Fuyuko Tomita (pen name in Japan: Molenkamp Fuyuko モーレンカンプふゆこ) was born in Japan in 1943. After studying English at the Aichi Prefectural college in Nagoya, she went to America to study Creative Writing at the University of Iowa. After having worked for two years at the United Nations in New York, she came to the Netherlands. There, she married and got two children. Fuyuko worked as a teacher at the Japanese School in Amsterdam and gave Japanese language courses at the Royal Tropical Institute, Inholland University and the ‘Japan Prizewinners Program (JPP)’ of Leiden University. She retired in 2008.
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At the age of 40, she started to write tanka and haiku – Japanese traditional short poems – many of which were published by the Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper. She won the annual Asahi Tanka Prize in 1985 and the Asahi Haiku Prize in 1992, 2013 and 2014. NHK, the Japanese national broadcasting company, produced a radio drama ‘The Stopped Clock’ about her life and poetry (1987). This resulted in the publication of her first book ‘Tanpopo no Uta: Dandelion Songs’ (Hakuhousha, Tokyo, 1987). An English anthology of her poems ‘Fifteen poems’ (Sub Signo Libelli, Amsterdam, NL) appeared in 1992. Recently, her second tanka book ‘Kaere Waga Uta: Go home, my songs’ (Toukasha, Kamakura 2011) and haiku book ‘Fuurin Byakuya: Wind-bell, White summer night’ (Toukasha, Kamakura 2012) appeared. She continues writing new haiku that are regularly selected for publication in the Asahi Shimbun.
In 2011 Fuyuko started a new project – ‘Photo & poem card’. Her inspiration for this project came from the old Japanese tradition of combining haiku (words) with haiga (images). On her card Japanese tanka and haiku are written in calligraphy.
For more information you can send an email to fuyukosnowflakes@gmail.com
In 2011 Fuyuko started a new project – ‘Photo & poem card’. Her inspiration for this project came from the old Japanese tradition of combining haiku (words) with haiga (images). On her card Japanese tanka and haiku are written in calligraphy.
For more information you can send an email to fuyukosnowflakes@gmail.com