By the time of the Ashikaga Shogunate (1336-1573 A.D.), Japanese
poetry was in a period of regression. Composition of tanka (5-7-5-7-7), akin to what we saw from the Heian period and
the Kamakura Shogunate was not being genuinely pursued. There were aristocrats
still producing poetry that was reminiscent of this period, but, with the
exception of Shōtetsu and perhaps a few others, the poetry was mediocre.
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| Can be found here |
During this dearth of creativity arose a new form of
composing poetry: renga. To one who
is unfamiliar with all this jargon renga actually
looks a lot like tanka. Renga is “linked verse” and consist of
two parts. The first part is called a hokku
and has a 5-7-5 syllable structure and it is followed by a 7-7 couplet. When
read it all together it looks exactly like a tanka. For those of you paying attention, the hokku is the same as a haiku.
The art of haiku came from renga, but was not popularized until a
few hundred years later.
The reason why renga
was novel and interesting was that people would compose poetry together. No
longer were poems static pieces of text attributable to only one person, but
instead they became a cooperative work of literary art. One person would write
a hokku and then another would cap it
with a couplet. And then somebody else could stick another hokku after the couplet so that the couplet worked with both, and
so on, and so on. There were all kinds of rules about what kind of language can
be used, and how often a topic can be repeated. But most important rule was
that the poetic sequence had coherence. Sometimes people would take previously
used hokku and attach a completely
different couplet to it; changing the meaning entirely.
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| Can be found here |
People interested in this kind of thing would get together
for poetry gatherings and have a blast. It seems to me that most of the poets
of this time were either samurai
sensitive to aesthetics, or Buddhist monks who probably had nothing better to
do.
The guy I want to talk about today is Takayama Sōzei (d. 1455
A.D.). He was a military man who studied under Shōtetsu and was one of the
founding fathers of medieval renga (there
was another guy by the name of Nijō Yoshimoto who could probably be considered the founding father, I will address him
later). After the death of Nijō Yoshimoto renga fell into decline. Sōzei revitalized the art. He was a versatile poet
who could write with a sense of miyabi
(courtly charm), ushin (unapologetic
pathos), and the Buddhist concept of sabi
(loneliness). Most importantly, he was renga
poet, which means he was adept at adding depth to someone else’s poetic
fragment.
Unfortunately, I could not find much of his poetry, and what
I found was already put together like a tanka.
I am not even sure if he wrote both parts. Soon I will translate some
transcripts for the more famous poetic gatherings.
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| Japanese Pampas Grass |
野里の秋の暮れの寂しき
招くとも薄がもとは誰かこん
高山宗砌
Autumn in the
countryside,
How lonely is the sunset!
Patches of pampas grass,
You beckon all to you, yet
Who’ll come and visit?
Takayama Sōzei
As you can see form this poem, the 7-7 couplet comes
before the 5-7-5 hokku. The initial
couplet has a strong element of sabi combined
with the feeling of being in a new places, which makes me think of Saigyō,
since he was always travelling. The hokku
utilizes the kigo (seasonal word)
of pampas grass, susuki in Japanese. Susuki is always associated with autumn
so there is an obvious convergence between the couplet and hokku.
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| Can be found here |
見れば雪降り月ぞ残れる
あけにけりきのうの夢は蹟もなし
高山宗砌
I can see the snow falling,
The moon remains in the sky,
A new day has come,
There’s not a trace in my mind
Of yesterday’s dreams.
Takayama Sōzei
I like this poem a lot because I think it creates a nice
scene.
This last poem is just the hokku, so in essence, it is a haiku.
散音は時雨に返す紅葉かな
高山宗砌
Bright rustling leaves
Contrast the dreary showers
Of waning autumn.
Takayama Sōzei
This hokku was
difficult to translate and I am not sure I got the main verb “kaesu” right. I do like the
juxtaposition of shigure (late autumnal
showers) and momiji (leaves changing
to their fall color). He used seasonal words from the beginning and end of
autumn. It’s a nice contrast.
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