2022 Tokutomi Memorial Contest Results
Contest Results Announced by the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society
by Kathabela Wilson, 2022 Contest Chair
The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society announces the winners of the 2022 Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi Haiku Contest.
The judges for the 2022 contest was Emiko Miyashita and Yuzo Ono. Yuki Teikei is deeply indebted to them for so graciously sharing their time and expertise.
- Emiko Miyashita (1954- ), a Japanese haiku poet, resides in Tokyo. She has been a regular commentator for Geppo’s “Dojin’s Corner,”the quarterly journal of YTHS, since 2014. She is a member of Haiku Canada, a council to the Haiku International Association, an executive director of the English-Speaking Union of Japan, and a director of the JAL Foundation. She became a dojin of YTHS in 2022.
- Yuzo Ono (1968- ), a Japanese haiku poet and critic, lives in Kawasaki. He was educated at the University of Tokyo and the Royal College of Art (UK). He won the Modern Haiku Association Award for Criticism, and the New Talent Award (honorable mention), respectively. The anthology “Haiku Poets Born in the Post-war Era” (Mainichi Newspaper Press) chose him as one of 109 leading contemporary haiku poets of Japan.
In addition to the four prize-winning haiku, ten equally-ranked haiku were chosen by the judges for Honorable Mention.
1st Prize:
origami fans
National Geographic’s
recycled pages
~ Alison Woolpert
2nd Prize:
crazy quilt blanket
where the yellow stitches end
mom’s old yarns begin
~ Marilyn Ashbaugh
3rd Prize (tie):
tea kettle’s faint hiss
just before the whistle blows—
winter seclusion
~ Lynda Zwinger
grandmother’s fingers
soothing a tear from my cheek
the smell of fresh mint
~ Marcia Burton
An Honorable Mention was awarded to each of the following people:
Roger Abe, Kathy Goldbach, Lisa Anne Johnson, Shelli Jankowski-Smith, Marietta McGregor, Linda Papanicolaou, Susan Polizzotto, Clark Strand, Neal Whitman (2).
Congratulations to all of these poets and great gratitude to the judges.
The illustrated brochure of all the haiku and the judges’ comments on the winners may be viewed by clicking on the brochure image at the top of this page, and/or downloaded here.