Book of the Week: Straw Hat

Tateo Fukutomi published this book (Kaiteishinsha, 2000) in Japanese and English, a commonplace now but relatively rare at the time. The interplay of naturalism and whimsy is to become a regular feature in contemporary Japanese haiku in translation.

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

Do you have a chapbook published 2009 or earlier you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details.

Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Jim Kacian, following a concept first explored by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.

A gathering of insects
   I have become
      a green friend

A crew man
   has his straw hat
      attacked by swallows

At sunset
   sitting on the bed
      in an astronaut-like mood

Our holiday
   a funeral hearse
      sucking up the red leaves.

A water sprite
   carrying his cane of lotus root
      over his shoulder

Memory of the atomic bomb
   every time the wind pulls off my hat
      I put it back on