The 2020 Kiyoshi & Kiyoko Tokutomi
Memorial Haiku Contest
The oldest USA-based international haiku contest honoring traditional Japanese haiku!
In-hand Deadline: Sunday May 31, 2020
Prizes: $100 $50 $25 to the top three haiku
Contest Rules
- Haiku must be in English.
- Haiku must each have 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. The contest standard for determining a syllable is The American Heritage Dictionary, 5th Edition.
- Each haiku must use only one kigo which must be from the contest list.
- Haiku with more than one recognized kigo will be disqualified.
2020 Contest Kigo List
| New Year: | first flute |
| Spring: | dandelion; warming earth |
| Summer: | drought; waterfall |
| Autumn: | deer; crickets |
| Winter: | hibernation; owl |
Contest Entry Details
Email Entries
To: Kath Abela Wilson at poetsonsite@gmail.com
Subject Line: Your Name, Contest
Please single space your haiku in the body of the email
Fee: $8.00 per three haiku with PayPal. Go to PayPal; at “Send money to” type: YukiTeikei@msn.com In the “Note” box of PayPal, type: YTContest, your name, and the number of haiku.
Paper Entries
Mail to:
- YTHS Tokutomi Contest
- Kath Abela Wilson, Contest Chair
- 439 S. Catalina Ave. #306
- Pasadena, CA 91106
Fee: $7.00 per page of three haiku. Include check made out to Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. Place three poems per 8 ½ x 11 page and three copies of each page with your name and address on one copy only. Overseas entrants use International Postal Money Order in US currency only.
Entry Details
- Entries must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere. Previous winning haiku are not eligible. No limit on number of entries.
- Entries will not be returned and no refunds will be given.
- The contest is open to anyone, except for the YTHS President and Contest Chair.
- Final selection will be made by one or more distinguished haiku poets.
- YTHS may print winning poems and commentary in its newsletter, website, annual anthology, and brochures. The judges and contest results will be announced at the November 2020 YTHS Annual Haiku Retreat in Asilomar. Soon afterward they will appear on the YTHS website: https://yths.org/
- For a paper copy of the contest results send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) marked “Contest Winners.” Those abroad please enclose a self-addressed envelope (SAE) plus enough postage in international reply coupons for air mail return.
Previous Contest Winners
The year 2020 marks the 37th year of this esteemed contest, since there were no contests in five of the early years, around the passing of Kiyoshi Tokutomi. To honor the winners through the years, YTHS has created a document of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place haiku with the author’s name for every year a contest was held. Contestants may wish to study these winning haiku. Here is the link. Many of the contests put out brochures with both the winners and the honorable mentions, along with the comments of the judge(s) on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place haiku. Here is the link.
Contest Kigo Caution
In past Tokutomi contests, a significant number of submitted haiku have had to be removed from consideration. This was primarily because they failed to meet the last of the four rules: “Haiku with more than one recognized kigo will be disqualified.”
The Tokutomi Contest coordinator for the 2013 and 2014 contests, Joan Zimmerman, has written a thoughtful essay on this topic. Here is the link. All poets considering entering the 2020 Tokutomi Haiku Contest are encouraged to read this essay and to adhere to one kigo from the list above for each submitted haiku.