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Event Description
Tanka Workshop #2
It's been unbearably hot every day in these days. So, the workshop was held in our basement where the temperature stays comfortable level throughout all seasons. It was surprisingly cool and, as a matter of fact, it even felt too chilly to some of the participants. The change of atmosphere was, though, seemed worked well.
The theme for today's Tanka workshop was "blue". The color blue is characterized in different Kanji, and they are used to become different vocabularies after combined with other letters such as "sky" to be blue sky, "Spring" for youth and others describing dynamic sky with pure blue or ocean with deep navy blue. Besides these common words, participants created own Tanka with original idioms. While "blue" is the color symbolizing Spring or East, because it is also used for the image of brightness and liveliness, I've chosen this particular subject as it seems suitable to create the image of Summer. Not only the color is typically used the visual image of sky and ocean, however, it also emphasizes the deepness in its image thus used to express one's sorrow and dark mood. Expressing "light" and "shadow" are the common technique used in composing Tanka since old days. So as to include Hiragana for pronunciation. Many students seemed fond of this subject as there were many excellent poems gathered at the end. Each of them chose most favorite one, then we gave a flower-prize mark to the one which received the most praise.
After the workshop, we moved to upstairs to enjoy tea time where everyone's energetic diet and conversation seemed as high as the temperature. Someone said "Feels like we've moved from North Pole to desert..." was quite an interesting expression to describe today's atmosphere.
Chikako Mori
Tanka Workshop Instructor
cm/ms
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