The 2025 Kiyoshi & Kiyoko Tokutomi

Memorial Haiku Contest

Sponsored by the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society

Enter the oldest USA-based international haiku contest honoring traditional Japanese haiku!

Prizes: $100 $50 $25 to the top three haiku

Contest Rules

• In-hand deadline is Saturday May 31, 2025.
• 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.

2025 Contest Kigo List

New Year:	New Year’s gift, scent of plum blossoms, first smile
Spring:	hilltopping (mating butterflies), blue mussel, melting snow, departing geese
Summer:	short night, heron, summer mountain, midday nap
Autumn:	olive harvest, autumn retreat, godless month*, moonless night
Winter:	withered garden, loquat flower, winter wind, onion

* Kannazuki 神無月– There is an old belief in Japan that during the Tenth Month, all the gods from the various provinces come together in Izumo to discuss affairs of state. And with all the gods of the land away from home on business, the Tenth Month has come to be known as “Kannazuki” (“the month of no gods”). This information from Tang Dynasty Times.

Email Entries Preferred

To:       Kathabela Wilson at poetsonsite@gmail.com

Email Subject Line: 2025 Tokutomi Contest Submission: Your Name

Please single space your haiku in the body of the email.

Fee:  $8.00 per 3 haiku. Either pay by check as detailed below, or 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, only if email is not available; must be received by the May 31, 2025, deadline.

Mail haiku only to:

• • YTHS Tokutomi Contest
  • Kathabela Wilson, Contest Chair
  • 439 S. Catalina Avenue #306
  • Pasadena, CA 91106

Place 3 poems per 8 ½ x 11 page and send one copy of each page with your name and address.

Fee: $8.00 per three haiku

By PayPal: 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.

By Check: Make check out to Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. Send to:

• • Tokutomi Contest Chair
  • c/o Yuki Teikei Haiku Society
  • PO Box 412
  • Monterey, CA 93942

Please include a note indicating “Contest,” your name, and number of haiku. Overseas entrants use International Postal Money Order in US 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 2025 YTHS Annual Haiku Retreat, November 6-9 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 2025 marks the 42nd 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 from all of the lists linked to 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 2025 Tokutomi Haiku Contest are encouraged to read this essay and to adhere to one kigo from the list above for each submitted haiku.