route of Santiago de Compostela), an 800-kilometer pilgrimage from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (France) to Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Her haiku and essays about the journey were later serialized in the Yomiuri Shimbun, a major national newspaper in Japan, and published in the book Hoshi no Tabibito (The Pilgrim to Compostela). Between 2001 and 2002, Mayuzumi visited South Korea five times, during all four seasons, to hike the nearly 500 kilometers from Busan to Seoul. Her haiku and essays about this journey, too, were serialized in the Yomiuri Shimbun and published as a book.
In 2002, Mayuzumi’s fifth haiku collection, Kyoto no Koi (Kyoto Romance), won the Kenkichi Yamamoto Literary Prize.
In December 2006, amidst many reports in the media of bullying, suicide, and other depressing news, Mayuzumi began delivering haiku e-mail newsletters to cell phone users throughout Japan free of charge to cheer people up.
From April 2010 to March 2011, Mayuzumi was in France as a Japan Cultural Envoy on a program sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.
Mayuzumi is now the leader of a project called Rediscovery and Redefining Japan, which aims to revitalize Japan through the rediscovery of local culture, traditions, and history.
She serves as a member of The Governing Council of East Japan Railways Cultural Foundation (EJRCF); she is a Visiting Professor at Kitasato University, Showa Women’s University, and Kyoto Tachibana University; an Emeritus Director of the Basho Memorial Museum in Ogaki; an Adviser of the incorporated nonprofit organization Fellowship for Camino de Santiago Japan; and an Ambassador of Iitate village, Fukushima.
The Haiku Project
