Monday, March 27, 2023
We had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Kimimasa Mikami, CEO of Mikami Co., Ltd. (Hokuryu Town), who introduced us to some impressive wooden boards.
"Haiku by Hiroko Yoshio on a wooden board" produced by Kimimasa Mikami
The wooden board is large, measuring 50cm in length, 135cm in width, and 3.5cm in thickness. Hokuryu resident Abe Fumio carved the board, Mikami Kimimasa handcrafted the base, and the ink characters were written by calligrapher Seto Ryumon, who also lives in the town.
The woodblock print features five haiku selected by Hiroko Yoshio, winner of the 42nd Samejima Award from the Hokkaido Haiku Association, written in ink. The haiku on flower rafts was selected from her collection of haiku, "Flower Rafts."
The birth of haiku on wooden boards
A close friend of Mikami Kimimasa approached him with the following question: "I have this amazing piece of wood. Is there any use for it? Why not make a sign for your company?"
"Because it's made of wood, if it's placed outside it will rot from the wind and rain. It would be a waste to use it as a sign! It would be cool to write a haiku or something on this wooden board!" thought Mikami.
Mikami is always looked after by the Yoshio family, his neighbors. In January of last year, Hiroko Yoshio won the Samejima Award, so he came up with the idea of illustrating one of Yoshio's haiku, and proposed it to Hiroko. Hiroko replied that she couldn't write on the board herself. So he asked calligrapher Ryumon Seto, who lives in Hekisui, Hokuryu Town, to do the work, and he gladly agreed.
He also asked his neighbor, Fumio Abe, to carve the board for him. Abe gladly agreed and carved the board beautifully.
And because the wooden board is too heavy to hang on the wall, Mikami made a base by hand. The base was made by cutting a thick wooden pole into short pieces, which were then cut and shaved to a thickness that would allow the wooden board to be placed on it, and then charred with a burner.
The wooden board features five haiku poems with the word "flower raft" written on them. Seto says it took him two to three hours to complete the work.
- Flower raft, my mother's letter ends with "Here"
- Flower rafts spilling out of the river
- Hanaikada: Without much to say, my brother passed away
- The boatman seems to be a woman, the flower raft
- Flower rafts, a world without war, towards the Reiwa era
This wooden piece, which Mikami presented to Yoshio as a gift to celebrate his winning the Hokkaido Haiku Association's 42nd Samejima Award, is displayed on the living room cabinet in the Yoshio family home.
In addition, Seto Ryumon created the label lettering for the special pure rice sake "Hokuryu Suisei" (unpasteurized sake), which uses the sake rice "Suisei" grown in Hokuryu Town.
Haiku poems filled with various emotions are artistically written with ink on precious wooden boards that harbor souls, filled with boundless love, gratitude, and prayers...
Other photos
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