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Marks and Grade Points in Renga

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

In waka, renga, and later, haikai, practitioners submitted their work to their teacher or other respected poets for evaluation. The teacher would scrutinize the poem before giving a “grade” for each ... More

In waka, renga, and later, haikai, practitioners submitted their work to their teacher or other respected poets for evaluation. The teacher would scrutinize the poem before giving a “grade” for each verse or poem through marks or points called ten. As renga spread widely among the commoners, self-proclaimed judges who hand out grades proliferated. These were the tenja, professional “referees” who arbitrated on rules and points in exchange for a sum for their services. Many of these referees seemed to be only nominal priests with no clerical office or rank, and who did not write out comments or care to examine the verses they received from a serious pedagogical motivation. It is therefore not surprising that Shinkei insisted on strictness and thoroughness in handing out marks, perhaps because he thought the marks handed out by professional tenja were useless.Less

Semantic Confusion

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

Waka includes a form of poetry which is frowned upon. Known as miraiki (prophetic record), this type of poetry purportedly predicts the future, in particular, the dark and final phase of Buddhism. ... More

Waka includes a form of poetry which is frowned upon. Known as miraiki (prophetic record), this type of poetry purportedly predicts the future, in particular, the dark and final phase of Buddhism. Miraiki reportedly crops up in any renga session, but is met with disapproval, and is also the title of a collection of fifty poems once believed to have been written by Teika under a pseudonym, but now considered to be a forgery. The poems depend exclusively on various types of wordplay, including engo and kakekotoba, but are employed in a way that obscures the syntax and consequently the sense of the poem. In addition, miraiki is viewed as the pejorative equivalent of the shūku (double meaning) technique.Less

Incomprehensibility

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

In waka, there is a type of verse called mushin shojaku, which literally means “not to be grasped by the mind,” that is, incomprehensible. It is a technical term derived from kambun syntax and it ... More

In waka, there is a type of verse called mushin shojaku, which literally means “not to be grasped by the mind,” that is, incomprehensible. It is a technical term derived from kambun syntax and it describes a poem or verse whose lines do not cohere into a total meaning due to the absence of a logical connection running through them. As a reflection of incomprehensibility, the term mushin shojaku appears as early as the Man'yōshū but also occurs in a passage from the Mumyōshō, within the context of a section that deals with mediocre poets who try to imitate the great ones. It is not clear what Shinkei really thought of mushin shojaku because he does not overtly condemn it in this chapter. He simply notes that the phenomenon exists in renga, like it does in waka, and gives two illustrations without comment. Nevertheless, Shinkei abhors vulgarity as a manifestation of a lack of sensibility.Less

Poetry Contests and Criticism

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

A practice in waka was to hold poetry contests (uta awase), when poems were subjected to varying praise and criticism which exposed even their slightest flaws while the poets' names were withheld ... More

A practice in waka was to hold poetry contests (uta awase), when poems were subjected to varying praise and criticism which exposed even their slightest flaws while the poets' names were withheld from the company. While such contents were also held in the case of renga, these were actually hokku or tsukeku arranged by an individual poet into pairs or rounds and submitted for judgment to a famous master or senior poet. An example is the Master Bontō's Renga Match in Fifteen Rounds (Bontōan renga awase jūgoban) convened in 1415. Renga contests could have been rarely held with the degree of formality and ceremony that characterized waka contests, but informally, they were held quite often and, as Shinkei hoped, became part of a renga poet's training. Nevertheless, Shinkei clearly hoped for a higher standard of poetry in renga than was being produced during his time.Less

About Hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

Hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū refers to the five-part structure of the waka poem: hen (Prelude), jo (Beginning), dai (Topic), kyoku (Statement), and ryū (Dissolve). In renga, one should be able to sense this ... More

Hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū refers to the five-part structure of the waka poem: hen (Prelude), jo (Beginning), dai (Topic), kyoku (Statement), and ryū (Dissolve). In renga, one should be able to sense this structure by reciting the upper and lower verses together as one. Paying no attention to this matter often results in absurd compositions. This chapter further elaborates on the structure of linking between any two contiguous verses in renga (tsukeai), but also characterizes the movement of the whole sequence as a smoothly flowing jo-ha-kyū progression. It essentially valorizes the ability to read, to appreciate, to discern “the good or bad” in others' works—in other words, the critical faculty—over facility in renga composition per se.Less

