The Palaceside Building’s “New Year Senryu Contest,” which invited entries in January, has selected a grand prize (one work), two excellence awards, and ten prizes. The 13 winning verses were announced on the 12th on the building’s website and elsewhere. In the east popup space on the first basement level, where the works are posted, people have been stopping to read them.
The first contest of its kind drew as many as 1,188 entries. Copywriter and senryu poet Takeshi Mizuno and Mainichi Building Co., Ltd. judged the verses, choosing as grand prize “The building and / the address both line up / as ‘1’” (Sasa-san); as excellence awards, “The day I realized / ‘palace’ means the Imperial Palace” (Nanayuki) and “On the roof I wave / to the pigeons—I’ll be back” (Edogawa Sanpo); and others.
Winners are asked to bring identification to the Mainichi Building Co. office on the east side of the fifth floor of the Palaceside Building by 4:00 p.m. on Friday the 28th of this month to collect their prizes.