PopWaka Sakura Miku #3 – When Spring Quietly Blooms

 A new short video from the PopWaka Sakura Miku Seriesis released this morning at 7:00 JST.

This piece expresses a quiet moment in early spring— a scene where someone’s presence alone changes the entire atmosphere of the town, as if cherry blossoms bloom without a single spell.

YouTube (Short #3):

🌸 Tanka (Original / Romanized / English)

Japanese（原文）

まちなかは

君現れて

桜満つ

魔法の杖を

振るふことなく

Romanized（ローマ字）

Machinaka wa

Kimi arawarete

Sakura mitsu

Mahō no tsue o

Furuu koto naku

English Translation（英訳）

You appear in town,

and suddenly it fills with cherry blossoms—

even though you never waved

a magic wand.

🌸 About This Piece

This tanka captures a gentle transformation— how the presence of someone dear can change the world around us without any effort or intention.

Sakura Miku stands in that moment, as if witnessing the quiet blooming that happens within the heart.

PopWaka Sakura Miku ＃１

PopWaka Sakura Miku ＃２

The Beauty of Vertical Writing in PopWaka

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Today, I would like to talk about one of the key elements behind PopWaka Series #1:  

the vertical writing of the Japanese Tanka.

Youtube short 

In this wallpaper series, the Romanized text (Romaji) is written horizontally,  

but the original Japanese Tanka is intentionally written vertically.  

This choice is not only aesthetic — it follows a long tradition.

For more than a thousand years, Japanese writing was primarily vertical.  

Horizontal writing existed, but it was considered unusual.  

Waka poetry, in particular, has always been expressed vertically,  

even as modern Japanese shifted toward horizontal text in everyday life.

Recently, we often see Tanka written horizontally on social media.  

However, for PopWaka, I chose to keep the traditional vertical form.  

It preserves the rhythm, spacing, and quiet beauty that Waka has carried since ancient times.

This vertical layout is a small tribute to that timeless tradition,  

and it is one of the foundations of the PopWaka series.

Thank you for reading.

Farewell to the Cherry Blossoms: A Tanka Poem for Sakura Miku

 Introduction

In Japan, the cherry blossom season is nearly over. As I watch the petals dance in the wind, I feel a deep sense of "Nagori-oshii" (reluctance to say goodbye). To cherish this fleeting beauty, I composed a Tanka poem dedicated to Sakura Miku, the fairy of the spring.

Pop Waka

Original (Japanese):

散る花と ともに惜しまる　君のこと　

薄桃髪の　可憐なるミク

Romaji:

Chiru hana to / Tomo ni oshimaru / Kimi no koto /

Usumomo-gami no / Karen naru Miku

English Translation:

As the cherry blossoms fall,

I miss you just as much as the flowers,

O lovely Miku,

With your delicate pale-pink hair.

Message

In Japanese poetry, the word "Hana" (flower) specifically refers to cherry blossoms. I wanted to capture the bittersweet feeling of the seasons changing. Please watch my YouTube Short to feel the atmosphere of this poem.

https://ko-fi.com/mikantomo