Ancient Japanese Poetry

Drawn from about 794AD and Before

Literacy Comes from China

• In many ways the relationship of the Japanese to the Chinese is similar to the attitude of the Romans to the Greeks. Much of their earliest culture and art was pattered after that in China during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD).

• Adopted Chinese writing (although many scholars note it did not actually fit the Japanese tongue.

• First poems in Japan written in Chinese and in the Chinese style.

• Under the influence of the Chinese poets of this era Japanese began to compose poetry in Chinese (kanshi); and, as part of this tradition, poetry in Japan tended to be intimately associated with pictorial painting, partly because of the influence of Chinese arts, and the tradition of the use of ink and brush for both writing and drawing.

• It took several hundred years to digest the foreign impact and make it an integral part of Japanese culture and to merge this kanshi poetry into a Japanese language literary tradition.

Kanshi -- a Japanese term for Chinese poetry in general as well as the Japanese poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets. It literally means "Han poetry“ “Han” refers to an even earlier Chinese Dynasty.

Chinese Poetry by Japanese Poets

• The class noted that in the examples given within the text, there seems to be a need to be very clear about the moral observation being made by the poet. For example:

The golden crow 1 lights on the western huts; Evening drums beat out the shortness of life.

There are no inns on the road to the grave—

Whose is the house I go to tonight? Prince Ōtsu

• In contrast the same author in Japanese wrote this—not overt in purpose just a suggestion:Today, taking my last sight of the mallards Crying on the pond of Iware,

Must I vanish into the clouds! Prince Ōtsu

• Another poem in the Chinese style that seems overt in its messageBy the southern woods I have built my hut;

I drop my hook from the north lake banks.

Sporting birds dive when I draw near;

Green duckweed sinks before my gliding boat. . .

The quivering reeds reveal the fish below;

By the length of my line I know the bottom’s depth.

With vain sighs I dangle the tempting bait

And watch the spectacle of avaricious hearts.

(Ki no Suemochi --Early Eighth Century)

• Both styles are quiet beautiful, the class also noted that the Japanese poetry relied heavily on natural descriptions to evoke the mood

• Apparently the transitional quality of autumn was especially favored (few other seasons noted in our selection) probably related to the concept of Miyabi and Mono no aware

• Later these developed the diversity of unique poetic forms of native poetry, such as waka, haikai, and other more Japanese poetic specialties.

• For example, in the Tale of Genji both kinds of poetry are frequently mentioned.

Waka -- The word has two different but related meanings: the original meaning was "poetry in Japanese" and encompassed several genres such as chōka and sedōka (defined later); the later, more common definition refers to poetry in a 5-7-5-7-7 metre.Haikai -- plural haikai, Japanese in full haikai no renga, a comic renga (team composed), or Japanese linked-verse form. The haikai was developed as early as the 16th century as a diversion from the composition of the more serious renga form.

MAN’YŌSHŪ• The “Man’y ōshū,” or “Collection of Ten

Thousand Leaves,” is the oldest and greatest of the Japanese anthologies of poetry.

• There are 4,500 poems (Waka) in the “Man’y ōshū”• Tanka ((短歌 ) "short poems" used to differentiate

from the longer chōka (長歌 , "long poems"). • Chōka (long poems consist of 5-7 on phrases

repeated at least twice, and conclude with a 5-7-7 ending-- followed by a hanka or envoi:

• Envoi or Envoy is a short stanza at the end of a choka used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.

In the Man’y ōshū there is,

as our text says, even in

its shorter works “a

passion and a directness

that later poets tended

to polish away.”