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Honorary Curator Stephen Addiss

Stephen Addiss (deceased)
Honorary Curator, 2009–2010

Appointment Announcement

Stephen AddissThe American Haiku Archives advisory board is pleased to announce the appointment of Stephen Addiss as the 2009–2010 honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library in Sacramento. This honor is in recognition of his steady service to the North American haiku community through his translations, art books, and his own poetry. The list of Addiss’s publications relating to haiku is long, especially his books combining translations and Japanese art. But more than being a scholar, translator, and artist, Addiss takes an abiding and active interest in writing haiku himself. This gives his translations and his writing about such subjects as haiga (poem paintings) an energy and sensitivity infused with current as well as historical aesthetic practice. Few recipients could be more deserving of this honor from the American Haiku Archives, which seeks to preserve and promote haiku and related poetry throughout the North American continent.

Stephen Addiss, a scholar-artist-poet, is Tucker-Boatwright Professor in the Humanities: Art at the University of Richmond in Virginia. In earlier years, he was part of the international folk music duo, Addiss & Crofut, performing in Asia, Africa, and Europe as well as the United States, and recording nine records. Addiss & Crofut also appeared on television on the “Johnny Carson,” “Today,” and “Captain Kangaroo” shows, among others. Forming an abiding interest in Asian art and culture, Addiss then went to the University of Michigan where he earned an MA and PhD in East Asian art history and musicology. His own haiku as well as translations from the Japanese have appeared in many magazines, journals, and books, and his calligraphy and paintings, including haiga, have been exhibited in China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, England, France, Germany, Austria, and many American venues. He is managing editor of South by Southeast: Haiku and Haiku Arts Journal, and his books include (among many others) A Haiku Menagerie (1992), A Haiku Garden (1996), Haiku People (1998), Haiku Landscapes (2002), and Haiku Humor (2007) (all from Weatherhill); A Japanese Eccentric: The Three Arts of Murase Taiitsu (University of Washington Press, 1979); Samurai Painters (Kodansha, 1983); Japanese Quest for a New Vision: The Impact of Visiting Chinese Painters 1600 to 1900 (Spencer Museum of Art, 1986); Tao Te Ching (Hackett Publishers, 1993); Haiga: Takebe Socho and the Haiku-Painting Tradition (University of Hawaii Press, 1995); How to Look at Japanese Art (Harry N. Abrams, 1996); The Art of Zen (Harry N. Abrams, 1998); Old Taoist: The Life, Art, and Poetry of Kodojin (Columbia, 2000); Japanese Ghosts and Demons: Art of the Supernatural (Braziller, 2001); The Art of Chinese Calligraphy (Running Press, 2005); Traditional Japanese Arts and Culture: An Illustrated Sourcebook (University of Hawaii Press, 2006); 77 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy by Poets, Monks, and Scholars 1568–1868 (Weatherhill, 2006); Zen Art Box (Shambhala, 2007); Zen Sourcebook (Hackett Publishing, 2008); and the forthcoming Haiku: An Anthology of Japanese Poems (Shambhala). He has also contributed text, translations, and artwork to numerous other books.

The AHA advisory board is delighted to pay tribute to Stephen Addiss as the thirteenth honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives.

Biography

Stephen Addiss was born in New York City in 1935. He first went to City and Country School in the city, next to the Putney School in Vermont, and then to Harvard, earning a BA in music composition cum laude in 1957. Returning to New York City, he studied at Mannes College of Music and took the now-famous Experimental Composition classes at the New School with John Cage, with whom he maintained a friendship until Cage’s death in 1992.

Joining his friend Bill Crofut, Addiss spent the next sixteen years touring as “Addiss and Crofut,” performing traditional and international music in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. They recorded 14 LP records, chiefly of their own performances, but also of traditional music from Africa and Vietnam. Addiss & Crofut also appeared on television on the “Johnny Carson,” “Today,” and “Captain Kangaroo” shows, among others.

Forming an abiding interest in Asian art and culture during his tours, Addiss enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Michigan in 1971, where he earned an MA and PhD in East Asian art history and musicology. In 1977, he began teaching at the University of Kansas; in 1992 he moved to the University of Richmond where he serves as the Tucker-Boatwright Professor in the Humanities: Art.

As well as continuing to compose concert music, Addiss began a series of books and exhibitions of Japanese and Chinese art. He has also became increasingly active in painting, pottery, calligraphy, and poetry; he has a special interest in the interaction of the arts. Addiss is managing editor of South by Southeast: Haiku and Haiku Arts Journal, and his own haiku, as well as translations from the Japanese, have appeared in many magazines, journals, and books. In the past two decades, his calligraphy and paintings, including haiga, have been exhibited in China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, England, France, Germany, Austria, and many American venues.

Books by Stephen Addiss

In Reverse Chronological Order

The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin (with Audrey Yoshiko Seo). Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2010.

Stitching Speechless. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Blue Bluer Books, 2009.

Haiku: An Anthology of Japanese Poems (with Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto). Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2009.

Zen Art Book (with John Daido Loori). Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2009.

John Cage Zen Ox-Herding Pictures (with Ray Kass), New York City: George Braziller, 2009.

Zen Sourcebook (assisted by Stanley Lombardo and Judith Roitman), Hackett Publications, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2008.

Mountains of the Heart (with facsimile of 1816 book by Kameda Bosai), George Braziller, New York, 2007.