On the Tsukubashū

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

The Tsukubashū, an anthology of various renga configurations, was compiled by Nijō Yoshimoto in 1356 and 1357, with the invaluable assistance of Gusai and his disciples. Modeled after the imperial ... More

The Tsukubashū, an anthology of various renga configurations, was compiled by Nijō Yoshimoto in 1356 and 1357, with the invaluable assistance of Gusai and his disciples. Modeled after the imperial waka anthologies, the Tsukubashū is composed of twenty sections subdivided by topic: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter; Sacred Rites (Shintō), Buddhism, Love, Miscellaneous, Travel, Celebrations, Miscellaneous Forms, and Hokku. It has a total of 2,190 verses, including 119 hokku, from 460 poets. Shinkei consistently cites the so-called middle period (nakatsukoro) in the treatise's historical construction as a period of decline in the quality of renga composition.Less

Post-Shinkokinshū Waka

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

Sasamegoto and Shinkei's other writings provide unequivocal evidence that the eighth imperial anthology, Shinkokinshū (1205), represents the apogee of waka history. Shinkei's valuation of ... More

Sasamegoto and Shinkei's other writings provide unequivocal evidence that the eighth imperial anthology, Shinkokinshū (1205), represents the apogee of waka history. Shinkei's valuation of Shinkokinshū included a third factor: Shinkokinshū-style poetry's unparalleled “success in the world” (yo ni tokimekitamaishi koto). In this chapter, Shinkei considers the work of Shōtetsu, by all accounts the major waka poet of the Muromachi period, as a revival of the superior qualities of Shinkokinshū poetry. However, the age was actually under the dominance of the conservative Nijō Yoshimoto school. Shōtetsu was not included in the Shinzoku Kokinwakashū (1439), the last of the twenty-one imperial anthologies.Less

The Role of Waka in Renga Training

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

Renga differs from waka in a number of ways. For example, renga diction makes greater use of ellipses, nominals, and verbals with no modal suffixes. In addition, the rhythm of the single 5-7-5- or ... More

Renga differs from waka in a number of ways. For example, renga diction makes greater use of ellipses, nominals, and verbals with no modal suffixes. In addition, the rhythm of the single 5-7-5- or 7-7-syllable verse is quicker, more crisp and cleanly delineated in renga than that of the 5-7-5-7-7-syllable form, which can be more flowing and subtle in movement, in waka. Shinkei's insistence that renga and waka should be one, despite their obvious differences, may be interpreted as an attempt to promote in renga the aesthetic ideals of waka (and of some Chinese poetry). The cornerstone of renga as a word game is the device of yoriai. With yoriai, however, there is no attempt to connect to the integral meaning of the maeku. While it could and did produce exciting verses, yoriai tends to cause renga to degenerate into a dull activity where the verbal correspondences become isolated as the sole link between the verses.Less

Right Teaching and the Individual Poet

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

In this chapter, Shinkei argues that external circumstance molds individual talent. Therefore, this talent needs to be exposed to proper teaching, which is available only from the past poets of the ... More

In this chapter, Shinkei argues that external circumstance molds individual talent. Therefore, this talent needs to be exposed to proper teaching, which is available only from the past poets of the tradition and the older living poets who maintain it. Shinkei refers to these poets as “those who have achieved before” (sendatsu). Sasamegoto itself looks at the achievements of the Kamakura-Nambokuchō poets in renga and of those of the Shinkokinshū age in waka. Aside from tradition, another momentous “cause and condition” (innen) for enlightenment in poetry, but much harder to come by, is a great teacher (meishi).Less

Conclusion

Paul S. Atkins

in Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet

The conclusion offers reasons for Teika’s success as a poet and courtier. His rise to fame was contingent on historical vicissitudes, but required a formidable degree of talent and perseverance. ... More

The conclusion offers reasons for Teika’s success as a poet and courtier. His rise to fame was contingent on historical vicissitudes, but required a formidable degree of talent and perseverance. Various paradoxes observed in Teika’s personality, career, and environment are ultimately unresolvable.Less

Eileen Chang and Things Japanese

Kam Louie (ed.)

