The Lyrical Method of the Elegy of Prince Hinashi-no-Mikoto: The Art and Form of Requiem on the Frontiers of East Asia

Abstract

The elegy of Prince Hinashi-no-Mikoto is written in the form of a Chinese requiem, but it becomes peculiarly lyrical in some passages. Such lyrical moments are often called “objectively emotional” or “pluralistic in perspective” because they seem to be written from a compound of first-person and third-person viewpoints. Although this elegiac style has been aesthetically analyzed, it is little known that it is derived from requiems on the frontiers of East Asia. This article will focus on the funeral rites of Bai people, an ethnic group in China, to trace the origin of the elegy. Their shamanistic ritual songs are precisely as lyrical and “pluralistic in perspective” as the Japanese funeral poem.