Verse master: Shin'ichi Takemura
Images: Bruce Osborn
Editor-in-chief: Tetsuya Ozaki

Welcome to the linked senses world! Linked senses is an intelligent and artistic collaboration, adapted from a Japanese traditional poetic form known as renga, that attempts to discover or invent new senses. Verse master Shin'ichi Takemura launched the linked poem with an introductory verse coinciding with the start of IWE '96 in January 1996. This initial verse was added to by the various contributors to create a collaborative poem. To make the most of the possibilities provided by electronic environment in which the poem was created, each poem or essay is accompanied by photographic images provided by Bruce Osborn. In line with the waxing and waning of the moon, new poetic motifs and verses were added. Photographs were added as the number of verses increased. Linked senses is a collaboration, the direction of which is unpredictable by the sensorium staff or even the verse-master himself. Linked senses was updated every two weeks as a continously evolving multimedia exhibition. Basho, one of Japan's most famous Japanese poets, refined the renga form, which had its beginnings in the Heian Era (more than 1,000 years ago). Basho was a prolific poet who said that, "To understand pine trees, learn from pine trees, and to understand bamboo, learn from bamboo." In linked senses, instead of pine trees or bamboo, we have developed various motifs that relate to and enable understanding of the new senses. To see a list of the motifs and verses, please go to the previous page. Also, to view the rules for linked senses, please click here.