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Wakayama Bokusui Award

わかやまぼくすいしょう

An award given to those who have made outstanding achievements in tanka literature, commemorating the accomplishments of poet Wakayama Bokusui.

Tanka literature
Established
1996
Organizer
Wakayama Bokusui Award Organizing Committee
Category
Tanka
Selection Method
Open call
Target
Professional
Frequency
1 per year
Announcement Period
around October
Status
Active

Description

The Wakayama Bokusui Prize is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of tanka literature, in honor of the poet Wakayama Bokusui's achievements. It is organized by the Wakayama Bokusui Prize Management Committee, comprising Miyazaki Prefecture, the Miyazaki Prefecture Board of Education, the Miyazaki Nichinichi Newspaper, Nobeoka City, and Hyuga City (formerly Togo Town).

Prize

Main Prize
Certificate
Cash Prize
1,000,000 JPY
  • Trophy

Selection

Selection Process

Selection
Judges Wakayama Bokusui Award Organizing Committee Selection Committee
Announcement Around late October

Criteria

  • Authors of tanka collections or monographs on Wakayama Bokusui published from October 1 of the previous year to September 30 of the current year
  • Outstanding achievements in tanka literature

Official Resources

http://www.bokusui.com/

Past Winners

Koh Nagata award

Her fifth tanka collection, layering the process of becoming a mother with everyday life as a researcher. Family memory and bodily change rise quietly from the details of daily life.

Pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and a missing mother intersect in the texture of everyday life.

219 pages
tanka collectionmotherhoodfamilyresearcherdaily life
Bouyou Okuda award

Okuda Bouyou’s third tanka collection, drawing out the texture of time and life through everyday details and the image of flowers.

The image of flowers lets the days rise quietly into view.

225 pages
tankapoetry collectioneveryday lifetimelife and death
Karan Kurose award

A haiku collection that delicately sings of everyday life in Fukuoka, the feel of light, and the presence of water. The overlap between bodily sensation and scenery emerges at a quiet pace.

The poems come straight toward the light.

144 pages
tankacollectionFukuokawatersidebody
Aki Tanioka award

ひどいどしゃぶり is an award-recognized work by 谷岡亜紀. It is presented as a work shaped by character choices, a sense of time and place, and a lingering question after the final page.

ひどいどしゃぶり is a work whose shape becomes clearer when its award history is read alongside its publication record.

literaturelifememory

Yuriko Matsumura's fifth tanka collection turns recurring motifs such as light and darkness, glittering water, and dense forests into poems shaped by a prayer for a brighter future.

Repeated images of light and darkness become a vessel for a prayer toward the future.

166 pages
tankalight and darknessnatureprayerfuture
黒岩剛仁 award

A tanka collection by Gojin Kuroiwa that carries bodily sensation and memory rooted in daily life into poetry, with the familiar resonance of baseball in its title giving the collection a direct, lived texture.

A tanka collection that presses bodily memory and everyday feeling directly into fixed-form verse.

166 pages
tankadaily lifebodily sensationmemorylived experience

Hiroshi Homura’s fourth tanka collection, where sudden strangeness and humor in daily life become poems of brightness and unease.

Hiroshi Homura’s fourth tanka collection, where sudden strangeness and humor in daily life become poems of brightness and unease.

210 pages
短歌現代短歌ユーモア

時禱集 is an award-recognized work by 三枝浩樹. It is presented as a work shaped by character choices, a sense of time and place, and a lingering question after the final page.

時禱集 is a work whose shape becomes clearer when its award history is read alongside its publication record.

literaturelifememory

鳥の見しもの is an award-recognized work by 吉川宏志. It is presented as a work shaped by character choices, a sense of time and place, and a lingering question after the final page.

鳥の見しもの is a work whose shape becomes clearer when its award history is read alongside its publication record.

literaturelifememory
Akira Naito ないとう あきら award

虚空の橋 is a work by 内藤明 associated with the 若山牧水賞. Based on the award record, it is presented as a work that invites readers to follow the intersections of character, period, society, and memory.

虚空の橋 by 内藤明 is a work whose shape becomes clearer when its award history is read together with bibliographic traces.

award-recognized workpersonal choicessociety and memory
Tatsuharu Oomatsu おおまつ たつとも award

ゆりかごのうた is an award-recognized 歌集 by 大松達知. Public bibliographic records and award information frame it as a work concerned with personal choice, memory, and the pressure of its social or historical setting.

ゆりかごのうた looks at the relationship between individual lives and their times through the shape of an award-winning work.

190 pages
award-winning workmemoryrelationshipssocietyconflict
Shinju Takahiko しんじゅ たかひこ award

浸蝕 is a 歌集・句集 by 晋樹 隆彦 recognized in the relevant 2013 literary award cycle. The entry summarizes the work as a prize-listed title based on the available bibliographic record.

Bibliographic and descriptive notes for 浸蝕, recorded as a 2013 award-winning work.

142 pages
award-winning work歌集・句集2013
Oguchi Reiko おおぐち れいこ award

トリサンナイタ is a 歌集 by 大口玲子. A tanka collection that holds the land and language of Tohoku, family, and feelings after disaster. The sound of its place name conveys loss and the texture of life.

トリサンナイタ builds its world around tanka.

224 pages
tankaTohokupost-disaster lifefamily
Isshin Oshita おおした かずま award

月食 is a work by 大下一真 recorded in the 2011-1 award data. A book-format record was confirmed, so its bibliographic data can be treated at the work level.

月食 by 大下一真 is recorded here at the work level from the award record.

