Spring Everyone's Haiku Tournament [Space Cup] Haiku: Announcing the 🌻Hiro-o Award🌻 for Artists 🪐

After a dazzling month of haiku submissions for the [Space Cup] and the conclusion of the passionate voting process, we have finally reached the climax of the tournament.

Did you enjoy your fun spring space journey?

Last night, the 'Everyone's Haiku Tournament Grand Prize' was finally announced.

Mero-san, congratulations!! A prize chosen by everyone, a prize that everyone said they loved—you did it!!
(Merorin, you did it! I'll give your cheeks a little pinch)

Thank you so much for the overwhelming number of submissions.
I am truly happy from the bottom of my heart.
This is the first time Hiro-o has welcomed spring in this way, and I am grateful for this wonderful experience that served as a catalyst for interacting with so many talented fellow writers.

There were so many haikus that hit me instantly or lingered in my heart the more I read them, and every night as I read your works, my creative brain was stimulated.
I was able to feel the many ways of experiencing spring.
Thank you.

In making my selections, I struggled until I was almost in tears, steeling my heart to choose the haikus that struck me with a 'bang!' from the perspective of an artist who constructs images from words.
I was so conflicted, and I felt like I was being pulled back by my hair as I had to leave out so many other wonderful haikus.

Now, if I may be so bold, I will announce the artist's 'Hiro-o Award'!

Here I go! Ready... go!

Announcement!!
Spring Everyone's Haiku Tournament [Space Cup]
🌻《Hiro-o Award》🌻

Total of six haikus *Titles omitted, in no particular order

Spring haze and mist mingle, losing their names

Kitano Akai Tomato

It was love at first sight the moment I read it.
The sacred and precious thing called a "name."
My heart tightened as the focus fell upon that "name."
Things named "Spring Haze."
Things named "Mist."
When those two mingle in the ambiguous air of spring, the "name" is lost.
It is fantastical yet rational, literary, difficult, and soft.
I realized I wanted to dissolve into this worldview.
I am moved.
Congratulations.

Fried egg, two yolks on a morning of eating alone

Tsukikusa

It looks like a scene from an ordinary morning, yet I felt a slight shift in that everyday reality.
The bright sound of "fried egg" and the lonely sound of "eating alone" sit flatly on the table. Moreover, there are two yolks for one person. The discrepancy in numbers, the duality of the twin yolks...
I had such a strange feeling.
No, let's be honest.
While I wanted to know what lay behind these crisp 17 syllables, the haiku entered my body straight and true.
That is why I felt it is a haiku whose beauty lies in its raw form, without any unnecessary interpretation.
In short, I love it.
Congratulations.

Is that really where you want to die? Soap bubble

Tamagomaru

The moment it caught my eye, I felt a shock that made me feel as if I myself had popped.
A haiku that speaks to a fragile soap bubble that breaks and disappears in an instant.
I wonder if it was able to fly just a little longer.
I wonder if it was able to fly beautifully, even for a moment.
I wonder if it was able to reach the place it intended to go.
The more I read it, the more its depth sinks into me, as I relate it to life itself.
I thought it was a haiku with deep compassion and meaning, recited in the conversational tone of the western dialect, "een ka."
It was philosophical.
Congratulations.

Spring departing, a Russian soldier ties up her faded hair

Mero

First, the katakana 'Russian soldier' appealed to my vision.
It is a word that is particularly sensitive at this time.
The hair of that Russian soldier is faded and tied up.
Perhaps she is a female soldier?
This also appeals visually.
I felt as if I were looking into the heart of someone who, before being a soldier, is having their freedom as an individual taken away, and is accepting it helplessly, yet calmly... that is what I felt.
And then, 'Spring departing' is paired with that 'Russian soldier'.
Through this combination, this seasonal word sends 'spring' in various directions.
Therefore, contrary to the sorrow for the current situation, I also felt it as a prayer, a desire to find hope, a feeling that hope could be found.
I thought it was a precious, cool haiku, as well as a deep one that does not look away.
Congratulations.

Is the universe expanding? A snail

KOMA

This was also love at first sight.
In any case, I empathized with the combination of the universe and the snail.
It is completely subjective, but the swirling of the universe and the spiral of the snail are the same.
I feel a set providence in the way the universe expands while swirling around, and in the way the snail's shell is formed according to the golden ratio.
Just reading it made my heart race.
Also, I am thrilled by the 'to wa' (is it that...) in the opening 'Uchu to wa' (As for the universe...).
I will accept and feel this view of the universe with my whole body.
I would also like to read KOMA's three submitted haiku as a single series of works.
Congratulations.

An old woman smiles, the hawk also transforms into a dove

Inushiba

This old woman's smile is... truly a witch...
A seasonal word for spring that fills two-thirds of the character count...
'The hawk transforms into a dove'
The courage to use that so casually.
By placing the remaining five syllables in the upper phrase, you created this entire world.
I interpreted that the 'mo' (also) in 'the hawk also transforms' is necessary, rather than just 'the hawk transforms'.
At that moment, the old woman must be an old woman, and the old woman must be smiling.
The key of 'old woman smiles' clicks into the door of this long seasonal word, and the door to this world opens with a creak... it was a fascinating haiku that I couldn't stop my imagination from running wild with.
I am impressed.
Congratulations.

(My apologies to the model for the old woman)

That is all

To all the winners, my heartfelt congratulations.

While I felt the difference from judging paintings, I decided to value the impressions in the same way.
And, as an artist, I have taken the liberty of expressing my own interpretations and thoughts.
They may be completely different from what the authors intended, but please forgive me.

Thank you for the wonderful haiku.

Following this, the announcement of the 'Kotatsubuton Award' by Kotatsubuton is coming up.

Tomorrow, May 5th, the 'Judge's Awards' by each judge will be announced,
followed by the announcement of the three main awards of the Everyone's Haiku Tournament: the 'Platinum Award,' 'Gold Award,' and 'Silver Award.'

Please enjoy everyone's [Space Cup] until the very end.

Thank you so much, everyone.
Thank you, Space Cup.