Shining Wind is a lively look at the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, whose mission is to teach English speakers a traditional Japanese poetry form: haiku. A 1975 Japantown startup by the husband and wife team, Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi, has blossomed into a vigorous society centered in San Jose, but with outreach to other states, as well as Canada, Australia, and Japan. Today members celebrate a long list of accomplishments, including a bimonthly newsletter, an annual members’ anthology, a regional saijiki (dictionary of season words or kigo used by haiku poets), an annual haiku contest, and an annual haiku retreat. At the 2012 retreat, the society hosted the great physicist and haiku poet, Dr. Akita Arima, from Tokyo.

In each season throughout the year the society gathers to write/exchange haiku:

• May—A teahouse reading in San Jose’s Japanese Friendship Garden 
• July—Tanabata, a festival held on the seventh day of the seventh month 
• Fall—A moon-viewing party   
• December—a winter holiday party 

Come enjoy the merger of graceful tradition with modern Silicon Valley life as evidenced in the historical photos, artifacts, memorabilia, and haiku on display. Find out more at www.youngleaves.org.