236 pages
poetrylanguagememory
Shuzo Shimada しまだ しゅうぞう award

This work presents its subject through a compact, literary form, emphasizing memory, emotion, and the pressure of lived experience. It can be read as a piece that connects personal feeling with a wider social and cultural landscape.

A work that follows intimate emotions as they meet a larger world.

205 pages
tankafamilyplace and memory
Satoko Kawano かわの さとこ award

A tanka collection by Satoko Kawano. It layers details of everyday life with a sense of history and time, tracing the depth of the world in quiet language.

Within the compact form of tanka, the movement of time and the texture of life come into view.

tankatimeeveryday lifememory
Fumihiro Oshima おおしま ふみひろ award

A tanka collection by Shiyo Oshima, where an editor’s eye for language overlaps with the shadows of daily life.

An eye trained on language quietly illuminates the shadows of life.

200 pages
tankatanka collectionlanguagedaily life
Takako Hidaka ひだか たかこ award

A tanka collection with the stillness of water lilies on a pond, taking in seasons, aging, memory, and familiar landscapes. Its restrained language gives a sense of deepening time.

A tanka collection with the stillness of water lilies on a pond, taking in seasons, aging, memory, and familiar landscapes.

174 pages
tankaseasonsagingmemory
Hisa Kagawa かがわ ひさ award

This tanka collection by Hisa Kagawa treats viewpoint itself as a central concern, catching daily life and memory from several angles. Within the compressed form of tanka, it delicately reveals a changing distance from the world.

perspective is an award-recognized 歌集 by 香川ヒサ.

199 pages
memoryrelationshipsaward-recognized work
Shuichi Sakai さかい しゅういち award

アメリカ is a work by 坂井修一. It was selected for the 若山牧水賞 in 2006.

A work by 坂井修一 recognized by the 若山牧水賞.

若山牧水賞受賞
Machi Tawara たわら まち award

プーさんの鼻 is a work by 俵万智. It was selected for the 若山牧水賞 in 2006.

A work by 俵万智 recognized by the 若山牧水賞.

若山牧水賞受賞
Shion Mizuhara みずはら しおん award

あかるたへ by 水原紫苑 is introduced as a work that 戦争の記憶と日本人の魂の行方を、鋭い言葉と祈りの感覚で編み上げた歌集。古典的な響きと現代への切実なまなざしが重なり、救済を求める声が全体を貫いています。

あかるたへ is a concise gateway into 水原紫苑's literary world.

227 pages
literary craftmemory and placehuman experience
Chikako Yonekawa よねかわ ちかこ award

滝と流星 is a poetic work by 米川千嘉子. As the award-recognized work, it builds its appeal around the images and human movement suggested by the title, giving even a compact form a sense of layered time.

The title 滝と流星 conveys the atmosphere and tension at the center of the work.

poetryembodied perceptionmemory
Kyoko Kuriki くりき きょうこ award

Behind Summer is Kyoko Kuriki's fifth tanka collection. It brings social events close to daily life, keeping an intelligent and critical gaze while letting poems dissolve into the details of living.

An intelligent, critical fifth collection that dissolves social events into everyday life.

177 pages
tankasocial poemsdaily lifecritical gaze
Takayuki Saegusa さえぐさ あきゆき award

Takayuki Saigusa’s tanka collection takes its title from a snow shape associated with the Southern Alps. Against mountains, seasons, and local memory, it reads deep historical and regional time through everyday life and nature.

農鳥 presents a concentrated view of 三枝昂之’s award-recognized work.

250 pages
tankamountainsregional memoryseasondaily life
Yuko Kawano かわの ゆうこ award

Centered on the everyday act of walking, this tanka collection observes family, body, aging, and the seasons. Its plain language vividly outlines deep time and feeling within daily life.

歩く is an award-winning work that distills the voice of 河野裕子.

229 pages
tankafamilybodywalkingseasons
Ken Odaka おだか けん award

本所両国 is a tanka work recognized in 2000. Centered on the image suggested by its title, it reflects the author’s concerns and the expressive climate of its time.

本所両国 draws readers into its world through the resonance of its title.

tankalyricismmodern Japanese poetry
Yukari Kojima こじま ゆかり award

希望 is a tanka work recognized in 2000. Centered on the image suggested by its title, it reflects the author’s concerns and the expressive climate of its time.

希望 draws readers into its world through the resonance of its title.

tankalyricismmodern Japanese poetry
Yasuki Fukushima ふくしま やすき award

茫漠山日誌(ぼうばくさんにっし) is an award-winning work. This Wakayama Bokusui Award-winning tanka collection portrays mountains, travel, and lived time.

茫漠山日誌(ぼうばくさんにっし) presents its award-recognized themes and narrative voice with clarity.

award-winning workliterary prizehuman portrayal
Kazuhiro Nagata ながた かずひろ award

饗庭(あえば) is a work by 永田和宏. It was recognized by the wakayama bokusui award in 1998.

Sasaki Yukitsuna ささき ゆきつな award

旅人 by Sasaki Yukitsuna is a work associated with the Wakayama Bokusui Award. It builds its world around the impression suggested by the title, following human choices and the atmosphere of its time with a lingering aftertaste.

旅人 quietly conveys the core appeal that has kept it read as an award-recognized work.

307 pages
lifememorytime
Kimihiko Takano たかの きみひこ award

天泣(てんきふ) is a literary work by 高野公彦. Recognized by the award, it centers on the world suggested by its title and follows shifts in character, memory, and atmosphere.

天泣(てんきふ) reflects 高野公彦's voice and the literary concerns surrounding its award year.

relationshipsmemorythe mood of an era