Prologue

















As a child, I was very much influenced by my grandmother and my mother, who were both artists and developed a great interest for the arts. My grandmother, Moto Kato, was a refined and cultured Japanese lady who painted, mastered the tea ceremony and played Japanese folk songs on the Shimisen (Japanese guitar). My mother, Ryoko Kato, graduated from Seishin Women’s College in 1941 with a major in Japanese Literature.

Art was more than a hobby in our family, as we bonded through our common love for art. I was firstly introduced to Kabuki and Haiku by my grandmother, and since then I have developed a passion for literary arts as well as the visual arts.

Haiku is an ancient form of Japanese poetry often containing a total of 17 syllables shared between three lines, arranged in a pattern of 5-7-5. The first line consists of 5 syllables, the second line 7, and the last line contains another 5 syllables. A piece of Haiku does not tell the whole story but leaves it to the imagination of the reader.

Haiku has been an art form that is close to my heart for decades. My poems draw inspiration from my life journey, dreams and aspirations, exploring the themes of love, joy, pain and hope. Lyric literature, art or music is the action of expressing the writer’s emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way and I hope that through my blog more people can appreciate Haiku as a form of expression.

I would like to thank my supporters and Mrs. Takane Kyoko who most kindly transforms my Haiku to her unique stylized calligraphy.


Kato Art Duo website: http://www.katoartduo.com
And Art Canal website (construction finish in Nov 2015): http://www.artcanal.sg