Haiku Walking in Japan
We're going again in November!
Most people travelling to Japan would surely be aware of haiku poetry, but would they ever think of going on a haiku walk? Called a ginko and often held at the change of seasons, participants are invited to walk together in nature and jot down observations. At the end, they share their notes and spend time writing and workshopping their three line poems.
We followed this principle on a daily basis over ten days on our first haiku walking tour in 2016 where we traced the footsteps of the founder of haiku, Matsuo Basho, as we traveled along the route described in his haibun notebook, Oku no Hosumichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North).  Walking with day packs for part of each day and catching trains, buses and ferries where needed, we stayed at ryokans (traditional inns), soaked in onsens (hot springs) and enjoyed exquisite local cuisine.  Our travels were decidedly more comfortable than Basho’s, but just as enlightening, as each day we observed, jotted, sketched, photographed and thrilled over tiny haiku moments. See pics and read poems from this tour by Sydney poet Jacqueline Buswell and US poet David Oates.
We followed up in 2018 with a seven day ginko on the Nakasendo Way, the ancient cobblestone highway that once ran from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo) linking the old post towns. This was another route travelled by Basho and other poets, merchants, feudal lords, samurai warriors, and was immortalised by the woodblock artist Hiroshige in his famous series 69 Stations of Nakasendo. See/read more about our Nakasendo tour here.
In 2019 we took on the challenge to walk parts of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail (pics here). Paying our respects at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, we followed the footsteps of priests, emperors, pilgrims and poets who in the earliest days of Buddhism in Japan (794-1180) came to take part in nature rituals and purifications. On the last day Typhoon Hagibis was approaching so we hightailed it back to Osaka, before the heavy weather set in. Lynn Berry writes about the beginning of our tour here.
In March, 2024, my group went again, this time without me! A few weeks before our due departure I got a breast cancer diagnosis that needed urgent surgery. As our six day Kunisaki Peninsular tour with Walk Japan was fully guided, I put it to the group that they could still go if I ran the workshops remotely. All agreed and headed off on into one of Japan’s most beautiful yet least known areas, that arrives finally in Yufuin, one of Japan’s elegant onsen thermal hot spring resorts. See pics from the tour here and read what Wendy Fitzgerald wrote about it here.
This November we’ll catch the spectacular autumn colours when we revisit the Kiso Road, one of the most beautiful sections of the Nakasendo Way. Walking around eight kms per day, through rolling hills and paddy fields, past shrines and farmhouses with carefully tended gardens, through tall forests, stopping to write beside mountain streams; we’ll explore the delightful old post towns of Magome, Tsumago, Kiso Fukishima and Narai with their centuries old wooden structures looking just as they did in the time of Basho. A highlight will be the day we spend around the Tenru River. Walking the gorge and taking a boat trip on the river, we’ll have time to create our own haiku poems in the spirit of the beautiful Minyou (Japanese folk songs) sung by the boat men to the accompanying sound of their rhythmic oars.
Each day morning workshops will introduce participants to haiku (the traditional three line poem); haibun (travel prose punctuated with haiku); haiga forms (illustrated haiku) and encourage a playful approach to using the senses for collecting and recording their haiku observations. Prompts and exercises will be given for the trail and evening readings/sharings will give an opportunity to reflect on the day’s ‘aha’ moments.
Experienced and novice poets/writers/artists/ walkers are welcome. There’s no pressure to come up with a perfect haiku, rather the emphasis is on developing a more ‘haiku way’ of looking at life.
After the tour participants are invited to publish their work in our online magazine. Read more work from past haiku walkers on our Medium publication, Summer Grass.
Our 2025 Haiku Walking trip, The Kiso Road, is from Nov 23 - 28. We’ll meet in Nagoya, where we spend the night before heading by train to the Kiso Road the next day. Our tour finishes in Narai where we can catch trains back to the main cities for our onward travel. Go to our website for itinerary and all info.
It’s not too late to jump on board, if you are keen to join get in touch asap.
Some Basho for the road…
A monk sips morning tea,
it's quiet,
the chrysanthemum's flowering
Autumn moonlight--
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut
But for a woodpecker
tapping at a post, no sound
at all in the house
Fleas, lice,
a horse peeing
near my pillow
Matsuo Basho, translated by Robert Hass
Brings back great memories. Thank you Jan for linking to my story - good reminder to write write write!