in Eileen Chang: Romancing Languages, Cultures and Genres

The chapter provides a close reading of the material world captured in Eileen Chang's writings from the war period. Noting the conspicuous lack of scholarly attention to Chang's culture connection ... More

The chapter provides a close reading of the material world captured in Eileen Chang's writings from the war period. Noting the conspicuous lack of scholarly attention to Chang's culture connection with Japan, the chapter begins by asking and answering some basic questions: Is there a place for Japan and things Japanese in Chang's literary order? How do things Japanese feature? What position do Japan and things Japanese occupy in Chang's cultural imagination? Working through a range of cultural genres including photography, fashion, graphic design, poetry, and film, the chapter re-situates Chang in her own time, highlights wartime politics as the condition of her rise to fame, and defines the unique style of Chang's writing as closely intertwined with a vibrant transnational popular culture through war and occupation.Less

Siting Earthworks, Navigating Waka: Patterns of Indigenous Settlement in Allison Hedge Coke’s Blood Run and Robert Sullivan’s Star Waka

Chadwick Allen

in Trans-Indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies

This chapter presents a third format of sustained juxtaposition of Indigenous literary works connected by genre and theme. Sullivan’s and Hedge Coke’s contemporary texts emphasize waka and earthworks ... More

This chapter presents a third format of sustained juxtaposition of Indigenous literary works connected by genre and theme. Sullivan’s and Hedge Coke’s contemporary texts emphasize waka and earthworks as Indigenous technologies and, more precisely, as Indigenous technologies for settlement. Blood Runemphasizes themes of ancient, ongoing, and possible future histories of Native American construction and trade. It explores the art, engineering, culture, and history associated with the Native American earthworks. Star Waka emphasizes themes of ancient, ongoing, and possible future histories of Polynesian exploration and migration. It explores the multiple meanings of Polynesian waka, a term that indicates any kind of “vessel” but signifies large, ocean-voyaging “canoes”.Less

Introduction

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

This book is an annotated translation of Sasamegoto (1463–64), a Japanese poetic treatise from the medieval period noted for its thoroughgoing construction of poetry as a way to attain, as well as ... More

This book is an annotated translation of Sasamegoto (1463–64), a Japanese poetic treatise from the medieval period noted for its thoroughgoing construction of poetry as a way to attain, as well as signify via language, the aim of Buddhist practice: mental liberation (satori). Written by Shinkei (1406–75), a Tendai cleric best known today as one of the most brilliant poets of renga (linked poetry), Sasamegoto is also a representative work in the larger cultural history and an equally distinctive voice in the classic waka form. Shinkei formulated the principles of renga as a serious art during the Muromachi period (1392–1568). Sasamegoto articulates renga, and poetry in general, as an existential praxis, a Way. The medieval notion of praxis is informed by what used to be called “the wisdom of the East,” mainly Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Sasamegoto is in two parts: the first written in the fifth month of Kanshō 4 (1463) and the second in the fifth month of Kanshō 5 (1464).Less

Renga History

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

Sasamegoto offers an account of renga history. Man'yōshū 1635 was cited as the oldest example of linked poetry, that is, its archaic form as “short renga” (tanrenga) in the Yakumo mishō (Eightfold ... More

Sasamegoto offers an account of renga history. Man'yōshū 1635 was cited as the oldest example of linked poetry, that is, its archaic form as “short renga” (tanrenga) in the Yakumo mishō (Eightfold Cloud Treatise [1221]) by Retired Emperor Juntoku (1197–1242; r. 1210–1221). This is essentially a waka poem featuring the formal elements of the basic renga verse form as an individual link, as well as its pragmatic aspect as dialogical discourse. Nijō Yoshimoto (1320–1388) traced the origins of renga to the examples of katauta mondō (half-poems) in the ancient chronicles Kojiki (712) and Nihongi (720). Another significant milestone in renga history is the rise of so-called chain renga (kusari renga) with multiple links. Shinkei's reference to the Minase River provides evidence that Shinkokinshū poets such as Fujiwara Teika (1162–1241) and Ietaka (1158–1237) played a major role in the formation of the long form and its aesthetics during the early Kamakura period. However, renga flourished thanks to the so-called jige renga, leading to a “broadening of the Way.”Less

the Link as a Structure of Signification

in Emptiness and Temporality: Buddhism and Medieval Japanese Poetics

Shinkei offered his most concrete explanation and illustration of the link in his adaptation of the hen-jo-daikyoku-ryū structural concept of waka to renga. His theory of tsukeai provides an avenue ... More

