Saigyo was a poet who lived in the latter period of the Heian Era. It is commonly acknowledged, however, that his poems have much of the mediaevalism and that the history of the mediaeval 'waka,' 31-syllable Japanese poem, begins with Shunzei and Saigyo. In this treatise, I intend to clarify in what sense he was a mediaeval poet. The chief problem Saigyo pursued in his poems consists in his struggle against his 'kokoro' or soul. That is why a great many of his poems are describing his suffering from his 'kokoro' which would wander unrestrictedly in heaven and earth. Though he himself never tried to give analysis to that 'kokoro,' nor solved what it really was, I think his fierce passion in his all love poems show us that he recognized 'kokoro'. Therefore, Saigyo's 'kokoro' from which he suffered all his life, seems to me to be nothing but his vital energies. What is more important in his poems is that word 'mi' or body is used whenever 'kokoro' is told. 'Mi' is contrasted to 'kokoro', the former restricting the latter and forcing it never to step out of its domain. And I dare to infer that this 'mi' is meant by 'the social order of the Heian Era' oppressing his vital power. From this point, it may be said that Saigyo's poems were born from an impact of his vitality emerging from inside against the outside social order trying to oppress it. And Saigyo had to suffer because he never allowed his 'kokoro' to take its own way. Thus, he chose his 'kokoro' as the thema, made poems from that stand- point and could finally, I infer, cultivate a new world of poems which was quite different from that of the Heian Era.
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