Lyrical Haiku

The gallery founder of Kato Art Duo, Hiroshi Kato, has launched a blog featuring his personal collection of haiku that explores themes of love, joy, pain and hope. A blog combining both visual and literary art, new content will be published weekly in Japanese and English.

Kato said, “Haiku has been an art form that is close to my heart for decades. My poems draw inspiration from my life journey, dreams and aspirations. In my years being a gallery owner, I have come to realise that a good piece of artwork needs to tell a good story and draw the viewer to the context behind the expression. Therefore, I have applied this philosophy to my haiku treatment. In my blog, I have chosen to elaborate the background and the story behind each haiku in the form of a prose as well as with a photo. With this new format of haiku, I hope that more people can appreciate Haiku as a form of expression. Today, I am pleased that several haiku masters such as Ishi Kanta are here with us to see my haiku blog come to fruition.”

Renowned author and haiku poet Ishi Kanta, who was in Singapore this week to celebrate the launch of the blog, said, “We are glad to be here to celebrate Kato’s haiku blogsite launch. Haiku is one of the shortest form of poetry and it is gaining popularity around the world. In fact, haiku can now be found in the textbooks of English, French and German speaking primary schools. We are entering a rapidly changing era that is so wonderful and yet complicated. This is not an era that we can convey our feelings to others in a long and leisurely manner. The manner that conveys one’s thoughts in the shortest way is very much in trend. From this point of view, haiku is the best fit for this era and can be called the literature of the era.”

Haiku is an ancient form of Japanese poetry often containing a total of 17 syllables shared between three lines, arranged in a pattern of 5-7-5. The first line consists of 5 syllables, the second line 7, and the last line contains another 5 syllables. A haiku is does not tell the whole story, but leaves it to the imagination of the readers.

Hiroshi Kato was raised in the company of artists and developed his passion for the arts during his growing years. His grandmother, Moto Kato, was a refined and cultured Japanese lady who painted, mastered the tea ceremony and played old Japanese folk songs on the shamisen (Japanese guitar). Kato’s mother, Ryoko Kato, graduated from Seishin Women’s College in 1941 with a major in Japanese Literature. An award-winning artist, Ryoko loved to spend her time painting detailed imageries of flowers and landscapes inspired by her childhood. The arts was more than just a hobby in the Kato family, who bonded through their common love for art. It was Kato’s grandmother who introduced him to the Kabuki theatre and also taught him haiku, both of which he enjoys passionately to this day.

Readers to the haiku blog are encouraged to engage with the poetry, share reactions or comments on the platform. For more information, visit http://lyricalhaiku.blogspot.sg