The Hawaii Japanese Center will host a Haiku and Calligraphy Workshop on Saturday. The center is located at 751 Kanoelehua Ave. in Hilo.
The Hawaii Japanese Center will host a Haiku and Calligraphy Workshop on Saturday. The center is located at 751 Kanoelehua Ave. in Hilo.
Adults and university students will have an opportunity to experience firsthand two of Japan’s finest arts that are shared and exhibited during springtime.
Evoking seasons, emotions and imagination, haiku is one of the older traditional poetry forms in Japanese literature. Japanese calligraphy, or shoodo, “the way of writing,” is a fine art form that expresses beauty, feelings and spiritual depth through the movement of a brush by writing Japanese characters on paper.
A $15 fee will enable participants to create and take home their own seasonal haiku and Japanese calligraphy piece. The adult workshop begins at 9:30 a.m. and finishes at 11 a.m.
An afternoon calligraphy session is open to all high school students for a $2 fee. It is scheduled 1-2 p.m.
Local high school Japanese classes were invited to submit original haikus for judging and those are being reviewed by a panel that includes the Rev. Jeffrey Soga, Hiroshi Suga, Junichi Noumaru and Machiko Kuki.
Jaime Gusman, Waiakea High School Japanese language teacher, and Aya Shehata, Hilo High School Japanese language teacher, are co-chairs for this first Haiku and Calligraphy Festival.
Because seats are limited, those interested in attending are encouraged to pre-register by calling the Hawaii Japanese Center at 934-9611, or emailing hjchawaii@gmail.com.