Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shoji

FujiwaraTeika's Hundred-PoemSejuence of the Shoji Era

by ROBERT H. BROWER

Introduction

I. Foreword' TUHE greatJapanese classical poet and criticFujiwara no Sadaie,or Teika,2 is bestknown to popularhistory for his littleanthology of thirty-one- syllablepoems called Hyakuninisshu,3 'One HundredPoems by One HundredPoets'. Even today,this collection is memorizedby mostcultured Japanese,if onlybecause a literarycard gameplayed during the New Year seasonis basedupon it. Moreimportant, the Hyakunin isshu has for the past three hundredyears and morebeen the chiefvehicle by whichthe Japanese have come to learnsomething of theirnative tradition of classicalpoetry, and so closelyis Teika identifiedin thepopular mind with this anthology (and often littleelse), that I mayperhaps be forgiventhis rather peculiar way of beginning: namely,by stressingthat the collectionpresented here is an entirelydifferent work. The 'Hundred-PoemSequence of theShoji Era', or Shojihyakushu4-the set of a hundredpoems we aredealing with here-is a sequenceof Teika'sown compositionwritten in 1200(the second year of the Shoji era) by commandof Ex-EmperorGo-Toba.5 This was a littlemore than two years after the young

I I wish to express thanks for invaluable University.His specialcontribution is acknowl. assistancefrom the late ProfessorMizukami edged separatelybelow. An earlydraft of the Kashiz6 'J?vP- (1924-1975), who devoted translationwas presented before the Colloquium much ofhis waningstrength during the spring of the Centerfor Japanese and Korean Studies and earlysummer of 1975 to my problemsin of the Universityof California,Berkeley, in revisingmy manuscript.His prematuredeath May 1973.A grantfrom the Center forJapanese has deprived me of a cherishedfriend and Studies of the Universityof Michiganenabled irreplaceablecounselor of many years. I am me to reviseand completethe study. also indebted,as usual, to the teacher of us 2 , 1162-1241. both, ProfessorKonishi Jin'ichi 4'f:-, 3 ,fA - 4 who allowed me precioushours of time despite ff -g his many other commitmentsand heavy 5 aA&5, 1180-1239; r. 1183-98. administrativeduties at Tsukuba National

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 224 MonumentaNipponica, XXXI, 3 sovereignhad abdicatedand in his new-foundfreedom from the stifling cere- monialrestrictions offull imperial state, had begunto turnhis restless energies andenthusiasms tothe pursuit of the arts and the patronage of artists, particularly poetryand the poets ofthe native tradition, the vernacular waka. As for Teika's Shoji sequence,it is butone of manywhich the poet wrote during his long life-his personalcollection begins with fifteen sequences of a hundredpoems, for example. However,the ShJji hyakusha was botha landmarkin his artisticdevelopment and crucialto theadvancement of his career. It also containsa fewof hiis best poems.Compared to theHyaakunin isshu (whose value and literaryimportance I wouldnot for a singlemoment deny), Teika's Shoji kj'akushu was an individual achievementof fargreater importance both to thepoet himself and to his con- temporaries.As an exampleof the hyakushu,or 'hundred-poemsequence', the poeticgenre that became so popularduring the late twelftlh and earlythirteenth centuries,it is bothcharacteristic and seminal. I havetouched upon the Shoji hIyakushzu elsewlhere in ter-ms of its importance to Teika'slife and career-howit providedthe means of establishinghim in Ex- EmperorGo-Toba's favor, and playeda pivotalrole in consolidatinghis special positionas thepoetic heir of his father, the great Shunzei or Toshinari,6 and as poeticlawgiver in hisown time and for centuries following.7 I shall refrain from recountingmany details of thatstory again here. Rather, my primary purpose in thepages that follow is to presenta translationand commentaryofthe ShoIji hyakushuitself. However, to thebest of my knowledge, this is thefirst translation intoa Westernlanguage of a completehundred-poem sequence composed by anyindividual Japanese classical poet. Consequently,some explanation of the genreand ofTeika's particular work seems in order.8

II. The Developmentof Poetic Sequences

SETSby single poets consisting offive, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, fifty, or a hundred poemsbecame increasingly common from the tenthcentury. The popularity

6 M ,) 1114-1204. rative edition with Satsukawa Sh ji lt4*)IIJL 7 See nmy'Ex-Emperor Go-Toba's Secret of Jenaga's (?1170-1234) diary, Minamoto no Teachings: Go-Toba no In gokucleni'ka&I ItOpui Ienaga nikkizenchi7kai - -fzE f8i-k AT(Yfuseido, X;, in HJAS, 32 (1972), especially pp. 14-16. 1968); the excellent study by Kubota Jun Also the translation and study by Earl Miner Ig&Poetry[jcP], StanfordU.P., 1961, especially Ch. wakashu7no kenkyui:kiban to kosei f a1t VI, 'The Mid-Classical Period, 1100-1241'. 0:)r E, B g g (Sanseido, 1968), especially 8 Of special value have been the following pp. 42-85; and the articles on hyakushuand Japanese secondary works: the pages devoted Shoji hyakushuby Ichimura Hiroshi $4t4t to the Shoji hyakushuin Ishida Yoshisada and Taniyama Shigeru bit, respectively,in - ;FE >, FujiwaraTeika no, kenkyiu iFW Waka bungaku (laijiten ; (Meiji ? (Bungad6 Shoten, 1957); Ishida's collabo- Shoin, 1962).

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-PoemSequence of the Sho'j Era 225 of such poetic sequences grew apace with that of the utaawase,9or poetrycontests. It also paralleled tlheincreasing tendency during the eleventhand twelfthcentu- ries to compose formal poetry on conventional topics (daiei),10as distinguished from informal poems exclhanged between individuals lords and retainers, friends,lovers-in the give and take of private social intercourse. Perhaps tlle oldest example of what became the standard lengtlh the hyakushu,or hundred- poem sequence (also, hyakushlwutaor hyakushuno uta)11-was a set presented by Minamoto no Shigeyuki12to the crown prince, the futureEmperor Reizei (950- 1011; r. 967-69), and preservedin Shigeyuki'spersonal collection.13Shigeyuki's sequence is already an example of the classical structurefor most hyakushu:it echoes in microcosm the major divisions of the firstimperial anthology, the Kokinshld4-divisionspreserved witlhminor variations in subsequent official anthologies and in many private and personal collections. That is, the poemisare arranged in groups according to subject categories, beginningwith nature in the order of the seasons, followed by human affairs,notably love, followed in turn by 'miscellaneous' or 'mixed poemns'(ztka)15 on topics not included among the preceding categories. In Shigeyuki'ssequence, the seasons predominate,with twenty poems each on spring, summer, autumn, aind winter, ten on love, and finally ten 'miscellaneous' poems. The composition of hyakushuwas greatly stimulated in fact, turned into a fashionable craze among the courtier poets of the early twelfthcentury- by the famous Horikawa hyakushu:16 hundred-poem sequences composed on two separate occasions by a number of outstanding poets on the order of Emperor Horikawa (1079-1107; r. 1086-1107). The firstseries of Horikawa sequences (known familiarlyas Tar6, or 'the eldest son') were completed by some sixteen poets around 1104. The freshnessof the Horikawa sequences-the feature that endowed them with instant popularity and an influence that lasted for centuries-was that within the general categories of spring, summer, autumn, winter, love, and miscellaneous, each poem was on a set topic prescribed in advance. To take the twenty spring poems as an example, the topics were: The Beginning of Spring, The First Day of the Rat, Spring Haze, The Warbler, Young Shoots, Remaining Snow, Plum Blossoms, Willows, Fern Shoots, Cherry Blossoms, Spring Rain, Spring Foals, Geese Returning North, The Cuckoo (yobukodori), Rice Seedlings, Violets, Iris, Wisteria, The Yellow Rose, and The Last Day of the Third Month (i.e., the last day of spring). It was not the newness of the Horikawa topics themselvesthat gave the sequences such interest,even though

9 4t /- logiesand SequencesofJapanese Court Poetry', in HJAS, 21 (1958), pp. 67-127. See especially pp. 108-09. 12 RJEt:t,,d.?1000. 14 - ', 905. 13 Konishi Jin'ichi, 'Associationand Pro- 15 J gression:Principles of Integrationin Antho- 16 A -

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 226 MonumentaNipponica, XXXI, 3 some of them appear to have been used for the firsttime in formalpoetry on this occasion. Nor was the orderingof the springand other seasonal poems according to the natural progressionof nature any new thing, for we find this principle already in the Kokinshu7and repeated in the threesubsequent imperial anthologies that had been compiled by Horikawa's time. Rather, it was the novelty of a specific topic for each poem. Such an exercise appealed to the virtuoso in- clinations of the court poets more than being told simply to compose twenty poems on Spring, say, and the Horikawa precedent immediately became a standard pattern for hundred-poem sequences on set topics, called kumidai hyakushu.17The Horikawa topical pattern was repeated and imitated for formal and informaloccasions, and virtually every serious poet set it for himselfover and again as a practice exercise. Perhaps another of the attractionsof the Horikawa topics was that, strictly prescribedthough theywere, theywere nonethelesssingle topics permittingmore freedomof treatmentthan 'compound topics' (musubidai)18such as 'Cranes and Snow-Covered Pine Branches', or 'The Autumn Moon Filtering Through Lowered Blinds'-topics in fairlywide use already by the early twelfthcentury and increasingin variety and popularity over the next hundred years. That the hundred-poem length was considered standard and the Horikawa topics provided a new point of departure is not to imply that thenceforthevery sequence was of a hundred poems and the topics always on the Horikawa model. Rather, the variations in numbers of poems in a sequence and the number and kinds of topics proliferated during the following century, resulting in many curious combinations and hybrids. The sequences were, indeed, given as many manipulations and variations as were assayed in the poetry contests-those poetic occasions par excellencewhich became during the twelfthcentury the principal means short of an imperial anthology for serious poets to 'publish' their work. And there was considerable interaction between the two genres: for by Teika's time, poets produced sequences of fiftyor a hundred poems, say, expresslyto be arranged into the 'rounds' (ban)19of a semi-fictitiouspoetry contest conducted by a group of officials'on paper', as it were. The best known and grandestof such occasions was the 'Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds' (Sen- gohyakubanittaawase)20 commissioned by Go-Toba in 1201, the year after the Shoji sequences.21 It has been suggested that poetic sequences were regarded as complete works in themselves.Whether of ten, twenty,or a hundred poems, they were intended to be read frombeginning to end at a single time, and their quality was judged by standards applying to the total effect as much as to the separate poems. These principleshave been introducedto Westernstudents and discussed in some

