Transactions of the Japan Academy
Online ISSN : 2424-1903
Print ISSN : 0388-0036
ISSN-L : 0388-0036
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Volume 78, Issue 1
Displaying 1-9 of 9 articles from this issue
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Articles
  • Linked Poetry as Consecutive Pun
    Monkeyʼs Straw Raincoat by Earl Miner
    Koji KAWAMOTO
    2023 Volume 78 Issue 1 Pages 1-20
    Published: 2023
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2023
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2183/tja.78.1_1
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    　Of the many works of Earl Miner, former President of the International Comparative Literature Association, who died in 2004, the most important is Monkeyʼs Straw Raincoat (1981). It is a meticulous English translation of the whole of the Sarumino , a consummate anthology of haiku and linked poetry (haikai-renga) by Basho and his school, accompanied by Minerʼs extensive introduction and detailed interpretations.
    　Typically, a linked poem comprises thirty-six verses, which are composed at one sitting by three or more persons taking turns. “Long” verses of seventeen syllables alternate with “short” verses of fourteen syllables. The initial long verse, called hokku, should be a complete poem in its own right, with mandatory season-word and cutting-word. Often composed and appreciated by itself, hokku came to be called haiku in the nineteenth century, thus exempt from its original role as “starting” verse. The ensuing thirty-five verses, although semantically autonomous, cannot stand alone as poems. Each of them makes “poetic” sense only in conjunction with adjacent verses, either preceding or following it. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)
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  • An Essay on Saigyo
    Jun KUBOTA
    2023 Volume 78 Issue 1 Pages 21-38
    Published: 2023
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2023
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2183/tja.78.1_21
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    　In his work An Introduction to the History of Japanese Literature, Kato Shuichi observes that Saigyo's waka poetry communicates his emotions and experiences in a simple and direct language, which differs from the technical style of Fujiwara no Teika, an important poet in the Shinkokin Wakashu. At the same time, Kato argues that several of Saigyo's poems address the topic of kachofugetsu (“the beauty of nature”), which is the central theme of the aristocratic culture, similar to the poems written by court intellectuals in the Heian era; according to Kato, Saigyo submitted to this elite culture. In this essay, the author first questions this criticism of Saigyo, emphasizing the unique consideration of natural phenomena and ordinary lives in his poems and discussing the diversity of his writing by citing his works on natural phenomena, such as lunar eclipses and rainbows, and his poems about thieves—topics that did not interest poets before him. The essay notes that Saigyo enjoyed writing haikai verses, which were regarded as somewhat inferior “miscellany” poems in the Kokin Wakashu, and renga, which poets had composed as a hobby since the late Heian period, and considers the nature of the humor in these poems to emphasize Saigyo's critique of society. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)
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Joint Symposium of Sections 1 and 2
Interim Report of Academic Research Program Supported by the Japan Academy
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