ANNOUNCEMENT

WHC Simultaneous World-wide Ginko-Kukai on WHChaikuforum

September 18, 2001

Dear Members,

Today, tomorrow (Sat. 19) and the day after tomorrow (Mon. 21) will mark the three-day finale of the World Haiku Festival 2000 and the start of our activities under "World Haiku Festival" (without any specific year name, unless otherwise decided) of the World Haiku Club.

The three-day event is entitled "Epilogue to the World Haiku Festival 2000 & Advent of JAPAN 2001".

There will be London events of JAPAN 2001 and Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) Conference at SOAS, University of London. However, simultaneously we wish to encourage a world-wide ginko and kukai in your region, whether you do it on your own, with your haiku friends or with general public at your local park, nearby hill or river or sea, or wherever. Some members are already organising something, such as Carmen Sterba, who is having a ginko and kukai in Kamakura, Japan where other members of WHC are assembling. Good luck to you, Carmen! Mark Brooks may wish to organise a celebration ginko-kukai for his Mainichi award and his expressing thanks for blessings and congratulations! Please just think of doing some form of ginko and kukai on these three days specially to celebrate the very successful conclusion of the World Haiku Festival 2000 and our new start.

Please send your results ON-LINE to WHChaikuforum as and when you can, and share your works with the rest of us. However, above all else, please join us to have fun and a spot of happiness that we are here together! Theme of the WHC Simultaneous World-wide Ginko-Kukai: "anything which you think would be an appropriate thing to compose an "aisatsu-ku" (greetings haiku) to celebrate, commemorate and rejoice at the developments at WHC, with the finale of WHF2000, the birth of our activities under "World Haiku Festival", our works under twenty plus one mailing lists, and the birth of our new MAGAZINE, and all that which come out of them, including our close friendship" .

Special kengin, Susumu