Congratulations go to all the haikuists around the world whose participation contributed to the success of the 5th Setouchi Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest set theme section in English. 878 haiku entered by poets around the world vied for prizes. Poets living in Australia, Mexico, the US and Japan won this year's contest. Perhaps their love for sunshine enhanced their poems about sunny Ehime, famous for its sunshine that pours down from the sky, reflects from the beaches, casts from the surface of steep sloping islands and shines on the surface of the Inland sea.
The Highest Award comes with a 30,000 yen gift coupon and special locally produced handicrafts from Matsuyama. The three additional winners receive locally grown products and handicrafts from Matsuyama for their efforts. The contest-winning haiku were prominently displayed at commendation ceremony held on the vernal equinox March 21, 2016, in the main exhibition hall of the Shiki Memorial Museum, a venue dedicated to celebrating the life and work of Matsuyama-born poet Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902).
Composing a magnificent poem that includes human activity, beauty on Earth, and the lure of the universe enabled Marietta Jane from Australia to win the Highest Award in the contest. Poetically encompassing everything in the far-reaching wide-angle shot, even the circumference of the sun was creatively captured by the haikuist.
This photograph attracted the greatest number of competitive entries -- inspiring more than 280 excellent poems about songs of fishermen, flaming gold and orange skies of restlessness, smells of autumn, cold wintry bonfires, hungry gulls and patiently waiting sons -- but the winning haiku scored highest for its creativeness, traditional elegance, good form and appropriate length, adherence to the contest set theme, realistic portrayal of the photograph, a sorrowfulness, and an "aha" moment. McGregor is member of HaikuOz, the Australian Haiku Society.
Echoing the proverb "All roads lead to Rome" the haikuist realizes that on a beautiful summer day everyone wants to head for a cool, relaxing place by the water. Living in sunny Mexico, the haikuist has likely viewed locations similar to the photographer's vantage point atop a staircase observing how the staircases and footpaths on the surrounding 73-meter highlands lead down toward a pretty little beach on Nogutsuna Island in the Seto Inland Sea.
The haikuist imagined a photo within a photo. John Zheng is rewarded for describing his impression of the photograph of young people on Tateiwa coast in a novel way by playfully adding a Japanese stuffed toy monkey named Monchichi into the camera's viewfinder. Fun to pronounce, the name suggests something frilly, lively, and adorable. Inspired by a photo of a fun-loving date spot referred to as Monchichi Beach among youths because a photo of the toy monkey had once been displayed in a local cafe, the haikuist composed a haiku about the young people taking a selfie.
The Earth's tilt away from the Sun on January 1, its motion around the Sun, and the rotation of the Earth all combine to make the Sun appear to move through the sky in tandem with the haikuist aboard a morning cruise liner. Ujina passenger terminal in Hiroshima lies across the Seto Inland Sea to the northwest of Matsuyama, so navigators must set a bearing that seems to follow the path of the Sun when traveling from Matsuyama via the Miyajima islands heading for Hiroshima.
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