17 Ag- 20 -a F/ 18 #tM 21 See 'Go-Toba's Secret Teachings', p. 8. 19 I

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-PoemSequence of the Shoji Era 227 detail by ProfessorKonishi.22 However, for our purposes they may be briefly summarized here. First, the principles of association and progression. Allowing always for the inevitable divisions within a sequence imposed by unrelated topical categories such as The Seasons and Love, or Love and Miscellaneous, it became increasingly a preoccupation in the composition of sequences that the poems 'progress within a category' so as to provide natural movement from point to point, whetherin the course of a season frombeginning to end, or the arrange- ment of love poems to illustratethe conventional stages of a courtly love affair, from awakening passion to the ineluctable denouement of disenchantment, bitterness,and despair. The principle of progression is found already well developed in the Kokinshi,and so is the principle of association, although the latter was obviously followed with considerably less skill and consistency.Both principlesinteracted in complex ways, but association in particular was applied with increasing refinementand subtlety in successive imperial anthologies, achieving in many respects its finest results in the eighth, the Shinkokinshku, commissionedby Go-Toba in 1201.23 Of these two principles,association offeredmore complexitiesand possibilities. Obvious (though extremelyeffective) connections were links frompoem to poem of the same or related images, such as mountains leading to clouds, leading to cherryblossoms. Less immediate relationshipsbetween successive poems might involve suggesting by juxtaposition a common allusion to an older poem or poetic precedent. The responses of the aristocratic readers were shaped and guided by their intimate experience of one common tradition, and by well-established conventions of poetic treatment whereby dew, for example, traditionallysuggested tears, cherry blossoms the fragilityand evanescence of love and life. The increasingskill and subtletyof associational techniques was undoubtedly influenced in large measure by the popularity of hundred-poem sequences in the twelfthcentury and early thirteenth,particularly during the 'Age of the Shinkokinshii',or Shinkokin jidai24-the period of Go-Toba, Teika, and the many other poets of the firstrank who gave this period its special brilliance. And of all the poets of the age, Go-Toba himselfappears to have been greatlyintrigued with the possibilitiesof associational techniques.As ProfessorKonishi has written, Although practice varies with individual poets, we findthat in most cases the same poet has composed some sequences in which no attempt at association is made and othersin which the poems are linked through deliberate associations of imagery. There is, however, one significantexception-the

22 See n. 13, above. 322-29. 23 Konishi, 'Association',p. 103; jcP, pp. 24

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work of the Ex-Emperor Go-Toba. In all of his extant sequences, each successive poem is linked with the preceding one throughassociation of images. This fact seems of particular importance because of Go-Toba's relation to the Shinkokinsha:although this anthology was nominally compiled by a group of fivecourtiers headed by Fujiwara Teika, theirfunction was in reality only that of assistantsor advisers to Go-Toba, and it was the Ex-Emperor himselfwho was the chief compiler and had the final say in the selection or rejection of poemns.Therefore we may conclude that the application of techniques of association in such thorough fashion in the Shinkokinshawas a reflectionof Go-Toba's own taste and preferencefor these techniques.25 Together with the techniques of association and progression as developed and refinedin the hyakushuuta,we find an equally important principle behind the use of a multiplicityof styles,poetic textures,degrees of personalism and impersonalism,harmony, contrast, variety, and changes of pace. Again, I can do no better than quote ProfessorKonishi: Because the hundred-poemsequence was intended to be appreciated as a single artisticwhole, the overall effectof harmonyand balance, variety,and contrast was thereforeof greatest importance. In producing the desired impression,a conscious effortwas made to vary the pace and avoid mono- tony within the progressionby creating a certain numuberof high and low points. The high points were inidividual poemnswhich were strikingor remarkablefor technical or otherreasons, and the effectof such poems inight be considered to last longer in the minds of the audience if theywere placed next to more mediocre poems which would create no strong impression. In other words, the poet would deliberately include a certain number of bland or 'easy' poems at crucial points in his sequence so as to enhance the effectof the more interestingones and create a general impressionof sinuous, undulatingflow. By analogy with a piece of woven material, the 'easy' verses were called ji no uta26 or 'background poems,' and the more strikingones were known as monno uta,27or 'design poems': just as the effectof beauty in a piece of material is made more strikingwhen a patternis contrastedagainst a plain or neutral background, so with a sequence of poems.28 As ProfessorKonishi goes on to observe, we do not know exactly when the estheticprinciple ofji and monwas firstapplied to the hundred-poem sequences, but in his poetic treatiseknown as Go-Toba no In gokuden,Ex-Emperor Go-Toba uses the termji no uta as a matter of course, evidently expecting it and the principle behind it to be perfectlyfamiliar to his readers. Writing, it must be admitted, some years after the Shoji sequences and the Shinkokinshu,Go-Toba

25 Konishi, 'Association', pp. 110-- 1I. 27 oat 26 o) 28 Konishi,'Association', p. 111.

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fujiwara Teika's IIundred-PoemSequence of theShoji Era 229 remarks about the poetry of the talented Go-Ky6goku Yoshitsune29that, 'he might well have been criticized for including too few background poems in his hundred-poemsequences. '30 Unfortunately, there is no unquestionably authentic pronouncement on ji and monin the extant writingsby or attributedto Teika. In fact, Go-Toba's crypticremark about Yoshitsune is all we have to work with fromthe generation of Shinkokinpoets. Nevertheless,we may accept as a conscientiouseffort to transmit Teika's views the prescriptiongiven around 1263 by his son and poetic heir Tameie,31who wrotein a treatisevariously known as Eiga ittei(General Principles of Poetic Composition) or Yakumokuden (Secret Teachings on the Art of the Eight-Fold Clouds)32: In composing a hundred-poem sequence, a person ought to distribute through it a certain number of what are called 'background poems,' that is, poems which are in a familiarand commonplace style,and with these as a basis, particular thoughtshould be given to the topics which seem to call for poems with more strikingor ingenious effects.It is useless to fretand worryover each single one. Since the finepoems will tend to come to mind spontaneously,for such an extended form as a hundred-poem sequence, a person should not think too deeply upon every last poem. On the other hand, for sequences of twentyor thirtypoems, each composition should be carefullythought out, and there should be no admixture of background poems.33 As to the balance deemed desirable between design and background, it may be assumed, as Go-Toba's brief comment implies, that standards varied considerably, with individual preferences,degrees of formal decorum, the require- mentsof a given occasion, and the poet's judgment of the tastes of his audience or patron all playing a part. I shall come back to this matter below in a more particular descriptionof Teika's Shojihyakushu, but as best one can determine, approximately a third of his poems might be described as more design than background, more monthan ji. However, only a very small number of these- some four or five,perhaps are so strikingas to leave no room for argument or qualification. It is perhaps such a very limited number, excluding mixed and borderline cases, which Go-Toba had in mind, and it may also have been the criterionfor the strictlimitation on the number of monpoems which we find prescribed in the treatise Kirihioke,34'The Paulownia Brazier'. Now Kirihiokeis a patent forgery,spuriously attributed to Teika, but possibly by his descendant Nija Tamezane,35 and admittedlya forgeryis a poor foundation for any hypothesis. Nevertheless,spurious though it may be, Kirihiokeis

29 1&yt_I , 1169-1206. 33 See 'Go-Toba's SecretTeachings', p. 57, 30 'Go-Toba's SecretTeachings', p. 36 n. 122. 34 31 q*, 1 198-1275. t] 32 -t' -T,-$*~, L]U 35 -k4s1266-1333.

