Abstract
Ki-no Tsurayuki, a poet one thousand years ago, defined tanka (Japanese poem in 31 syllables) as the verbal expression of what one bears in mind with a corresponding material which can be seen or heard. This means that a poet needs two subjects to make a poem : one is what he intends to say about, the other is subsidiary material such as flower, snow, moon, etc. Mitate (seeing as is one form of the correspondence between two subjects. We can see three functions of it as follows. 1. Cognitive device-Metaphorical sentence has the implicit instruction to see X as Y in order to know about X. The practice of this instruction brings us imaginary experience of X with such taste or feeling that Y can evoke in us. In this case, metaphor is used not for an intellectual cognition, but for an aesthetic experience through imagination. 2. Symbolism-A man's state of mind (e.g. love) tinges things he sees (e.g. flower or moon) with a certain mood, and they will have some "taste" or "touch" corresponding with his own feeling. Thus, the subsidiary material in tanka becomes a symbol for the inside of the narrator. 3. Ground for presentation-Performing arts represent some imaginary world (e.g. Hamlet's world) in background, and present aesthetic quality in foreground. In kabuki, the present factor is prior to the represent one. But, without the meaning from background, the aesthetic impression would lose its depth. In the same way, at a figurative tanka, the intelligible meaning of the background sustains the word performance of the foreground.
