Books:
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal (Vintage, 2011). A family memoir that takes place across a broad sweep of European history but which nonetheless also has firm ties to Japan; a story of love and loss based around a collection of netsuke (cleverly carved clothing toggles from Japan). The author is one of Britain’s best-known ceramic artists. Quite beautiful and I don’t know why it took me so long to open it.
Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years
edited by Jim Kacian, Allan Burns and Philip Rowland (Norton, 2013). What can I say? It’s a fantastic book and every good home should have one. Look for it on The Book Depository for free postage to New Zealand.
The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse translated/edited by Geoffrey Bownas & Anthony Thwaite (Penguin, 1964), found at a gypsy fair for the princely sum of $1. Gave that one away when I found one in slightly better condition in a second-hand bookstore for $5.50. My first book of, and about, haiku.
The Essential Haiku edited by Robert Hass (HarperCollins, 1994). Read an extract here.
DVDs:
4, directed by Tim Slade (2007, 88 minutes). Four violinists each play one of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in four different places – spring in Japan, summer in tropical Australia, autumn in New York and winter in Lapland. Beautiful.
breath, a collection of haiku 