Two students, both former winners in the 2005 Robert F. Panara Haiku contest, were invited to attend this conference and were accompanied by one faculty and one staff member from NTID. The group visited Chairman Sasakawa-san at the Nippon Foundation, during which time the students performed some of their Haiku poems in sign language and the purpose of the trip was explained.
The conference was held at the Shiki Museum in Matsuyama. Shiki was a very famous Haiku poet. Faculty mentor Jerome Cushman and the two students, Jack Williams and Stephen McDonald gave a presentation called “Thank you Murakami Kijo” in which they talked about two famous Haiku Japanese poets, Kijo and Sanpu, who were deaf. Through narrative and signed Haiku they demonstrated how deafness affected the writings of these two poets. The presentation and the writing workshops were very positively received by the conference participants who said it was very “enriching” and expanded their understanding not only of deafness, but of how Haiku could be expressed in new ways.
During the conference two days were devoted to writing and discussing Haiku, one took place in a nearby park with Cherry trees in full bloom, the second took place at a garden and castle of a past lord. On the first day two unsigned poems by Jack Williams were selected for note in a blind vote. On the second day Stephen McDonald's unsigned haiku was selected as the best of the day. He received the N K award given by the broadcast company N K. at the award ceremony on the last day. Additionally the group visited the Matsuyama School for the Deaf where, after we toured the school, the junior high and high school students shared their written and signed Haiku. Conference participants visited 4 important local Haiku poet-related sites. On the last day participants learned some flower arranging, calligraphy, paper doll making, and Haiga (painting and a Haiku together).