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 230 MonumentaNipponica, XXXI, 3 not withoutvalue as a reflectionof conservativepoetic standards of a period not so very much later than the Age of the Shinkokinshil,and it is worth quoting for this reason. 'In a hundred-poem sequence,' writes the supposed Teika, 'the way to proceed is firstto do all the background poems, quickly, smoothly,and with no special elegancies; then to compose a few strikingverses, putting them in here and there among the others. Seven or eight, but no more than ten of these in a sequence will give the effectof a brocade of differentcolors woven in with the rest. Such were the instructionsimparted to me by his lordship, my late fatherShunzei.'36

III. The Shoji hyakushu

OWING to Go-Toba's special interest in the popular hyakushugenre, it is not surprisingthat his firstofficial gesture towards the poetic art as ex-sovereign should have been to issue a call for a series of hundred-poem sequences. There were actually two separate groups of these commissioned in 1200, the second year of Shoji. And because the two series are known by a number of alternative names and designations,it is best to establish a few bibliographical and historical factsbefore proceeding to Teika's contribution. The firstand more famous of the two sets of Shoji sequences-the one of which Teika's forms a part-was commissioned by the twenty-one-year-old formersovereign around the seventh month of 1200. It is known perhaps most commonly as Go-Tobano In shodohyakushu,37 or 'Ex-Emperor Go-Toba's First Hundred-Poem Sequences', but it was also called Shoji ninenshodo hyakushu38 (The First Hundred-Poem Sequences of Shoji 2), Shojininen In onhyakushu39(The Ex-Emperor's Hundred-Poem Sequences of Shoji 2), Shoji shodohyakushu40 (The First Hundred-Poem Sequences of the Shoji Era), just plain Shojihyakushu; and finally,like the Horikawa sequences, it was irreverentlydubbed 'Tara' as distinguishedfrom 'Jir6',41the second and lesser set. Although Go-Toba's command firstwent out to a score of outstandingpoets, the final list of participantsfor the firstset numbered twenty-three.42Behind this

36 Kirihioke,in Nihon kagaku taikei [NKT] p. 794). On the otherhand, Ariyoshibelieves E iv, p. 288. the sequence attributedto Nobuhiro to have 37 .&P I_ r been a lateraccretion to thetext, for it comesat 38 E the veryend of the completeversion in Zoku 39 gunshoruUij [ZGR] ; tMlt, Book 382 (XIVB, 40 E pp. 568-629), even thoughNobuhiro's name 41 appears fifthin the list of participantsat the 42 The identityof one of the participants,a beginning(see Ariyoshi,Kenkyu, pp. 76-78). certainNobuhiro TuM-, is a mystery.As bestas In short,either a single individualcomposed has been determined,there was no suchperson, two sequences,one undel a pseudonymn,or and the name may have been an alias, but for the actual number of both participantsand whom?The ArchbishopJien, (1155-1225), sequenceswas originallytwenty-two, with the or conceivablyGo-Ky6goku Yoshitsune,ac- twenty-thirda later addition. cordingto Kubota (Shinkokinkajin no kenkyu,

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-PoemSequence of the Shoji Era 231 seeminglyslight change lies a fascinatingepisode of political and poetic intrigue involving Shunzei, Teika, and their Mikohidari43family and poetic factionon the one side, and their arch-enemies, the Rokujo44 family of poets and their adherents and political patrons on the other. In brief,despite an effortby the Rokuj6 leader Suetsune45and his helper Tsuneie46to exclude Teika and certain other of the younger and more gifted Mikohidari poets, a last-minuteplea by Shunzei seems to have moved Go-Toba to overrule his advisers and add Teika, letaka,47 and Takafusa48 to the list. The decision was vital to the position and futurestatus of Teika in particular, affordingan opportunityto establishcontact and ingratiate himselfwith the powerful ex-sovereignand to demonstrate his poetic prowess to the discomfitureof his enemies. One hesitates to make such a sweeping statementas that the course of Japanese classical poetry would have been foreveraltered had Teika been shunted aside at thisjuncture to eke out the remainder of his days in wretched obscurity. On the other hand, his dramatic rise to favor, though far from guaranteeing this temperamentallydiscontented poet a lifetimeof happiness and contentment,did enable him to consolidate his position as poetic heir apparent. It also rang a knell for the last faint hopes of the Rokujo faction, who had, indeed, never fully recovered from the defeat handed them by the soft-spokenbut relentlessShunzei as judge of the 'Poetry Contest in 600 Rounds' (Roppyakubanutaawase)49 of 1193. And when one considers that Teika's hegemony was perpetuated in the hereditarymonopolies over traditional court poetry exercised by his grandchildren,their allies and disciples, one may be excused for thinkinghis inclusion in the Sh-5i sequences more than a mere ripple on the surfaceofJapanese literaryhistory. Without tryingthe reader's patience with a detailed list of the participants, I shall merelyobserve that the final choice included a fair number of the most outstanding poets of the day. Both Mikohidari and Rokujo factions were re- presented,headed by the venerable Shunzei on the one hand and Suetsune on the other, and on the list were members of the imperial family,high nobles, lesser courtiers, and women as well as men. (Four women, to be exact: the splendid Princess Shikishi or Shokushi,50and the ladies Sanuki,51Kojiji,52 and Tango.53 The firstand last named are mentioned by Go-Toba in his treatise).54 Go-Toba himselfparticipated in both firstand second Shojihyakushu, as did the Archbishop Jien55and Fujiwara no Norimitsu.56

43 apes-F' 51 SW, 1141-ca.1217. 44 , 52 4,i{t, fl.ca. 1200. 45 *g, 1131-1221. 53 fl&, fl.ca. 1200. 46 &, fl.ca. 1200. 54 See 'Go-Toba's Secret Teachings', espe- 47 &, 1158-1237. cially pp. 36 & 38, withcorresponding notes. 48 MR, 1148-1209. 55 Ai SEAAP; posthumouslycalled Jichin 49 - I a , A, 1155-1225. -50ATHN3RE3, ?1151-1201 56 XY, 1 155-1213.

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The command for the firstset wen-tout around the seventh month of 1200; the second was commissioned later in the same year. It was less grandiose than the first,with only eleven participants in all. Among them, however, were several poets and literaryfigures of the firstimportance: Go-Toba and Jien, as mentioned; Kamo no Ch6mei,57 author of the famous HJjjki58 (Record of My Hut), but more renowned in his own day as poet and critic; and the former sovereign's private secretary,Minamoto no lenaga, Librarian of the Bureau of Poetry from 1201 and author of a valuable 'diary', chieflyan account of Go- Toba's poetic activities.59Like the firstset, the second is known by a number of differentnames (including Jir6, 'the younger brother', as mentioned above). The most common are: Shoji ninenIn dai nido hyakushu60(The Ex-Emperor's Second Hundred-Poem Sequences of Shoji 2), Shoji saido hyakushu6t(The Second Hundred-Poem Sequences of the Shoji Era), and Go-Toba no In saido hyakushu62 (Ex-Emperor Go-Toba's Second Hundred-Poem Sequences). No doubt the pleasure of the firstset whetted the retiredemperor's appetite for more. And he doubtlessfelt it a pityto have leftout such giftedpeople as Ch6mei and the young Lady Kunaiky663 the firsttime around, despite their relatively inferiorsocial status. At all events,it should be stressedthat Go-Toba's enthusiasmfor poetry set offa flurryof activity.He himselfsponsored several other major poetic events in 1200, and others followed suit, particularlyhis uncle, the poetically minded Cloistered Prince Shukaku,64and Go-Toba's chief adviser of the moment, his new father-in-lawMinamoto (Tsuchimikado) no Michichika.65 The topics for the two sets were not identical. Those for the first,or Shodo hyakushu,adhered to the general classical structure of a miniature imperial anthology, but allowed considerable variation under the principal categories: twentypoems each on Spring and Autumn; fifteeneach on Summer and Winter; ten poems on Love; fiveon Travel; fiveon A Mountain Dwelling; fiveon Birds; and five on Celebrations. These last twentypoems togetherobviously represent the familiarZ6, or Miscellaneous category.The topics for the Saido hyakushuwere more prescribed, with five poems each assigned to the following topics: Haze, The Warbler, Cherry Blossoms (Spring); The Wood Thrush, The Rains of the Fifth Month (Summer); Fall Flowers and Grasses, The Moon, Crimson Leaves (Autumn); Snow, Ice (Winter); Shinto, Buddhism, Dawn, Dusk, A Mountain Path, The Seaside, The Imperial Palace, Entertainmentsand Banquets; Cere- monials, Celebrations (Miscellaneous). It can be seen that the second series, its basic structurelittle differentfrom the first,is closer to the Horikawa pattern in its more detailed designationof specifictopics.66

57 T,-R3,,1 155-12 16. 63 t;M OPP,d. ca. 1205. 58 ; tt- 64 q -AVIE,1 150-1202. 59 See n. 8, above. 65 , (?+w0P) AM, 1149-1202. 66 60 iF - t% -t Text printedin Gunshoruiju [GR] 0$9fi1, 61 H ,-4- Book 170 (xi, pp. 238-266). - 62 a 44

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Fujiwara Teika, 1162-1241 (fromjidai Fudo Utaawasescroll, attributed to Teika's son, Tameie, 1198-1275.)

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In general,the importanceof the Shoji sequences,especially the first,to the literarylife of the age can be gaugedfrom the merestatistical fact that seventy- nine poems fromthe Shodohyakushu were finallychosen for the Shinkokinshu7 (includingthree of Teika's). This is second only to the ninetypoems selected fromthe 'PoetryContest in 1,500 Rounds' as a sourceof materialsfrom public poetrygatherings and conteststhat found their way intothis eighth and in many respectsgreatest of the twenty-oneimperial anthologies.