Shinkei offered his most concrete explanation and illustration of the link in his adaptation of the hen-jo-daikyoku-ryū structural concept of waka to renga. His theory of tsukeai provides an avenue for directly correlating, if not completely fusing, poetry and philosophy. Moreover, Shinkei's understanding of tsukeai is comparable to contemporary Western theories of structuralism and deconstruction that are relevant to the questions of meaning, “truth,” difference, and the metaphor. The treatise Sangoki, Shinkei's most likely source, describes a technical term referring to the structural sequence of the five-line waka, hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū. A look at some examples shows that the tsukeku, which itself has no explicit meaning or intention, reflects the meaning of maeku. Shinkei's adaptation of the hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū concept to renga linking is related to yukiyō, the movement of the sequence as a whole. It is precisely in the sense of yukiyō that the link between renga, deconstruction, and Buddhist philosophy becomes evident.Less

The Link as Figuration and Metaphorical Shift

in Emptiness and Temporality: Buddhism and Medieval Japanese Poetics

In the context of formal poetic rhetoric, the economy of the renga link requires transformation. This process of figuration is evident in Shinkei's analysis, in which he further equates the ... More

In the context of formal poetic rhetoric, the economy of the renga link requires transformation. This process of figuration is evident in Shinkei's analysis, in which he further equates the hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū structure with waka poems employing jo no kotoba, an introduction or Preface to the main Statement, and so-called yasumetaru kotoba or pause words, a short preface or “pillow-word” placed in the medial rather than the typical initial position. Both rhetorical figures often end in kakekotoba, or puns, the hinge or joint of a double meaning that disrupts the linear continuity of the poem, causing the meaning to undergo a metaphorical shift from one part to the other. Shinkei's goal is to find in the history of rhetorical structures in Japanese poetry the origins of tsukeai in renga.Less

The Close Link and the Distant Link

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

The structural continuity and discontinuity of a waka poem are known as the Close Link (shinku) and the Distant Link (soku), respectively. Most people cannot discern this distinction and are thus ... More

The structural continuity and discontinuity of a waka poem are known as the Close Link (shinku) and the Distant Link (soku), respectively. Most people cannot discern this distinction and are thus often confused by the precise nature of the link between verses. According to Lord Teika, the Distant Link is employed by many superior poems. Both the Close and Distant Link modes also exist in renga. The distance between two contiguous verses is key to understanding renga structure—specifically the nature of the link—and renga aesthetics. In his analysis of the shinku/soku dichotomy in this chapter, Shinkei clearly draws a distinction between the verse as such, a formal entity consisting of words (kotoba) arranged into an integral shape or configuration (sugata), on the one hand, and some underlying deep level of meaning (kokoro), on the other. For Shinkei, the shinku/soku dichotomy is only provisional, part of the metalinguistic principles of nondualism and impartiality.Less

On Hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū as the Structure of the Renga Link

in Murmured Conversations: A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei

This chapter focuses on the sequential pattern in waka called hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū, which, according to a former master, is of utmost importance in renga. For example, if a short verse contains kyoku ... More

This chapter focuses on the sequential pattern in waka called hen-jo-dai-kyoku-ryū, which, according to a former master, is of utmost importance in renga. For example, if a short verse contains kyoku (that is, intends to make a Statement), then the long verse should assume the hen-jo-dai posture and leave something unsaid. On the other hand, if a long verse intends to make a Statement and is emphatically saying so, then the short verse should adopt the hen-jo-dai stance and let it flow through. Shinkei views the verse pair, renga's basic structural unit, as an oscillation between a Statement and its Context. Hence, if one aspect is taken by the maeku, then the other should be taken by the tsukeku. In waka, since one does not wish to express a Statement in two places in the same poem, he/she tends to use prefatory words (jo no kotoba) or pause words (yasumetaru kotoba) called hampi no ku. There are many examples of both waka and renga that employ prefatory words, including the ancient poems.Less