[Open Lecture] December Lecture "Hanshinkan and Haiku - A Look at Classical Haiku"

The main theme of the second semester of 2025 open lectures will be "Culture, Literature, and History of the Hanshin Region."

The fourth and final session of the second semester of 2025 was held on December 8th, with the theme "The Hanshin Area and Haiku - A Perspective on Classical Haiku" by Associate Professor Naoko Tsujimura of the Faculty of Intercultural Japanese Studies Otemae University. As December arrived and the weather began to get colder, over 80 people attended.

The lecture was based on materials and explained about haiku poets who were active in the Hanshin area from the Meiji period to the early Showa period (such as Noda Bettenro, Okada Rihei (Kakiei), Kawanishi Waro, Fukui Jihei (Souko), and Matsuse Seisei).One of the most striking explanations was that haiku in the Hanshin area during this period developed when businessmen who spent their busy days in Osaka and Kobe edited and published collections of haiku poems in order to "feel" the four seasons (seasonal feeling) through haiku and "bring their minds back to themselves."

In addition, he continued to give interesting explanations, such as the existence of a haiku poet who was active mainly in Itami during the Edo period and was called "Onikan" of the West, comparable to Matsuo Basho of the East, and that Fukui Jihei (Kusakō) was the grandfather of our university's Chairperson of the Board Fukui.

This marks the end of the public lecture series for the second half of 2025. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who participated. In 2026, a series of four lectures will be held at the Sakura Shukugawa Campus starting in April, with the main theme being "Encouraging Appreciation of Architecture and Urban Development."

Further details will be announced on this website and elsewhere around early February. Please look forward to it.

(Source: Regional and Social Cooperation Office)