IV. Teika and the Shoji hyakushu

WHEN the rumorspread that Go-Toba was about to issue an officialcommand to a favoredfew to participatein thefirst Shoji hyakushu, Teika was forthe moment quite hopeful.He had long been in the doldrumsas faras his officialcareer was concerned,having spent many discontentedyears at the same relativelylow rankwithout prospect of advancement,and thepatrons of his Mikohidarifamily and poetic group, the Kuj667 branch of the Fujiwara, had been eclipsed at court by a sudden coup brought off by Michichika and his faction. Michichika had continued an important figurein court politics through many vicissitudesand changes of reign, including the Gempei wars, but his special influencewith Go- Toba derived chieflyfrom his closeness to Lady Tango,68 a favoriteconcubine and helpmate of the ex-sovereign's grandfather,the famous Go-Shirakawa.69 Tango (who is not to be confused with the participant of the same name in the Shoji hyakushu)had nursed and cossetted Go-Toba since his infancy,and continued to hold great sway over him. Consequently, with the help of this lady and her son by Go-Shirakawa, the Cloistered Prince Sh6nin,70Michichika had succeeded in introducinghis adopted daughter Zaishi (later, Shomei Mon'in)7' into Go-Toba's household, and in 1195 she had borne the then Emperor his firstson, destined to succeed him in 1198 as Emperor Tsuchimikado.72 The effectof all thiswas to make the position of Go-Toba's firstwife Ninshi,73 daughter of the Kuj6 leader Kanezane,74 untenable, and she retiredfrom court in 1196. With her went the power and influenceof her fatherand his entirefamily, and overnightthe patrons of Shunzei, Teika, and their adherents were edged into retirementand 'disgrace' that lasted with some mitigation until Michichika's death in the tenthmonth of 1202 and the appointmentof Kanezane's son Yoshi- tsune as Regent in the twelfthmonth of the same year. With such seeminglyabysmal prospectsin 1200, what reason, then, had Teika forhope? First,Shunzei's prestigeas arbiterof poetry was above all politics and

67 L, 72 +"l, 1195-1231; r. 1198-1210. 68 -fi?&, d. 1216. 73 41-T, also pronouncedTaeko, 1174-1238. 69 , 1127-92; r. 1155-58. She was formallyknown as GishuaMon'in 70 j 1169-97. 71 6-i, 7j<,9l r, 11 71-1257. 74 A, 1149-1207.

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 234 MonumentaNipponica, XXXI, 3 seemed only to increase with advancing age. He is believed to have been at least nominal tutor of poetry to the child Emperor Go-Toba,75 and though ill and infirmat the age of eighty-six,he was held in even deeper reverence and admiration by the ex-sovereign,now a young man. Second, Saionji Kintsune,76 youngerbrother of Teika's wife and an importantcourtier in spite of the general stigma attached to the Kujo faction, had repeatedly and enthusiasticallyre- commended Teika to the Ex-Emperor's notice, and had reported that Go-Toba seemed favorably disposed. These hopes were dashed the moment Michichika entered the proceedings and caused it to be announced that only 'senior poets' were to participate. This was the pretext for eliminating Teika, Jetaka, and othersfrom consideration, although Teika's thirty-eightyears mightwell qualify as advanced middle age by twelfth-centuryJapanese standards. 'I never heard of such a thingas choosing only senior poets,' Teika wrote in his diary, Meigetsuki,77 on the eighteenthof the seventhmonth. 'I can just see Suetsune at the bottom of this,contriving by some bribe that I be leftout. It has to be Suetsune, Tsuneie, that whole family.Well, I have no regrets,for there is no possible hope for me now. But I did writein confidenceto Kintsune so thismay all come out eventually. He has replied that there is still room for hope.'78 The next threeweeks or so were spentin an agony of waiting,while Teika made at least one visit to the Kitano Shrine79for prayersand offerings,and gave vent to conflictingfeelings of self-pity,resignation, and pretended indifferencein his diary. 'These hundred-poem sequences have nothing to do with the Ex- Emperor's wishes and decisions, I have been told. Instead, it is all in the hands of thosemadmen in power. Shame on the lot of them,'he wrote on the twenty-sixth.80 Finally, Shunzei himselfentered the fray, asking the good officesof Michi- chika's son Michitomo,8' who also happened to be one of the revered poet's numerous sons-in-law (Shunzei had some twentychildren by his several ladies). But Michichika turned a deaf ear even to Michitomo's request. Finally, as a last resort,Shunzei addressed directlyto Go-Toba his famous letterknown as the Waji soJJ82or 'Appeal in Japanese' (substitutingJapanese forthe officialbut stilted Chinese to demonstratehis deep sincerity). In the letterhe stressedthat a choice of only senior poets was unprecedentedfor a set of hundred-poemsequences, and

75 Ishida,Fujiwara Teika, p. 328. 79 fLI1 , dedicated to the god of poetry, 76 5 K: fi, 1171-1244. Temman Tenjin R the deifiedspirit of 77 P 8. All referencesare to the printed the ninth-centurypoet, scholar,and political text (Kokusho Kank5kai, 1911, 3 vols.), as figure, Sugawara no Michizane Vi; U4:_, follows:era name and year; equivalentyear 845-903. (in parentheses)in the Westerncalendar, fol- 80 Meigetsuki,Sh6ji 2 (1200)/7/26(i, p. 162). lowed by monthand day; volume and page 81 f,1 171-1227. numbersin the printedtext, in parentheses. 82 L:a. Also called iF,)R (Shoji For example: Meigetsuki,Sh6ji 1 (1199)/8/16 Appeal) and kI (Appeal in (I p. 110). Japanese of Sh6ji 2). 78 Meigetsuki,Shoji 2 (1200)/7/18(i, p. 161).

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leveleda barrageof miscellaneouscriticism at theheads ofthe Rokujo faction.83 Fortunately,Shunzei's letterreached Go-Toba safely,without interference fromMichichika or his entourage,and on the ninthof the eighthmonth Teika was able to writein his diary,'Early thismorning came a messagefrom Lord Kintsunethat last eveningthe Ex-Emperorordered my inclusionamong the participantsfor the hundred-poemsequences.... To have been added to the listfor this occasion fills me withinexpressible joy. Thoughnow theycan hinder me no more,I am stillconvinced that the trouble was all due to themachinations of thoseevil men. And thatit has turnedout thisway is a fulfillmentof all my hopes and prayersfor this life and the next.'And again on the tenth:'Learned thatthe listof topicshad also been sentto Jetakaand Takafusa.This, too, is in conformitywith the requestof myfather, the Lay PriestShunzei.'84 In gratitudefor divine intervention, Teika presenteda scrollof his poemsto the Kitano Shrine.85His jubilantspirits, together with the merefact of the ailing Shunzei'sintervention, are convincingenough proof of the very great importance thefamily attached to participationin thisfirst public poeticevent of Go-Toba's independentlife as retiredsovereign. Now Teika mighteven hope forofficial admittanceto theabdicated Emperor's court. For althoughhe had been in good standingat the imperialpalace when Go-Toba was reigningEmperor, he was not therebyautomatically qualified to wait upon him as Ex-Emperor.Rather, the privilegehad to be reconfirmedfor each individual,whatever his previous standing,and lackingit, Teika had already been languishingfor more than two yearsoutside Go-Toba's gate. Duringthe next fortnight, Teika appliedhimself to preparinghis poems.Ever a perfectionist,for whom writing poetry was a slow, excruciating, exhausting labor, he worked day and night. On the nineteenthhe wrotein his diary, 'Having extreme difficultycomposing my poems. Remained shut up at home.' But on the twenty-thirdcame a message from the ex-sovereign's secretary that his sequence was due on the following day. In consternation Teika went to see Shunzei: 'Twenty poems still unwritten. Submitted the finished ones to my father's inspection. He said there was nothing wrong with them and that I should make haste and submit the completed sequence.'86 The next day Teika dashed offmore poems, takingthem thistime to Kanezane, but on the twenty-fifth,already a day late, he was still in a frenzy.Then he car- ried his sequence to Yoshitsune foradvice, only to be told that his patron was not

83 A relativelycomplete, intelligible text of 84 Meigetsuki,Sh6ji 2 (1200)/8/9and 8/10 this letterhas been published in Hisamatsu (I, p. 164). Actually,Takafusa (n. 48, above) Sen'ichi, ed., Chuiseino bungaku:Karonshu7, I was a Rokujo partisan.See Ariyoshi,Kiban to t*e ; M, (Miyai Shoten,1971), pp. kosei,pp. 74-75. 271-76. The only otherprinted text hitherto 85 Meigetsuki,Shoji 2 (1200)/8/13(i, p. 165). available-in GR, Book 293 (xvi, pp. 358-59) 86 Meigetsuki,Shoji 2 (1200)/8/19and 8/23 -is so fragmentaryand garbledas to be virtu- (I, p. 166). ally useless.

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 236 MonumentaN'ifpponica, XXXI, 3 quite satisfiedwith some threeof the poems. 'Though unable to thinkof anything better,I wrote out another one or two and sent them in forhis inspection. A lady- in-waiting brought out word that they were acceptable. Then, having offered suggestionsabout his lordship's own sequence, I withdrew, finally arriving at the Ex-Emperor's palace afterdark to submit my poems. They told me Takafusa had appeared with his about the same time.'87 The effectof Teika's contributionwas all he could have hoped. Go-Toba had evidentlybeen on the watch forTeika's sequence, and read it almost immediately. He responded warmlyto the work as a whole, to the beauties of individual poems, and to those features calculated to arouse his personal sympathy.As a result, Go-Toba sent one of his secretarieson the followingmorning to tell of his pleasure and to announce that Teika had been granted access to the ex-sovereign's court. On the twenty-sixthof the eighth month, the elated poet wrote in his diary-not without disingenuousness,for he had really been burning to be admitted to Go-Toba's entourage: 'This was quite unexpected. I had made no request for the privilege recently,and so it was a complete surprise. Could it be that the Ex-Emperor was suddenly moved to pity by one of last night's poems in which I complained of being excluded from his palace?88 On the other hand, it is not surprisingafter all that I should be admitted to the palace at this point, nor is it anythingI had my heart set upon. But that the privilege should be conferredon the basis of my hundred-poemsequence-this is a great honor for the Art of Poetry and a beautiful and inspiringstory to pass on to future generations. My gratificationis unbounded. This incident shows better than anythingelse that a revival of poetry has taken place.'89 Thus began a period of close association between Teika and his young imperial patron. For the time being the two had an excellent effectupon each other. Go-Toba's favorand patronage temporarilylifted Teika's gloomy spirits,and this in turn had a palpable effectupon his poetic creativityand style. In return, Teika's judicious criticism,his control, discipline, and restraininghand were of undoubted benefit to the younger man.90 It is too bad that the relationship began to deteriorateso soon. But that storyneed not concern us here,91and we

