Shimokōbe-Chōryū’s Academic Poetics

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to re-evaluate Shimokōbe-Chōryū (year of birth unknown-1686), a poet in the early Edo Period, through the explication of his poetical method. In the first chapter the word “hitofushi” is examined to prove his willingness to contrive something new quite unlike the Dōjō school. In the second chapter his style of unifying theory and practice is pointed out from several poems composed on the basis of his own poetics Zoku-karin-ryōzai-shū. In the third chapter it is graphically shown that about 41 percent of the whole 133 items in Zoku-karin-ryōzai-shū is used for his poems. Such a scholarly tendency is also found in interaction between commentary and practice. This is why Shimizu-Hamaomi once said that Chōryū was an academic poet. In the fourth chapter his reputation in later generations is chronologically outlined. Although he was generally underestimated, Chōryū is a poet worthy of attention who stood aloof from the Dōjō school and pursued his own peculiar scholarly style.