The Zen Art Box (with John Daido Loori), Shambhala Publications, Boston, 2007.

Haiku Humor (assisted by Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto), Weatherhill-Shambhala, Boston, 2007.

77 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy by Poets, Monks, and Scholars, 1568–1868 Shambhala Publications, Boston, 2006.

Traditional Japanese Arts and Culture: An Illustrated Sourcebook (coeditor), University of Hawaii Press, 2006.

The Art of Chinese Calligraphy, Philadelphia: Running Press, 2005.

Haiku Landscapes (assisted by Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto) Weatherhill, New York, 2002.

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (translation into Portuguese based on that by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo, plus 21 ink paintings by Stephen Addiss). Martin Fontes, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2002.

Old Taoist: The Life, Art, and Poetry of Kodojin (with Jonathan Chaves), Columbia University Press, New York City, 2000.

The Resonance of the Qin in Far Eastern Art, China Institute, New York City, 1999.

Three Three Three, Josh Hockensmith, Richmond, Virginia, 1999.

Haiku People (assisted by Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto), Weatherhill, New York City, 1998.

The Art of 20th-Century Zen (with Audrey Seo), Shambhala, Boston, 1998.

Six Directions (illustrator), La Alameda Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1997.

River of Stars (illustrator), Shambhala, Boston and London, 1997.

How to Look at Japanese Art (assisted by Audrey Yoshiko Seo), Harry N. Abrams, New York City, 1996.

A Haiku Garden (assisted by Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto), Weatherhill, New York City, 1996.

Haiga: Takebe Socho and the Haiku-Painting Tradition, University of Richmond Marsh Art Gallery and the University of Hawaii Press, 1995.

Four Huts (Illustrator), Shambhala, Boston, 1994.

Tao Te Ching (translated with Stanley Lombardo, and illustrator), Hackett Publications, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1993.

Phoenix Papers: 26 Lawrence Poets (coeditor, coauthor, illustrator), Penthe Press, Lawrence, Kansas, 1993.

Art History and Education (with Mary Erickson), University of Illinois Press, 1993.

A Haiku Menagerie (assisted by Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto), Weatherhill, New York City, 1992.

Narrow Road to the Interior (illustrator), Shambhala, Boston, 1991.

Shisendo: Hall of the Poetry Immortals (coauthor), Weatherhill, New York City, 1991.

The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks, 1600–1925, Harry N. Abrams, New York City, 1989.

Tall Mountains and Flowing Waters: The Arts of Uragami Gyokudo, University of Hawaii Press, 1987.

Japanese Quest for a New Vision: The Impact of Visiting Chinese Painters 1600–1900 (editor and coauthor), Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1986.

Japanese Ghosts and Demons (editor and coauthor), Spencer Museum and George Braziller, New York City, 1985.

The World of Kameda Bosai, New Orleans Museum of Art and the University Press of Kansas, 1984.

A Myriad of Autumn Leaves (one of five coauthors), New Orleans Museum of Art, 1983.

Samurai Painters (with G. Cameron Hurst III), Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1983.

Japanese Paintings 1600–1900 from the New Orleans Museum of Art (editor and coauthor), Birmingham Museum of Art, 1982.

Tokaido: On the Road: Pilgrimage, Travel and Culture (editor and writer of introduction), Spencer Museum of Art, 1982.

Masterpieces of Sung and Yuan Dynasty Calligraphy (assisting Kwan S. Wong), China Institute, New York City, 1981.

One Thousand Years of Art in Japan (editor and coauthor), Colnaghi Oriental, London, 1981.

Catalogue of the Oriental Collection (coauthor and coeditor), Spencer Museum of Art, 1980.

Tokaido: Adventures on the Road in Old Japan (editor and coauthor), Spencer Museum of Art, 1980.

A Japanese Eccentric: The Three Arts of Murase Taiitsu, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1979.

Obaku: Zen Painting and Calligraphy, Spencer Museum of Art, 1978.
Nanga Paintings, Robert Sawers Publications, London, 1976.

Zenga and Nanga: Paintings by Japanese Monks and Scholars, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1976.
Japanese Calligraphy, Shirley Day Limited, London, 1975.

Buson and His Followers (coauthor, plus writing an addendum on signatures and seals), University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1974.

Selected Haiku by Stephen Addiss

    birthday snow
stepping in holes
    left by the postman

                                                                       the fisherman
                                                                   nets
                                                                       a fisherman

    her face
suddenly
    across a room

                                                                       old pond paved over
                                                                   into a parking lot
                                                                       one frog still singing

     lichen               
on the old stone wall—
    map of the heart

                                                                        open-mouth kisses           
                                                                   from the peony
                                                                        to the breeze

     painting the sounds                   
of swimming—
     ocean sunset

                                                                         this morning           
                                                                   even the garbage pail
                                                                         angelic

      the moon               
plays leapfrog
     with Pittsburgh

                                                                       trying to see         more cleavage
                                                                                he leans     over
                                                                                         the  TV

Web Links

Amazon.com Author’s Page

University of Richmond
http://art.richmond.edu/faculty/Addiss_Stephen.html
http://research.richmond.edu/faculty/Stephen_Addiss.htm
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/news/experts/addiss.html

Simply Haiku Interview with Stephen Addiss
http://www.poetrylives.com/SimplyHaiku/SHv2n4/features/Stephen_Addiss.html

 

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