Classical Japan
Web Resources related to this lesson
Lewis Clark "Introduction"
(Virginia E-text Initiative)Kokinwakashû (Virginia E-text Initiative)
Two poems from the Kokinwakashû Mark Jewel, Waseda University
(romanized text, English translation, with commentary)Steven D. Carter "The New Kokinshû (1205)"
(UC Irvine)
Teaching Kokinshû Sequence
Lynne
K. Miyake
Pomona College
In contemporary America we better acquainted with Japanese prose works such as The Tale of Genji. In reality, though, during the classical period poetry was king--or I should say emperor and empress--of the age. As Steven Carter (Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology, 74) notes "poetry was at the very heart of court life, used in witty conversation at court, for correspondence between friends, and -- perhaps most importantly -- for messages between lovers. Along with calligraphy and musical talent, the ability to compose a good poem was considered an essential accomplishment of the highborn and their minions." Thus, although translating poetic sentiment from 10th-12th century Japanese to 20th century English is a conflicted task at best, it is important to study its use as seasonal poems in the first imperially commissioned anthology and as tools in the art of courtship, as we have amply seen in the "Yûgao" chapter from The Tale of Genji. (Of course, poems were used more generally in correspondence and court gatherings as well, but these the seasonal and courtship functions of poetry play central roles in the production of literature during the classical period.)
Our first assignment is to look at a sequence of seasonal poems from the Kokinwakashû (A Collection of Poems, Ancient and Modern, ca. 905), the first imperially commissioned poetic anthology. Composed of 1,111 poems, it consists almost exclusively of the thirty-one syllable five-line form known as tanka or short poem. It was compiled about one hundred years before The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book, both of which we are reading in our unit on Heian literature, and it is of interest to note that the anthology set the stage of how poetry was to be catalogued for centuries to come. Laurel Rodd's "Introduction" to her translation of the Kokinshû is extremely helpful. It provides a summary of the poetic milieu in which the anthology was compiled as well as explanations of the aesthetics, the rules of composition, and the arrangement of the anthology. Pages 24-29 examine how a season sequence operates, while pages 29-34 do the same for a love sequence. Helen McCullough provides a more scholarly study specifically on Heian waka in Brocade by Night: 'Kokin Wakashû' and the Court Style in Japanese Classical Poetry, while Robert Brower's entry, "Waka" (pp. 201-17) in the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, for a succinct definition of classical Japanese poetry. For those interested in further studies, please see Brower and Miner's Japanese Court Poetry. Konishi Jin'ichi also wrote a very lucid article on the how the poems were arranged ("Association and Progression: Principles of Integration in Anthologies and Sequences of Japanese Court Poetry, A.D. 900-1350").
The poetic sequence selected for this lesson is the opening 16 poems (Rodd, pp. 49-53) in the first book of spring which also begins the anthology. This sequence is indicative of how the anthology was laid out, e.g., simulating what the editors considered to be the progression of spring from still snowbound landscapes through the awaiting of the spring mists to the arrival of plum and mountain thrush. The poems, as Rodd points out in her introduction, are not necessarily selected for their stellar quality, but more because they do a good job of helping to visualize the delicate backward and forward progression of the arrival of spring. Strict rules controlling the proper imagery and even diction were in place as well as an intricate system of rhetorical devices (see below), but what is of greatest importance here is to track the minute changes in the landscape upon which each poets focuses. In fact, landscape is not the proper term, since rather than dealing with grandiose vistas such as the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, the Heian poets simply center upon a single scene--a mountain (Poem #3), "the comforting warmth of spring's light" (Poem #8) or "the fragrant scent of plum blossoms" (Poem #13). Further, the scenes all focus on scenes which are delicate and are beloved for the fact that they do not last forever and will pass quickly and the viewer is lucky to have caught it before if faded. The Heian aesthetics is the love of the transience of things (mono no aware) coupled with courtly elegance (miyabi). (See Shirane, pp. 30-35, especially, p. 31.)
Specific images--flowers, trees, birds, etc.--are reserved for each of the seasons. Snow is a winter image but plays an important role in this sequence as spring tries valiantly, like new buds, to push up through the snow and takes its rightful place in the chronology of the anthology. The central image of spring is the cherry blossom, but in the early days of spring it is the plum and its companion uguisu (mountain thrush). In terms of the discussion, the instructor might ask the students to identify the images that appear in this series of poems and talk about why they are or not appropriate. Specific students might be assigned to find out more about these images and their suitability as spring images based on Japanese topography and geography, while others might be asked to investigate in what part of the United States flowers like the plum and birds like the mountain thrush appear in early spring. (You may wish to permit your students to draw upon websites on U.S. flora and fauna.)
Discussion questions can include:
1) What is focus of each poem? What visual image comes to mind? How are they similar to and different from depiction's of poems in English?
2) What is being depicted? What are the poets trying to convey? Is it a particular meaning that is being conveyed? Or is it the experience of the natural phenomenon?
