The 2023 Kiyoshi & Kiyoko Tokutomi
Memorial Haiku Contest
Enter the oldest USA-based international haiku contest honoring traditional Japanese haiku!
In-hand Deadline: Wednesday May 31, 2023
Prizes: $100 $50 $25 to the top three haiku
Contest Rules
- In-hand deadline is May 31, 2023.
- Haiku must be in English.
- Haiku must each have 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. The contest standard for determining a syllable is The American Heritage Dictionary, 5th Edition.
- Each haiku must use only one kigo, which must be from the contest list.
- Haiku with more than one recognized kigo will be disqualified.
2023 Contest Kigo List
| New Year: | Year of the Rabbit, first birdsong¹ |
| Spring: | frog, fledgling, smiling mountain² |
| Summer: | rose, fragrant (or scented) breeze/wind³ , ice cream |
| Autumn: | autumn deepens, yellow leaves, Obon, Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead |
| Winter: | icicle4 , snow angel5, rabbit |
Notes:
¹ “first birdsong” (初声 hatsukoe, literally, “first voice”) refers to the first bird that one hears on New Year’s Day.
² “smiling mountain” (yama warau 山笑う). This kigo, over 1000 years old, originated with the Chinese painter Guo Xi (1020-1090) who observed that “The mountains in spring are light and seductive as if smiling.” For more information see “Smiling Mountain,” Phillip Kennedy, Geppo XLVIII, March, 2023.
³ “fragrant (or scented) breeze/wind” (kaze kaoru)
4 “icicle” (tsurara)
5 “snow angel,” a new kigo particular to North America
Email Entries Preferred
To: Kath Abela Wilson at poetsonsite@gmail.com
Subject: 2023 Tokutomi Contest, Your Name
Please single space your haiku in the body of the email.
Fee: $8.00 per 3 haiku. Go to: PayPal. At “Send money to” type in YukiTeikei@msn.com At “Add a note” type: “Contest,” your name, and the number of haiku.
Paper Entries
Mail to:
-
- YTHS Tokutomi Contest
- Kath Abela Wilson, Contest Chair
- c/o Yuki Teikei Haiku Society
- P.O. Box 412
- Monterey, CA 93942
Fee: $8.00 per page of three haiku. Include check made out to Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. Place 3 poems per 8 ½ x 11 page and send 1 copy of each page with your name and address. Overseas entrants use International Postal Money Order in U.S. currency only.
Entry Details
- Entries must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.
- Previous winning haiku are not eligible. No limit on number of entries.
- Entries will not be returned and no refunds will be given.
- The contest is open to anyone, except for the YTHS President and Contest Chair.
- Final selection will be made by one or more distinguished haiku poets.
- YTHS may print winning poems and commentary in its journal, website, annual anthology, and brochures. The judges and contest results will be announced at the 2023 YTHS Annual Haiku Retreat, October 12-15, at Asilomar. Soon afterward they will appear on the YTHS website: https://yths.org/
- For a paper copy of the contest results send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) marked “Contest Winners.” Those abroad please enclose a self-addressed envelope (SAE) plus enough postage in international reply coupons for air mail return.
Previous Contest Winners
The year 2023 marks the 40th year of this esteemed contest, since there were no contests in five of the early years, around the passing of Kiyoshi Tokutomi. To honor the winners through the years, YTHS has created a document of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place haiku with the author’s name for every year a contest was held. Contestants may wish to study these winning haiku. Here is the link. Many of the contests put out brochures with the haiku of both the winners and the honorable mentions, along with the comments of the judge(s) on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place haiku. Here is the link.
Contest Kigo Caution
In past Tokutomi contests, a significant number of submitted haiku have had to be removed from consideration. This was primarily because they failed to meet the last of the contest rules: “Haiku with more than one recognized kigo will be disqualified.” Recognized kigo are the contest kigo, plus any of the kigo in all of the lists linked to from the Kigo-Summary page of this website.
The Tokutomi Contest coordinator for the 2013 and 2014 contests, Joan Zimmerman, has written a thoughtful essay on this topic. Here is the link. All poets considering entering the 2022 Tokutomi Haiku Contest are encouraged to read this essay and to adhere to one kigo from the list above for each submitted haiku.