87 Meigetsuki,Shoji 2 (1200)/8/25 (i, pp. the finishingtouches upon his own. Indeed, the 166-67). semi-finalversion in the Ex-Emperor's personal 88 See poem No. 93, below, with com- collection contains one poem so similar to mentary;also, 'Go-Toba's Secret Teachings', Teika's No. 34 (see Translation, below), as pp. 15-16. to preclude coincidence. However, the retired 89 Meigetsuki,Shoji 2 (1200)/8/26(i, p. 167); sovereign evidently had second thoughts, for 'Go-Toba's SecretTeachings', p. 15. the poem does not appear in his final draft. 90 A numberof examplescould be adduced See Kubota, Kajin no kenkyu7,pp. 798-99; to show that Go-Toba's stylewas clearlyin- Ariyoshi, Kiban to kosei, pp. 81-84. fluencedby Teika as soon as the twocame into 91 See Teika's SuPerior Poems, pp. 8-11; directcontact. For the Shojihyakushu itself, for 'Go-Toba's Secret Teachings', pp. 16-22 & example, Go-Toba may well have read and 38-41. studied Teika's sequence firstbefore putting

V. Teika's Sequence

FROMhis early twentiesto his mid-thirties,Teika triedhis hand at experimentation. And as with many a talented young poet, his experimentstended to the ornate and complex. Some of his attemptsat novel techniques and effectsverged on the bizarre and the rococo, and theymet with a stormof criticismand invectivefrom more conservativegroups. Indeed, it is well to remind ourselvesthat theJapanese classical poetic tradition in all periods was predominantlyconservative. It was suspicious of the unexpected; accepted the new and unprecedented only slowly and grudgingly;and even at its most creative periods was tirelessin transmitting the 'great tradition'-the styles, conventions, and techniques passed on from generation to generationfrom the age of the Kokinshi7and before. In such a milieu, the young Teika provoked hoots of derision by his weird reversalsof diction, his startlingjuxtapositions of images functioningas symbols of an unearthly, romantic beauty not unlike that of Keats' nightingale who 'Charm'd magic casements opening on the foam/Of perilous seas in faerylands forlorn.'By his more tradition-mindedcontemporaries-particularly the Rokujo poets, ever on the alert foropportunities to discreditthe Mikohidari-the poetry of Teika's youthfulperiod was scorned as incomprehensiblenonsense, like the riddles and conundrumsof the Rinzai Zen priestsand theireccentric practices- those newly imported notions and quackeries to which the Kyoto nobles remained overwhelminglyhostile in the late twelfthcentury. The Rokujo poets thereforelost no time in labeling Teika's experimentalverse Darumauta,92'poems like Zen gibberish',but a number of lesser poets and poetastersas quickly began to pay him the uncomfortablecompliment of blind, uncomprehendingimitation. His stylisticidiosyncracies were soon driven to grotesque extremes,his serious effortsat creating a new kind of beauty aped by fops and faddists.93At thispoint Teika took alarm and began to draw back, leaving the imitatorsto flounderabout by themselves.Instead, while preservingthe best of the gains his experimentshad achieved-especially, some of the symbolic techniques ofyaen94(ethereal beauty) and yu7gen95(mystery and depth), he moved to a more traditional interpretation of his father Shunzei's famous neo-classical dictum of 'old diction, new treatment' (kotobafuruku, kokoro atarashi)-an ideal which he worked out in ways shaped by his personal experience of life and perception of the literaryheritage.

92 ;t are in Ishida,Fajiwara Teika, pp. 289-319, and 93 A good, briefaccount of Teika's Daruma Kubota, Kajin nlo kenkygu,pp. 540-791, fassim. stylesmay be foundin Yasuda, Fujiwara Teika, 94 pp. 72-82. More detailed and also excellent 95 I descriptionsand analyses of his early styles

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 238 MonumentaNipponica, XXXI, 3 Teika's return to this more traditional, balanced neo-classicism may be said to have come with his Shoji sequence.96 The change would doubtless have come in any case, but his consciousnessof the significanceof the literaryoccasion, the absolute necessityof participating and distinguishinghimself, must have been extremelyimportant. This was no time for anythingsmacking of 'Zen gibberish', but fora sequence of such skill and traditionalbeauty as both to silence his critics and to appeal to the Ex-Emperor's sensibilities,to awaken his interestand inspire his admiration. In modern times,largely because of the poems in the Hyakuninisshu, Teika has been taken to task for his taste for 'artifice' by which seems to be meant an excessive dependence upon the 'great tradition' or 'Fujiwara style',97and a preoccupation with conventional rhetorical techniques, chiefly pivot words (kakekotoba)98and word associations (engo)99but also the older, semi-metaphorical 'preface' (jo, joshi,jokotoba),100 and pillow word (makurakotoba).01 For the rnost part, criticssince the Meiji period have admired instead the 'artless simplicity' ofJapan's oldest songs and poems preservedin the eighth-centurychronicles and the Man'y3sh/ii.02And whether it be the Hyakuninisshu not Teika's poetry, we have pointed out, but his choices for a particular purpose--or his own work in the Shoji hyakushuand elsewhere,we cannot fail to see the 'artifice' and the rhe- toric. But to say this is merelyto attributeto Teika the concerns of his age and tradition concernswhich to the extentthat theymay be faults(or perhaps more accurately, inconsonant with modern taste), should be in some measure laid at the door of any other twelfth-centurypoet, not excepting that supposed para- gon of artlessnessand sincerity,the Priest Saigy6.103However, this is not the occasion to enterupon an elaborate defenseof Teika. His fallfrom grace in modern times would probably not have been so precipitous had he not been virtually deifiedby his descendants,who cast his influenceover the entirecourse of classical poetryfor more than six hundred years afterhis death.104And at all events, he has begun to come into his own again in the critical esteem of Japanese literary scholars, if not of professionalwriters and poets.105

96 Or, suggests Kubota, possibly slightly 101 t 1 earlier, in a fifty-poemsequence composed in 102 103 1198 at the behest of the Cloistered Prince , 1118-90. See jcP, passim; also, Shukaku (Kajini no kenkyz7,p. 810). Known as 'Go-Toba's Secret Teachings', pp. 35-36 & Shukaku hishinnogojisshu t:,t or n. 113. Ninnaji no miya gojisshu ? the 104 For an account of the monopolistic here- individual sequences were later-probably in ditary schools of poets descended from Teika, 1201-worked into a 'paper poetry contest' see jcP, pp. 341 ff. called Omuro senka awase P Teika 105 Witness the important scholarly writings was one of eighteen participants in this event. about Teika mentioned in n. 8, above. In ad- 97 See jcP, pp. 220-21. dition, ProfessorYasuda-himself a tankapoet 98 X$1C and leader of a poetic group-has recently 99 ) published a short comparative study of Saigya 100 j 41 and Teika, entitled Saigyo to Teika NJ-T4fSt*

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As to Teika's Shzji hyakushu,despite the pressure and haste with which it had to be composed, it shows the thirty-eight-year-old'maker of poems', as the fifteenth-centurycritic Shinkei called him,106at the height of his powers. The individual poems display his control of a varietyof styles,from the simple 'archaic mode' (kokatei)107and 'lofty style' (chjkoyj)108often redolent of the Man'yjshu (e.g., Nos. 2, 13, 15, 22), to the evocative imagery and tonal complexity of yoenand yugenin poems that have been regarded for centuries as among his finest(e.g., Nos. 6, 7, 67). In fact, each of the three poems chosen fromTeika's sequence for the Shinkokinshuis typical of a differentmajor style: No. 6109is a model ofyoenor ethereal beauty; No. 13110 is archaic and 'lofty'; No. 671"' is a masterpiece ofyu-gen,mystery and depth. At the same time, Teika's return to traditionalism and actually, for him, a temperamentallymore congenial con- servative bent, is also evident in his handling of the generic requirement of a large number of easy, conventional background poems--his facile reworkingof timeworn tropes, conceits, themes, and styles. So we have variations on the expected scenes and situations,from cherryblossoms hanging like white clouds upon the hills, to the lovelorn stag calling forits mate. Furtherdiscussion of such mattersmay be leftto the commentaryunder the individual poems. I should like, however, to make a few remarks about one important technique which history has identifiedwith Teika and his age, and which we find employed to varying degrees and in a number of ways in his Shoji hyakushu. The technique is honkadori,l12 'allusive variation', or 'taking a foundation poem'-the neo-classical practice of allusion to a well-knownolder poem. Some- times the allusion was an echoing of a recognizable few key words of the original composition, sometimes a famous poetic conceit or conception identifiedwith a particularolder poem. The resultwas a complex superpositionof the new poem upon the old, so that the meaning and atmosphere of both were simultaneously apprehended, whether blended, harmonized, or contrasted. A honka,113or 'foundation poem', might serve primarilyas a precedent, or to help convey a sense of the past, as in some poems in the 'archaic style'. Sometimes-perhaps characteristicallyin the greatestpoems of the S/hinkokinage-the technique con- veyed a sense of mysteryand depth, of the passage of time from the age of the original poem to that of the new composition, and oftena tone of poignant sad-

