Hosai Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 1 (1990) award
Kenji Kimura
きむら けんじ
Kimura Kenji
Pen Names:
Kimura Kenji（Pen name used for haiku works and photographic haiku essays）
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1948 （Kobe, Hyogo, Japan）
- Nationality
- Japan
- Languages
- Japanese
- Residence History
- Kobe (birth / early residence) → Tokyo (moved for work) → Kobe (returned residence from 2009)
Career
- Occupations
- Haiku poet, Copywriter, Commercial planner, Freelancer
- Active Years
- 1970-
- Affiliations
- Member of Seihosha (free-form haiku circle), Member of the Modern Haiku Association
- Memberships
- Modern Haiku Association, Kougo Haiku Association
- Influenced By
- Itsuki Natsui
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Ozaki Hōsai Prize (1st) | "The keyhole is cold with the key gone" | — | Ozaki Hōsai Prize Committee | 受賞 |
| 2013 | Kougo Haiku Association Award (Encouragement Prize) | — | — | Kougo Haiku Association | 奨励賞 |
| 2019 | Kougo Haiku Grand Prize (Encouragement Prize) | — | — | Kougo Haiku Association | 奨励賞 |
Ozaki Hōsai Prize (1st)
1999
Work:
"The keyhole is cold with the key gone"
Organization:
Ozaki Hōsai Prize Committee
Result:
受賞
Kougo Haiku Association Award (Encouragement Prize)
2013
Organization:
Kougo Haiku Association
Result:
奨励賞
Kougo Haiku Grand Prize (Encouragement Prize)
2019
Organization:
Kougo Haiku Association
Result:
奨励賞
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
The Keyhole
2002 Free-form haiku collectionA collection of free-form haiku capturing fragments of everyday life.
Everyday lifeKeys and memoryFree-form haiku
Kicking a Pigeon
2005 Free-form haiku collectionA haiku collection featuring humorous and ironic takes on everyday scenes.
HumorAnimalsEveryday life
Prodding the Napping Cat with a Foot
2009 Free-form haiku collectionIncludes photographic-haiku style poems that capture small gestures and scenes.
CatsDetails of daily lifePhotographic haiku
The World Is Complicated Today, Too
2013 Photographic haiku essayAn essay collection combining photographs and haiku, offering a wry perspective on society and daily life.
Social observationPhotographic haikuHumor
Overwhelming Free-form: Three and a Half Days to the Horizon
2014 Free-form haiku collectionA collection that advances free-form expression, presenting poetic fragments of everyday life.
FreedomHorizonFragments of daily life
The World Will Be Complicated Tomorrow, Too
2018 Photographic haiku essayLike its predecessor, combines photos and haiku to capture subtleties of everyday life.
Photographic haikuObservation of daily life
I Woke Up and It Was Free-form
2025 Free-form haiku collectionThe latest free-form haiku collection, condensing the author's vision of free-form haiku.
Free-form haikuMorningEveryday life
Bibliography
- The Keyhole (Bungeisha, 2002)
- Kicking a Pigeon (Planet Earth, 2005)
- Prodding the Napping Cat with a Foot (Bokka-sha, 2009)
- The World Is Complicated Today, Too (Zou no Mori Shobo, 2013)
- Overwhelming Free-form: Three and a Half Days to the Horizon (Zou no Mori Shobo, 2014)
- The World Will Be Complicated Tomorrow, Too (Zou no Mori Shobo, 2018)
- I Woke Up and It Was Free-form (Zou no Mori Shobo, 2025)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Concise, fragmentary expressions based on free-form haikuPhotographic-haiku (combining photos and poems) essayistic approach
- Recurring Motifs
- Fragments of daily lifeKeys and keyholesCatsMorning scenesHumor and irony
Legacy
Known as a practitioner of free-form haiku and for photographic-haiku essays, he gained prominence after winning the Ozaki Hōsai Prize and has been active within the contemporary haiku community while engaging with other haiku circles.
Academic Societies
- Modern Haiku Association
- Kougo Haiku Association
Trivia
- Worked for many years at an advertising agency as a copywriter and commercial planner.
- Winning the 1st Ozaki Hōsai Prize in 1999 prompted a deeper commitment to free-form haiku.
- Held a photographic-haiku exhibition "Freedom Is the Most Unfree Thing" in Osaka in 2007.
- Maintains a blog titled "Kimagure Shahaiku Diary" (with updates).
- Served as chair of the Ozaki Hōsai Prize executive committee for its 1st–3rd iterations.