Takashi Nogami: From "Utakai Hajime" to Winning the "Chikushi Kadan Award"

Unable to abandon the dream of literature taught to me by Mr. Koichi Saito, who was a Japanese language teacher at Keio Futsubu School, I wrote original plays for the Gekidan Kai theater company while working at Kirin Brewery, and staged over 10 productions at venues such as Shibuya Jean-Jean.

During this time, I received the 10th Okinawa City Drama Award.

After retiring, I had more time, so I decided to try my hand at tanka and haiku in addition to plays. With one of my very first works, "The blue, blue dripping light fills Mount Miwa, and the world is called summer," I was invited to the Utakai Hajime (Imperial New Year's Poetry Reading).

Being encouraged by His Majesty, I had no choice but to take tanka and haiku seriously.

Most tanka and haiku are created within organizations or "spaces" called "kessha" (societies), and are produced by the people belonging to them. I also belong to tanka and haiku societies, but I primarily use submissions to newspaper poetry columns as my "space" for creation.

In newspaper poetry columns, the decision to publish is determined by the preference of the selector, regardless of the author's intent (each selector receives as many as 1,000 works), so many people view submissions negatively.

However, I feel that rather than expressing myself in the introverted "space" of a society, it is only by appearing in newspapers and magazines and being exposed to the eyes of many people that it truly matters.

From my experience writing plays, no matter how good a piece you finish, it has no value unless a theater company picks it up, puts it on stage, and has it seen by an unspecified large audience.

In this way, I accumulated about 500 tanka poems published in newspapers, from which I selected over 330 and published the poetry collection "Replica Whale."

I only printed a few copies intended for friends and acquaintances to read, but it happened to catch the eye of a leading figure in the poetry world, and I was nominated for the "15th Chikushi Kadan Award," which targets the first poetry collections of authors aged 60 and over.

Since many people start tanka and haiku after passing the age of 60 and leaving work or caregiving duties, the existence of such an award is very much appreciated.

Incidentally, among my friends in the Mita-kai, there were those who wanted to do haiku upon retirement but felt hesitant about joining a society where Keio alumni already held significant influence. I now lead a group for enjoying haiku called "Shichio-kai." There are about 20 members. Seven years have passed since we began enjoying senior haiku poet Kenkichi Kusumoto's philosophy that "haiku is serious play." Some members have even begun winning awards.