(Kadansha, 1975). Further, Professor Kubota v, p. 314. has been working on a complete annotated edition of Teika's personal collection, Shz7iguso 108 C 51 . The terms take : It (stature) e ,X and its supplement Shz7igus5 ingai and taketakashitzt? A L (lofty) were also used. t4,%:X:g FF a corpus of more than 4,500 See Teika's treatise Maigetsusho 4 11#-, or poems. It has not yet been published as of this 'Monthly Notes', quoted in jcP, pp. 246-47. writing. 109 Shinkokinshl7,I: 44. 106 ,L;., 1406-75. See his treatise of 1463, 110 Ibid.,i:91. SasamegotoX d_ ? (also called Shigosho 111Ibid., vi: 671. 112 A 1 ), in NVihonkagaku taikei [NKT] E * V!kj (rev. ed., Kazama Shob6, 1957-64), 113

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 240 MonumentaNipponica, xXXI, 3 ness and loss. In Teika's Shojihyakushu, the technique is used to superb effectin those very poems just mentioned as chosen for the Shinkokinshu:the sensuous beauty of plum blossoms past and presentcontrasted with the passing of a season and the depredations of human suffering(No. 6); an evocation of a simpler, more idyllic past in an echoing of the Manyjshfi(No. 13); the contrastbetween the speaker's physical discomfortexpressed in a Alanyj poem and the unutterable beauty and sadness in the scene of Teika's solitarytraveler in the twilightsnow at Sano (No. 67). Along with honkadorishould also be included the parallel, though less common, technique called honzetsuor honsetsu."14Meaning something like 'foundation story', the term indicated allusion to the prose context, real or fictitious,of an old poem instead of the poem itself,or allusion to a famous incident or situation in an old Chinese work orJapanese romance. Permittedat firstalmost exclusively for Chinese allusions, by the time of Shunzei and Teika the technique was to- lerated increasinglyfor allusions to famous Japanese prose works, particularly the collections of utamonogatari,115or 'tales of poems', Ise monogatariand ramato monogatari,116but also for other Heian works. The great Tale of Genji was thie favorite,but other prose works and romances were alluded to as well, such as Eiga monogatari,'17Sagoromo monogatari,"8 or Iatsura no miyamonogatari.119 Some- times the allusion was very general to a chapter, book, or section of a work rather than to any specificaction or relationship,and in such a case it was the omokage120the 'vision' or 'atmosphere' of the older work that was evoked.12' In his Shoji poem on the village of Uji (No. 88), Teika raises the omokageof the Uji chapters,the last part of The Tale of Genji,in just such a general tonal sense. Thus much we know about some of the major poems in the Shoji hyakushu- poems which have been commented upon over and over again by generationsof Shinkokinscholars and other traditional waka critics. But on the other hand, a serious limitation must also be admitted. That is, my translation and study of Teika's Shojihyakushu have perforcebeen based upon no more than a completely bare, unannotated textof the poems. The reason is simplythat, as of thiswriting, there exists no complete annotated version of Teika's personal collection, Shuii guso, and its supplement, Shui guso ingai.122 I have made thoroughuse of those commentariesthat do exist for the few poems taken into the Shinkokinshui,or that

114 ,. 119 td-,AVh traditionally attributed to 115 A Teika, this romance of unknown authorship 116 441-=A and ;i-a4,-6p4-both works pro- survives in fragments dating probably from bably date from the tenth century. the late twelfthor early thirteenthcentury. 117 7 a fictionalized 'history' cover- 120 ir' g ing the years 887-1092, writtenby an unknown 121 Go-Toba's views on the use of romances author sometime between 1030 and perhaps as sources for allusion are brieflystated in his 1100. treatise. See 'Go-Toba's Secret Teachings', 11 8 R t t7 , a romance stronglyinfluenced p. 34 & n. 102. by The Tale of Genji; probably written during 122 See n. 105, above. the middle or late eleventh century.

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-PoemSequence of theShoji Era 241 have found theirway into one or two modern selectionsof Teika's work, even if only sometimes to determine upon a perversely differentinterpretation.123 The fact remains that Teika's Shoji sequence is found only in unannotated versions, of which heretoforethe standard one has been the edition by his modern descendant, Reizei Tameomi, in his text of Teika's complete poems, Fujiwara Teika zenkasha.124But although based upon a precious holograph manuscript now unavailable to outsiders, the printed text is not without apparent errors and misprints,and it lacks the nigori,or diacritics, that differentiatea voiced consonant from its unvoiced counterpart. Sometimes such differencescan be crucial (e.g., is it mite,'seeing', or mide, 'not seeing'?), and compounded by possible errorsof transcription,the pitfallsare practically unavoidable. For my part, I have used the Reizei holograph text intensively,but since the publication in 1973-74 of a newer edition by Akahane Shuku, Fz4izwaraTeika zenkashu7zenku sakuin, I have adopted the latter as my basic text.125Professor Akahane had previouslyissued a complete index by lines of the Reizei holograph text, but he has now collated that text with other versions for his new edition, correctingdetails which he has identifiedas misprintsand miscopyings.However, although the collation and emendations are most helpful, Akahane still gives only a bare text without nigori. It follows (for myself,at all events) that the margin for error in simple inter- pretationis uncomfortablygreat, and even when the basic meaning of a poem is reasonably clear, the room for differencesof opinion as to its overtonesand implications is often nearly as large. To be sure, deliberate ambiguities are of the nature of waka, implanted and exploited by the poets, but the Western student or translatormust nonethelessmake specific choices and interpretations.When the problem concerns identification of honkadorior other types and degrees of allusion, considerable subjectivity is virtually inescapable. And in Teika's Shoji sequence many poems seem to lie in a shadowy area where one cannot be certain whethera specificallusion is intended, or merelya borrowingor a conventional poetic treatment closely similar to one or more older poems. The situation is complicated by knowing on the one hand that Teika was working out his prescriptiveideals for honkadoriduring this period, and on the other,

123 The principal modern selection from Shinsha, 1972). Professor Kubota's projected Teika, consisting of some 451 poems with ex- complete edition has been mentioned in n. egetical notes and commentary, has long been 105, above. Tani Kanae TTeika kashu7hyishaku t* 124 , , Bummeisha 1ttft& (Mejiro Shoin, 1930). This includes 1ZUAL, 1940. Referred to hereafteras the Rei- sixteen poems from the Shojihyakushu: Nos. 17, zei holograph text. 31, 34, 37, 38, 47, 56, 61, 62, 69, 72, 74, 78, 86, 125 tX-, Zr,>tg 2 vols. 88, & 90. Most recently,five poems from the (collated text and index by lines of the poems), sequence (Nos. 6, 7, 20, 21, & 67) appeared Kasama Shoin, 1973-74 (No. 42 in Kasama in Tsukamoto Kunio's ; Pit; selection of sakuinsokan kg M 1A f I). Referred to hereafter seventy-seven of Teika's poems in Nihonno as Akahane. koten E Vol. 15 (Kawade Shob6

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 242 MonumentaNipponica, XXXI, 3 lackingany reliable statement of his principlesuntil at leastnine or tenyears later.126 One possiblesource of illuminationis Shunzei'sfamous letter to Go-Toba, the 'Shoji Appeal'. 'These self-styledpoets,' declares Shunzei, referringto the Rokujo faction, ... write ugly, distastefulverses. They are too wordy, their styles are all in bad taste. For his part, Teika changes the total effectof a traditional conception,employing his diction withfreedom and in complex ways, striving to give his compositionsnovelty and interestso that theywill not be mereimi- tations of old poems. By contrast, even at their best these other so-called poets produce eitherexact duplicates of the old poems, or else filltheir verses with the most vulgar colloquial language. Regardless of all this, envious of Teika's skill, they have called himby insultingnames and gone out of their way to speak ill of him to others.127 Obviously, Shunzei is defendingTeika's inventivenessand protestingagainst Rokujo slanders of 'incomprehensibleZen gibberish', not necessarilydescribing his techniques of allusion. However, we do get from Shunzei's words an insight into Teika's attemptsto make original compositions from traditional materials, to adhere to the principle of 'old diction, new treatment'. And we know that Teika's characteristicmeans of achieving depth and tonal resonance was by the use of honkadori.One thing at least is clear: in 1200 he was more willing to allude to older poems without changing the topical category or the season, say, as he later more or less insistedshould be done. As for Teika's allusions in the Shoji hyakushu,to date I am aware of only one scholarly discussion of the subject an article published by ProfessorTsujimori

126 Teika provided his classic prescriptions many of the words of the foundation poem must and 'rules' for honkadoriin the treatises Kindai be avoided. The proper method is perhaps to shaka (Superior Poems of Our Time, 1209), use two phrases or so that seem to be the very Maigetsusho(Monthly Notes; see n. 108, above; essence of the poem and space them out be- treatise written ca. 1219), and Eiga taigai tween the upper and lower verses of the new 15z}iA (General Principles of Poetic Compo- one.... I have been told that it is bad to use sition, ca. 1222). The most circumstantial of too many phrases that are so unusual and these statements is in Maigetsusho(here quoted strikingthat they are the chief distinctionof the from Brower & Miner, Teika's SuperiorPoems, foundation poem. On the other hand, since it p. 46): 'In regard to the method of taking a is also said that nothing is accomplished by foundation poem ... it is only for the most employing a poem in such an obscure way that accomplished poets to use a poem on cherry it does not look as if one had used it at all, one blossoms just as it is for one of their own on must be sure to understand such matters when cherry blossoms, or a poem on the moon for taking a foundation poem.' one on the moon. Ordinarily, there should be Inconveniently forour purposes, Teika wrote some change-with a poem on spring used for these words nearly two decades after his one on autumn or winter, or a poem on love Shojihyakushu. incorporated into one on a mixed or seasonal 127 Shoji soij in Chiiseino bungaku:Karonshiu, topic-yet done in such a way that it is clear I, p. 273. that one has used the older poem. Taking too

