What's New. Information on upcoming reading performance, newly issued books and more. Mariko Kitakubo

Mariko Kitakubo Profile

Mariko Kitakubo

Born in Tokyo.
Living in Mitaka-city, Tokyo
Membership
Japan Writers' Association,
Japan PEN Club,
Association of Contemporary Tanka Poets,
Japan Tanka Poets' Society,
Kokoro-No-Hana,
Tanka Society of America.
Tan-Ku Co-Founder
Tan-Ku Association, president

In commemoration of
15 years of tanka reading
The Latest Tanka Sequence
Original Tanka presented at
Spoken World Live

Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo.
お知らせ

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July 1, 7:00 p.m., U.S. time (July 2, 11:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson.
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I performed reading of Tanka about the motif of a newly-displayed hanging scroll for summer season and Kingfisher both in Japanese and English.
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As always so, it was a rich and meaningful time for me because I was able to enjoy opportunities to get in touch with fellow members' artistic expressions such as poetry other than Tanka, paintings and drawings, and recorder play.

Thank you very much.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

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June 28, 4:30 p.m., U.S. time (June 29, 8:30 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Zoom reading event, "Village Poets of Sunland & Tujunga".
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I was very honored to be given a precious opportunity to perform Tanka reading both in Japanese and in English. I performed reading of Tanka about Corona virus crisis. I did my best to live up with their expectations.
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I would like to express my sincere gratitude toward Ms. Maja Trochimczyk who hosted the event.
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Sunday, June 28, 2020

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June 26, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (June 27, 8:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Friday Poetry Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson and performed reading of my new English Tanka.
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I was inspired by short poems, free verses, paintings and the play of Native American recorder. It was a productive time for me.
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To all the participants, thank you very much.

Friday, June 26, 2020

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une 24, 7:00 p.m., U.S. time (June 25, 11:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated and presented Tanka reading performance in Wednesday Zoom Poetry Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson.
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I was inspired by Mr. Robert Stuart's paintings-and-photos collaboration art works, and Mr. Rick Wilson's Native North American Yuman flute play. It was a precious time for me.
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To all the participants, thank you very much.
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Thursday, June 25, 2020

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June 19, 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (June 20, 8:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Friday Poetry Zoom Meeting, and performed Tanka reading.
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I was so happy to have a chance to appraise works of art in this meeting.
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I would like to thank everyone.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

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June 18, 1:30 p.m., U.S. time (June 19, 5:30 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Thursday Poetry Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson, and performed English Tanka sequence under the theme of Ladies' Tresses.
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We had a very lively and deep discussion on poetry, and nearly 3-hour meeting flew by. It was a very meaningful meeting.
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Friday, June 19, 2020

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June 17, 7:00 p.m., U.S. time (June 18, 11:00 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Wednesday Zoom Gathering presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson.
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Since we are all poetry lovers, we discussed about poetry, and presented art works or music performance. I performed reading of my new Tanka sequence, “Ocean Lullabye” in the gathering.
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As always so, we were inspired each other. I really thank to every one of the attendants from the bottom of my heart.
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I had enjoyable time by introducing to the members Ladies' Tresses, which I found in my garden. This is the flower we cannot easily see in Tokyo nowadays. I would like to write a new Tanka sequence under the theme of this flower.

Ladies' Tresses
https://www.fotosearch.com/ULY010/u17461079/

Thursday, June 18, 2020

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On June 14 at 11:00 a.m. Germany time (6:00 p.m. on the same day, Japan time), I participated in a reading event organized by Lubecker Wortwerft, and introduced Tanka to the audience and performed Tanka reading.
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The first section was the trilingual tanka reading in Japanese, English and in German. The second section was the reading performance only in Japanese. Can performance overcome language barrier and move the audience? It was a very interesting experiment.

Both my ability and qualification as a performer, and sensibility of the audience were tested. I am really glad that the result was flourishing. We were able to communicate soul to soul, and achieved a satisfactory level of result.
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I would like to express my sincere gratitude toward Ms. Hannah Rau who planed and organized this event, Ms. Heike Jurzik who helped me with the translation, Ms. Karen MahaShakti Gartner who gave me thoughtful comments, and all of the audience.

Click here to move to Lubecker Wortwerft

Sunday, June 14, 2020

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I participated in Thursday Poetry Zoom Meeting on June 11 at 1:30 p.m., U.S. time (June 12, 5:30 a.m., Japan time), and Friday Poetry Zoom Meeting on June 12 at 4:00 p.m., U.S. time (June 13, 8:00 a.m., Japan time), both of which are presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson.
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In these meetings, I performed Tanka reading both in Japanese and in English while playing percussion as background music to my performance. We appreciated the work presented by Mr. Robert Stuart, who is a painter and one of our fellow members, and Armenian flute and Native American flute performance by Mr. Rick Wilson.
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Getting inspired by their presentation, I really enjoyed improvising poems in English. It was an irreplaceable, wonderful experience.
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I am very grateful for Mr. & Mrs. Wilson, and all the participants to the meeting.

Friday, June 12, 2020

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Starting at 4 p.m. on June 5, the U.S. time (June 6, 8 a.m., Japan time), I participated in Friday Poetry Zoom Meeting presided at by Ms. Kathabela Wilson.

More new members join the meeting, and I am glad to the fact that they are interested in Tanka and other forms of Japanese short poetry literature.
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Since Zoom enhances its security gradually, we get confused sometimes. However, I would like to cope with the situation from now on flexibly by learning technical issues.

Friday, June 5, 2020