Madoka Mayuzumi is a Japanese haiku poet born in Kanagawa Prefecture. In 1994, her sequence of fifty poems, “B-men no Natsu,” meaning “Summer on the B Side,” received an encouragement award at the 40th Kadokawa Haiku Prize. She founded and led the haiku magazine Gekkan Hepburn in 1996, and her collection “Kyoto no Koi,” meaning “Love in Kyoto,” won the second Kenkichi Yamamoto Literary Award in 2002. Walking is central to her poetry and prose: her journeys have included the Camino de Santiago in Spain, a route from Busan to Seoul, and the Shikoku pilgrimage in Japan. She also served as a cultural envoy for Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs during fiscal 2010, working in Europe from a base in Paris. Reflecting on her parents and her own life through a pilgrimage on foot, “Watashi no Dogyo Ninin: Jinsei no Shikoku Henro” recounts a journey of approximately 1,600 kilometers connecting 108 temples. Encounters with fellow pilgrims and local residents accompany accounts of extreme heat, rain, injuries and losing her way. Through these experiences, she considers how people live with grief and what sustained walking brings into focus. Alongside haiku and travel writing, Mayuzumi writes opera librettos and lyrics, connecting language with seasonal change and physical experience.