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Shfieiin 1960.128Comparing the extent of allusive variation by Teika, Yoshitsune, and Jetakain several differentsequences which they composedin the early 1200s,Tsujimori concludes with respect to theShoji hyakushu that Teika's honkadori total twenty-onepoems. This is surprisingly,or rather,disquietingly few con- sideringTeika's concernwith the techniqueand by comparisonwith Professor Tsujimori'sfigures of thirty-fourfor Yoshitsuneand forty-threefor letaka in theirsequences for the same occasion. Now althoughin generalagreement with Professor Tsujimori's identifications as faras theygo, I neverthelessbelieve that he has m-isseda numberof additional fairlyclear-cut instances among Teika's poems. Of course,it ultimatelycomes down to one's individualperception of the limitsof honkadorias understoodby the age, togetherwith one's familiaritywith the large traditionalstock of older poems constitutingpermissible sources of honkafor the Shinkokinpoets. These latteramount to a formidabletotal of thousandsof verses,consisting of booksof Six Dynastiesand T'ang poems,especially those of Po Chu-i;129collections of famousChinese couplets and Japanesetanka for singing and chanting;130some 200-odd familiarverses in the Man'yoshui;131then-at least theoretically- the sum of the firstfour imperial anthologies from the Kokinshflthrough the Goshuishui;132and finally,the various utamonogatari,romances, and otherprose worksalready alluded to above. For mypart, I have creditedTeika's sequencewith thirty-three fairly definite examplesof allusive variation a numbermore comfortably close to Yoshitsune's thirty-four(according to Tsujimori). In addition,I have distinguishedsome eight possible allusions,and fourteenmore that seein at least conceivable fifty-fivepoems all told. Beyondthis, one wandersfurther and furtherinto that vaguerealm of instinct and guesswork,so thatin dealingwith degrees of similarity, borrowing,and straightforwardallusion in the commentsaccompanying the translations,I have foundmyself employing a gamut of terms,from 'allusive variation'to 'background'and 'precedent',from 'alludes' to 'echoes', 'evokes', 'recalls', 'suggests'-all occasionallyqualified by 'seems to' or 'perhaps'. In

128 Tsujimori Shaei , 'Shinkokin Fujiwara no Kinto ' 966-1041; and jidai koten eiky6 no ichidanmen' f-s+4N, Shinsenroeislu 7 compiled by Fuji- WtX,WoD-Fi, in Kokubungakukenkyui, Vol. wara no Mototoshi *Z, ?1056-1142. 22 (October 1960), pp. 56-69, especially pp. 131 This being the approximate number 61-62. commented upon by Shunzei in his treatise 129 *g , 772-846. Best known by his Korai fuiteish5 X ii (Notes oni Poetic surname and sobriquet, Po Lo-t'ien (Jap. Haku Style Through the Ages), written for Princess Rakuten) ( A3, Po was the only pre-modern Shikishi (see n. 50, above). See jcP, p. 245. Chinese poet whose works were already popu- 132 Texts differsomewhat, but the Kokinshu lar in Japan during his lifetime. His poetry has about 1,111 poems; the second imperial exerted a pervasive influence upon both anthology, Gosenshu7{Q4V A (mid-tenthcentury), Chinese verse written by Japanese and the about 1,426; the third, Shuiishu4ffi. (late developing waka tradition in the Heian period. tenth century), about 1,351; and the fourth, 130 Widely circulated in collections such as Goshu7ishuiAt4i t (completed 1086), about the Wakan roeishu74APAWt, compiled by 1,220.

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 244 MonumentaNipponica, XXXI, 3 generalI have attemptedto combinecaution with an opennessto suggestive overtonesand nuances,but occasionallyin cascs of disagreementwith friends and counselors,have let myown stubbornnessprevail. It clearlyfollows that all faultsand mistakesin thesepages are entirelymy own. Design and backgroundpoems have been alreadydiscussed in termsof their importanceto a hundred-poemsequence felt and apprehendedas a single literarywork. It has also been necessaryto acknowledgethe almostcomplete lack of a poeticsof ji and monfrom the Shinkokinperiod. Hence it is virtually impossiblewith any confidenceto label manypoems in Teika's sequenceas the one or the other,beyond a veryfew that must appear to everyeye as brilliant designpoems: No. 6, ofcourse; then the high point in theWinter section covering Nos. 66, 67, and 68-three strikingdesign poems followedby a fourthof con- siderabletraditional elegance (No. 69), leading finallyto the tonal conviction but contrastingplainness of the personalappeal to Go-Toba in the strategically placed finalwinter poem (No. 70). Again,one mightpoint to a ratherlarge number of fairly obvious background poems obvious if for no betterreason than althoughsometimes technically and rhetoricallycomplex, perhaps even allusivevariations, they lack that tra- ditionallybeautiful imagery of dew sparklingin moonlight,or cherryblossoms whirlinglike snow,that automaticallywould qualifya poem as more striking than the average.Such a backgroundpoem is No. 2, whichdespite its allusion and itsrough-cut gems, is so smoothlyconventional as to glideon past thereader withscarcely a pause. The importantpoint is thatcornplexity of techniquedid not necessarilyqualify a poem as mon,and conversely,simple, uncomplicated declarationor descriptiondid not necessarilymean ji. Betweenthe contrasts of highand low lies a largearea wherea poem can best be describedas moremon than not, or moreji thannot. Giventhe lack ofprecise informationon contemporarystandards, one mightwell have leftall speculation to thereader, letting each sensethe differences in pace and tensionunquestionably present,but extremelysubtle and difficultto specify.However, believing the subjectof considerableinterest, while at the same timenot presumingto pon- tificate,I askedProfessor Konishi's help on thisspecific point. Though protesting the impossibilityof knowingin detail the standardof Teika's age, he agreedto thecompromise of looking at thesequence from the perspective of a laterperiod and ofa closelyrelated but differentgenre: namely, the standards for ji and mon ofthe great sixteenth-century master and criticof renga or linkedverse, Satomura Joha (or Sh6ha).133Professor Konishi viewed each of Teika's poemsin termsof

133 T4, E, 1525-1602. In contrast to the treatise, Renga shihosho , deals with almost exclusive concern of other rengamasters such practical matters as the distinction be- with the linking of verse to verse, J6ha stressed tween wuakaand renga,season words, and rules the total effectof the hyakuin-*, the standard of various kinds. See also Shimazu Tadao hundred-link form. See Kid6 Saiz6 7 , g ,g A, Rengashi no kenkyu74. 9 XT r Rengashironko ATR9 f (2 vols., Meiji Shoin, (Kadokawa Shoten, 1969), pp. 186 ff. 1971-73), ii, pp. 787-88. Joha's best known

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J6ha's criteria,employing four relative terms: moni, yaya mon, ji, and yaya ji;'34 that is, 'design', 'predominantlydesign', 'background',and 'predominantly background'.I have reportedhis conclusionsby the simplenotation, mon, ji, yaya mon,oryayaji, for each successive poem. With respectto associationand progression,once the generalprinciples are understood,their functioning can be moreor less readilydiscerned, and readers can workout a schemefor themselves if theychoose, without having a detailed and perhapstoo arbitraryanalytical apparatus imposed upon them.Therefore, I have commentedonly here and thereupon particularproblems or pointsof interest,dispensing with listsof associatedimages, delineations of movements throughspace, timeprogressions from morning to evening,or fromday to day, and thelike. Besides, it is well to rememberthat the relationships between poems in a sequenceare to someextent fortuitous: when two poems on winterare placed side by side, forexample, some associationof imageryis virtuallyinescapable. And in Teika's age, such relationshipswere also to a large degreeprobably a matterof instinct at all eventsnot painstakinglyworked out accordingto fixedstructural rules or an elaboratelyarticulated theory. In thereader's response, too,there could be a degreeof latitude within conventional limits. Indeed, perhaps theworst mistake is by workingout thedetails in too schematica fashionto slight thepotentiality, even the likelihood, of alternative'readings' of thesame passage in a sequence,depending upon themultiplicity of possible unspoken implications, latentimagery, and subtle nuances-the yojj,135or 'overtones',which are the essenceof the characteristicpoetry of the Shinkokinperiod. In spite of theselimitations, a few generalremarks may neverthelessbe in order. First,it is my view that Teika's overridingstructural concern in this sequenceis progression.Associations are also of coursebasic, but there are rough spotsas well,and one mayreasonably surmise that uppermost in thepoet's mind was the moreor lesssteady progression of majorconventional topics. The order of thesemajor topics may be set forthas follows: Spring (20 poems): beginningof spring(1-3); change to springclothing (4); plumblossoms (5-7); springrain (8); haze (9); geesereturning north (10); cherryblossoms (11-18); wisteria(19); end of spring(21). Summer (15 poems): beginningof summer (21); summergrasses (22); deutziaflowers (23); Kamo festival(24); irisfestival (25); wood thrush(26-29); summerrain (30); shortsummer night (31); huntingby flares(32); windin the reeds (33); late summer(34); end of summer(35). Autumn(20 poems): beginningof autumn (36-38); autumnwind (39-40); hagi blossoms (41-42); deer (43); wild geese (44); autumn moon (45-50); autumn rain (51); fullingclothes (52); frost(53); end of autumn (54-55). Winter (15 poems): fallingleaves (56); winterdrizzle (57); winterfrost

134 Z, A, il, 410A.For an explanationof Sogi ,UPi (Chikuma Shob6, 1971), pp. 177 ff. ji and monin rengapoetics, see KonishiJin'ichi, 135 ,