3) Are the images presented in the poems, if not eternal, lasting over a long period of time? Are they beautiful, ugly, sad, joyous, powerful? What adjectives would you use to describe these poems? What kind of emotional response is being elicited from the reader? Is the Yoshino Mountain in Poem #3 like the American or Canadian Rockies? What is it more like?
4) Is there a similar theme in the 16 poems? What would that be? What images reoccur in the poems? What do they stand for? Are these poems only about spring? Is there are another message to be found in them?
Select Heian Poetry
Many students will come away from the previous lesson thinking Heian poetry was so delicate and elegantly conceived that it was without passion. A second lesson utilizing Heian-era poetry will help to change that impression.
Two poets, Ariwara no Narihira (825-880, Carter, pp. 76-82) and Ono no Komachi (fl. ca. 850; Carter, pp. 82-87), both known for their love poetry are showcased in this lesson. Both wrote other kinds of poems (as is evident from the materials in Carter), but here we focus on their love poems. Of course, by contemporary standards these are a far cry from steamy love romances, but it provides a further look at how courtship was conducted. In keeping with the aesthetic of the transience of things, consummation is not the key in their love poetry. Most such poems center on the impatient waiting for a love one or the pining over a love lost or never to be. The short prose introductions provide a context for the poems: whom it was sent to and on what occasion. In a sense these poems were 10th-12th century love letters. Carter provides short but informative introductions to each poet.
For the Narihira selection (Poems #111-117), we see how in just five lines he is able to convey his passion for those who have caught his eye. Poems #113-114 constitute a zôtôka or exchange of poems between lovers (or can be between any two people) and are very similar to those exchanged between Genji and Yûgao. In the Narihira case they are sent by messenger but they can also be exchanged in the presence of both parties as was the case when Genji visited Yûgao. Poem #113-114 exchange utilizes one of poetry's favorite tropes of confusing reality with the dream world. #115, one of Narihira's most famous, describes his sense of bewilderment at the loss of his love.
In her poems Ono no Komachi carries on the motif of love's ability to disrupt the divisions between dream and reality in Poem #122, #127, and #128 or speaks eloquently to the change of heart her lover seems to be exhibiting (Poem #129). Poems #124 and 131 are well known for her expression of powerful emotion, although one of the editor's of the Kokinshû describes Komachi as "full of sentiment but weak" (Rodd, p. 45.) He also said of Narihira that he had "too much feeling, too few words." (Rodd, p. 44) Poem #125 is a very complex example of a poem seeming just to describe a natural scene but in reality also standing for the poet's own state of mine--that is, Komachi is complaining that her lover (the fisher) cannot see her, does not come to see her. As Rodd explains it, "[m]any Kokinshû poems make use of personification: it is common to find the deer or bush warbler treated as a frustrated lover" (p, 19). Here it is not a bird or an animal who takes up the role of the lover but the fisher(man). We see examples of this technique in the Genji excerpt: the "yûgao" flower is the female protagonist Yûgao in the opening poem (Tyler, p. 58) and in the chapter in its entirety. (Also see poems in Tyler, pp. 60, 66.)
One more thing that must be stressed in the study of classical Japanese poetry is the brevity of the form. Consisting of only 31 syllables (composed of a vowel along such as "a", "i", "u", "e", "o" or in combinations with a consonant such as "sa", "shi", "su", and so on), the poems are extremely short. However, the poems are actually much fuller than the printed words on the pages. In sum, mechanisms such as images functioning as part of a natural scene and as stand-ins for the poets and/or their addressees and a battery of rhetorical devices such as kakekotoba ("pivot-word" or pun which allow words to be used in two sense at once or in two syntactic positions) and allusions to other poems have been developed. (For further information, see Brower and Miner or Brower's "Waka" to Traditional Japanese Poetry.)
Discussion questions very similar to those posed for the Kokinshû sequence but tailored to address the issues in the love poems can be asked. Comparisons with the exchange of poems, found in "Yûgao", can also be made. (Teachers short on class time might combine an examination of love poetry with the earlier lessons on "Yûgao".)
Other possible activities
1) trace the development/change in a season or love affair, romance
2) develop a series of poetic exchanges between two lovers, based on examples by Narihira, Komachi, or even between Yûgao and Genji
Print Sources
Brower, Robert H. and Earl Miner. Japanese Court Poetry. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961.
Carter, Steven D. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.
McCullough, Helen C. Kokin Wakashu: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1985.
--- Brocade by Night: 'Kokin Wakashu' and the Court Style in Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985.
Miner, Earl. Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968.
Rodd, Laurel Rasplica and Mary Catherine Henkenius, trans. Kokinshû -- A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982 (out of print), reprint: Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 1996.
Shirane, Haruo. The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of the Tale of Genji. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1987.
The Teaching about Japan website is
edited by Clayton Dube.
He welcomes your comments and suggestions.