名取里美の俳句の魔法 - Satomi Natori official site

2026年4月13日2026年4月13日

「文藝家協会ニュース」令和８年４月号「立原正秋氏のお饅頭」

日本文藝家協会の「文藝家協会ニュース」の会員通信に、「立原正秋氏のお饅頭」という拙文を寄稿しました。

父が芥川賞と直木賞の選考のドキュメンタリー番組を作った昔話からの不思議なエピソードです。

立原氏との御縁が、沼津の大中寺、北鎌倉の円覚寺まで続くとは、驚きました。

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2025年12月22日2025年12月22日

『NHK俳句』１月号　巻頭名句

井上弘美先生が、『NHK俳句』１月号の巻頭名句に、私のスケートの句を選んで掲載してくださいました。

この句は、角川の歳時記に掲載されているのですが、なんと拙句集に未収録でした。

　スケートの花となるまで回りけり　　里美

すてきなご鑑賞文を井上先生、ありがとうございました！

この句のバックの写真には、息をのむ世界が広がっています。

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2025年12月22日2025年12月22日

『週刊　読書人』2025回顧　動向収穫　俳句

『週刊　読書人』の2025年を回顧した俳句の動向収穫の欄で、浅沼璞先生が、拙稿の「戦争と俳句と不戦」（『俳句界』８月号）を取り上げてくださいました。ウクライナのシモノヴァさんの新作を評したものです。彼女にも伝えなければ！

ウクライナの一日も早い終戦が待たれる日々です。

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2025年12月22日2025年12月22日

『俳句四季』１月号　花の歳時記

『俳句四季』に「花の歳時記」という、花にまつわる連載があります。

私は、一月号掲載ということで、梅の花を選びました。

　白梅や産まれきて乳強く吸ひ　　名取里美

生まれたての吾子に授乳したときの驚きです。

エッセイは、沼津の大中寺の梅の花の思い出を。あかり俳句会の会員のみなさまの梅の俳句作品とともに、見開きページでご掲載いただきました。

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2025年10月27日2025年10月27日

駐日ルーマニア大使館主催　国際俳句の夕べ

１０月２６日、駐日ルーマニア大使館でZOOMを使って、国際的な俳句の交流会が開催されました。

向瀬美音さま、中野千秋さまのご尽力による３０名の海外の俳人が招かれ、日本の俳人が３０名ぐらい集まっての会でした。

写真左側が、オヴィディウ・ラエツキ駐日ルーマニア特命全権大使閣下。中野千秋さまと向瀬美音さまが並んでいます。

木村聡雄氏のご講義があり、zoomで各国の俳人が自国語で俳句を朗読。その俳句作品を日本の俳人が選句させていただきました。まず、木村氏と五島高資氏の選評がありました。

私も選者のひとりとして、発言させていただきました。国際的な句会に感心があったので貴重な経験でした。作者による自国語の作品の音読が味わい深く、国際的なＨＡＩＫＵの世界を日本でもご披露できたことが、有意義なひとときだったと思います。

中野さま、向瀬さまのご尽力の賜物です。参加させていただき、ありがとうございました！

中央、向瀬さま、右、ルーマニアの　Ms.Claudia Ramona Codau、左、わたし。

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2025年10月25日2025年10月25日

Anti-war HAIKU

2023年1月17日 22:36

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Satomi Natori (Haiku poet)

For a while
I look up at an autumn butterfly
at the epicenter
Satomi Natori

A white butterfly suddenly flew up into the blue sky. Its afterimage still remains in my mind. I wrote this haiku in a haiku notebook during my first visit to Nagasaki at the age of 27.
In 2022, this haiku was published in the high school Japanese language textbooks “New Language and Culture” and “Selected Language and Culture.” The notice of its publication came to me shortly before the start of the coronavirus epidemic. It was before the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) had conducted their examination, and the publisher asked me to keep the information of the publication confidential.
Needless to say, I was surprised at the sudden news. The haiku is an old piece that I had included in my second collection “Akari,” so I was happy for its publication and also deeply moved that an anti-war haiku had been chosen. My parents, who were of the generation that struggled in the Pacific War, along with the rest of my family were quietly pleased at the achievement.
After that brief event, the novel coronavirus began to spread slowly around the world.
In the midst of this, my son, a university student, had finished his studies in France and was wandering around Europe. He was traveling eastward as if chased by the coronavirus, which was spreading from west to east across Europe. I texted him, “It’s dangerous, you should come home soon,” to which he replied, “I’m in Kiev right now.” I was worried because Kiev looked so close to the Chernobyl plant on the map. “This is the only chance I have to go there,” is what he always said during his travels. Even though he had suffered theft in Italy, he was still hesitant to return to Japan. However, when word of the new coronary disease spread, he asked a Ukrainian friend to share his masks, which was not a major product in Europe at the time, and finally made his way home.
*
I was devastated by the sad reality that Ukraine had suffered not only from the corona epidemic but also from the war.
Every day I listened to experts’ commentaries on Ukraine, learning about the depth of the problem from the various perspectives of politics, defense, history, and diplomacy. I was also horrified at how deep the darkness of the human heart could be.
I had no idea that the threat of nuclear weapons would increase by the time high school students received their textbooks containing my haiku about Nagasaki epicenter. Although uneasy, I began to compose anti-war haiku, which were far from being any sort of solution.

Coffee and
a gun in my hand
remaining cold in spring―
Satomi Natori

The images of Ukrainian women training with their guns for defense just before the invasion made me uneasy at first. Ukrainians are coffee lovers and they probably picked up their guns after drinking coffee. The feeling of the gun in hand, which was likely cold, was frightening to imagine.
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Haiku is an art form that is popular all over the world.
There is a certain peacefulness in haiku. Observing nature in order to write haiku fosters a love for it, and makes people think about nature conservation. The exchange of haiku helps people to appreciate diversity and deepen global exchange, which in turn leads to world peace. There are also movements to promote the registration of haiku as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, with the intent to send a message of peace from Japan to the world. This peaceful nature is one of the reasons why I love haiku so much.
But is haiku powerless when it comes to war?
I have learned that Ukrainians who are living in shelters in the war-torn bunker of Halkiou, Ukraine, are publishing their haiku on social media. To quote an example:

For the whole evening
a cricket has been mourning
victims of the war
　　　　　 Vladislava Simonova

Trembling at the sound of a cricket that cries on the battlefield. There is no other piece that strikes the heart more than a poem written at the scene of the ravages of war. I hope that the readers’ feelings of sympathy reach the author and comfort her in some small way. After all, poetry has the power to heal those who suffer.
Haiku poets during the Pacific War also composed famous war poems in the midst of tragedy.

Out to the sea,
no place for wintry wind to return
Seishi Yamaguchi
Leave the gravestones of the blazing sun
to the end of the water vein
Touta Kaneko

Seishi wrote this poem in mourning of suicide attacks in Japan. ”Kogarashi” (translated here as “wintry wind”) alludes to the suicide attackers. Touta wrote this poem when he was leaving the battlefield, Truk Island. It is said to be a scene that he will never forget.
These war poems are works of profound sadness, and they will further increase sympathy for the anti-war movement. May these painful and sad anti-war haiku be the seeds of peace for the future. All we can do for now is pray for a ceasefire as soon as possible.
Today is Okinawa Memorial Day. Through the trees, a white butterfly came to my garden.

　　　　　　　　　『Kamakura Pen club』NO.27　August 25 ,2022

2025年10月20日2025年10月20日