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(58-59); storm (60); hail (61); short winter day (62); ice (63); waterfowland frost(64); plovers (65); snow (66-69); end of winter (70). Love (10 poems): lover's unrequited passion (71); suppressed love (72); lover's desperation (73-74); lady awaits the lover (75); parting at dawn (76); lady's fruitlesswaiting (77); lady's frustrationand fear of scandal (78); betrayed lady's resentmentand despair (79-80). Travel (5 poems): pillow of grass (81); the sea (82); mountains (83-84); the shore (85). Mountain Dwelling (5 poems): Mount Ogura (86); Ohara (87); Uji (88); rusticdoor (89); desolate abode (90). Birds (5 poems): chanticleer (91); falcon (92); crane (93); geese (94); plovers (95). Celebrations (5 poems): Ex-Emperor (96); Ex-Emperor's consort (97); crown prince (98); imperial family (99); reigning Emperor (100). Within the temporal progressionsof the seasonal and love sections, and in the othersub-groups as well, Teika's poems are clearlyordered by detailed techniques of association. These include common imagery, diction, and phrasing; sub- sequences of famous place names (e.g., the progressionfrom Yoshino, to Hatsuse, to Tatsuta, to Takasago, in Nos. 11 through 14), and the like. At the same time, Teika's apparent lesser concern with smooth associational transitionsmay be demonstratedby two or three examples. Thus, in the spring poems, we seem to have daytime in No. 14, dawn in 15, then daytime again in 16, instead of a smoother cycle through a twenty-four-hourperiod. Among the summer poems, the wood thrushis introducedin No. 24; his favoritehaunt, the mandarin orange tree, appears in No. 25. Then the two images are dropped, to be re-introduced sequentially in the 'proper place' for the season, Nos. 26 through29. Again, the image of frostis introduced as early as No. 50, the fifteenthpoem of twentyin the autumn section. Although as indicated in the commentary,some texts have 'dew' instead, and although the poem's dominant image is the autumn moon, the appearance of frostat this point is somewhat startling.As in the preceding example, this image, too, is dropped, to be re-introduced later in its 'proper position' among the winterpoems (Nos. 58-59, 64). Depending upon the critic's mood, a virtue could be made of these and other irregularitiesin the sequence. The early introduction of frost, for example, could be interpretedas more true to nature than not, for everyone knows of an exceptionally early frostevery few years. At all events, I do not wish to imply that the occasional rough spots are displeasing. It is, however, probably true that Go-Toba's own Shoji sequences, though not so high in general quality as Teika's, are more smoothlyintegrated in detail. As ProfessorKonishi has pointed out, the retiredsovereign's preferencefor the techniques of association and pro- gressionwas both more consistentand more insistentthat that of his courtiers.136

136 'Association and Progression', pp. 110-11.

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Here was an area, indeed,where Teika and hisroyal patron seem to have clashed onlya fewyears later, when the compilation of the Shinkokinshu was in progress.137 I have stressedthe conceptof the hundred-poemsequence as a singlework, a harmonious,integrated whole, whose total effectis the sum of its individual poems. By the same token,one may speak of the generalcharacter of Teika's Shojihyakushu. The best analogywith a Westernart formmay perhapsbest be foundin music,with a structuresuch as thatof the typicalclassical symphony or stringquartet. These are usuallydivided into four distinct movements, just as Teika's hyakushuutahas its categoriesof nature,love, and miscellaneouspoems. In a given musical compositionthere is no essentialconnection between the movements,and thestructure cannot usually be called architectonic.It is instead the cumulativeeffect of theindividual parts, with their contrasts, harmony, and balance in form,key, and rhythm,that matters.And often-certainlyin the greatestof the classicaland romanticworks-there is a prevailingmood or tone thatdominates the composition,giving it a special character.So we oftenhear music criticsspeak of the grandeuryet underlyingunease and forebodingof Mozart's 'JupiterSymphony', or the broodingintrospection of Beethoven'slate quartets. In Teika's ShoIzihyakushu, too, despitethe greatdifferences, we can sense an analogouseffect. His sequencehas itsown characterthat distinguishes it fromthe otherscomposed for the occasion, obviously, but it has a prevailingtone, as have the musicalworks of Mozart or Beethoven.Teika's tone is one of beautyand sadness-no uniqueeffect in Japanese classical poetry, to be sure,but in thiscase a special mood whichTeika createsby the overtonesof love and of jukkai,138 or 'personalgrievances', running like leitmotivs through his sequence.Again and again his poems have the aura or possibleimplication of unhappylove. Poem No. 6, for exainple,ostensibly on springplum blossoms,conveys the wistful melancholyof a romanticpast. Amongthe summerpoems, the wood thrushis personifiedas a loverabandoning his grievingmistress, the mountains(No. 26); and similarlyin the autumnand wintersections are poems with at least po- tentialovertones of love's sadness and loss (e.g.,Nos. 37,48, 65). The lovesequence as such goes withoutsaying, but again in the concludingsets of miscellaneous poems,the overtones persist, as in Nos. 81 and 84 of thetravel poems, or No. 91 in the sectionon birds. Alongwith the tonal effect of pathos which these overtones of love give Teika's sequence,there are the even moreimportant points where he addresseshimself directlyto Go-Toba throughthe mediumof jukkai,the 'personal grievance'. Frominformal beginnings as a poeticsubject born from the very real frustrations and disappointmentsof courtlife, jukkai started by the earlytwelfth century to appear as a topic forformal poetry as well, and by Teika's time it was fully

137 See SuperiorPoems of Our Time, p. 9, 138 t.t and 'Go-Toba's SecretTeachings', pp. 18-19.

This content downloaded from 128.95.155.147 on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 15:57:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 248 MonumentaJv7pponica, xxxI, 3 establishedamong those subjects,such as 'secretlove'139 or 'resentfullove',140 whichcould be treatedas eitherfact or fiction.The topicwas alsojoined with otherelements in compoundtopics, or musubidai, as in Shunzei'sJukkai hyakushul4l composedin 1140or 1141,where the then young poet combinedit withthe hundredHorikawa topics in a sequenceprobably designed to gainhim Emperor Sutoku's142notice. ThatTeika should have made use of jukkai in hisSh-ji sequence was to be expected,considering the specific occasion and purpose.The motifis firstfound in No. 8, a springpoem transformed into a lamentupon the contrast between the speaker'sfutile march towards old age and thehappy birds' unchanging song. Behindthis generalized complaint, which could be takenas merelyformal and conventional,lies the specificapplication to Teika's personalcircumstances. So withpoem No. 70,which brings the winter section to a closeby contrasting thespeaker's hopelessness with the approachingspring's promise of hope and renewal. Finally,we havethe climax in Nos. 93 and 94 in thesmall sub-group of five poemson Birds.By placingthese poems virtually at theend of his sequence, just beforethe final sub-group on Celebrations,Teika was able to pointup the jukkaielement with maximum effect, forcing Go-Toba's attention to thecontrast betweenhis personalmisery on theone hand and his prayersand auspicious wordsfor the imperial family's glory and prosperityon theother. Of thesetwo last jukkai poems, the prevailing view, based upon the account of Go-Toba'ssecretary Jenaga, is thatit was No. 93 whichparticularly moved the Ex-Emperor.As is explainedin thecommentary under the poem, Teika made histopic, 'The Crane',the basis for an allegoryupon his own banishment from theformer sovereign's court. His poemprobably also echoesone by Shunzei, whosome fourteen years before had addresseda similarappeal to Ex-Emperor Go-Shirakawaon behalfof the same Teika. On thatoccasion, the hot-tempered youngman had gotteninto a scrapeby quarrelingwith a superiorofficer, had beentemporarily stripped of his officialranks and offices,and had beensent homefrom court. The echois apt,and thepoem both traditionally pleasing and personallyeffective, so that it is notdifficult tocredit Jenaga's story, even though someproblems, discussed in thecommentary, do remain.143 Betweenthe four widely-separated jukkai poems in Teika's sequenceare a numberin whichovertones of unhappylove mightwith almost equal justice be interpretedas 'personalgrievances'. It is thevery ambiguities and shadings betweenthe two topical elements added to themajor categories that give Teika's sequenceits special character, its dominant tone, and in myestimation, contribute to itsconviction as a movingand estimableliterary work.

- 143 139 Shinoburukoi X "' 6 See poem No. 93, with commentary, 140 Uramurukoi fRL-6t1 below; 'Go-Toba's Secret Teachings', p. 15; 141 _t_ and Ishida & Satsukawa, Ienaga nikki,pp. 142 4, 1119-64; r. 1123-41. 43-46.

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With respect to my translations,I make no other claim than having strivento render them passably readable and accurate, given my limited abilities and the great differencesof language and expression between classical Japanese and modern English. I have followed my usual practice of adhering to a general pattern of five relatively shorter and longer English lines. This self-imposed convention is intended to convey a general sense of the formand cadences of the original poems, all of which follow the thirty-one-syllabletanka scheme of five lines in the order 5, 7, 5, 7, 7. Notwithstandingmany difficultiesand short- comings,I hope that the translationand exegetical commentarymay help readers to respond to the whole as Teika intended: to grasp the sequence as a single structuralentity, an estheticexperience whose total effectadds up to a good deal more than a hundred unrelated poems. The best way to approach the sequence as such a unit is, I believe, to read it throughfrom beginning to end at a normal pace, returningafterwards to individual poems and to such notes and commentary as may be of interest.

(The concludingpart of this article,containing the translationof the hundred-poem sequence,will appearin thenext issue.)

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