Waka After the Kokinshū: Anatomy of a Cultural Phenomenon By
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Waka After the Kokinshū: Anatomy of a Cultural Phenomenon by Gian Piero Persiani Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Gian Piero Persiani All rights reserved ABSTRACT Waka After the Kokinshū: Anatomy of a Cultural Phenomenon Gian Piero Persiani This dissertation is a study of the boom of waka poetry in the mid-tenth century. Waka is approached here as a cultural phenomenon, that is, a complex system of people, practices, and ideas centering around the production, distribution, and consumption of cultural artifacts. Four main aspects of this system are examined: first, the network of people who, at various stages and in different ways, were involved in it. I identify three primary groups of agents (the poets, the patrons, and the public) and provide an analysis of each. Second, the body of ideas and beliefs that motivated and sustained involvement with waka as either poets, or patrons, or recipients. Third, the shared body of ingredients and skills that poets used to craft their works. Fourth and final, the criteria that contemporary audiences used to evaluate poems. Each chapter deals with a specific aspect. Chapter 1 and 2 provide a sort of bird’s eye view of the social world behind the waka phenomenon. Chapter 1 uses criteria such as social position and gender to present a typology of poets in tenth century court society. I distinguish between low-ranking poets who viewed waka as a potential pathway to career advancement, and high-ranking poets who used it mainly as a tool for conducting dalliances and as a marker of status. I also examine the case of women poets, and discuss whether it is legitimate to see them as a distinct type. Chapter 2 focuses on the contribution of the patrons and the public. I start with a short history of patronage from the origins to the mid-tenth century, and then discuss various specific aspects of patronage, including its relation to the monjō keikoku theory (the idea that literature was useful for government), the appearance of the "poetry specialists" (senmon kajin), and the role of women as patrons of waka. This chapter also sketches a first, tentative profile of the waka public, and identifies some of the areas that a more thorough study should or could cover. Chapter 3 deals with the ideas and beliefs that motivated and sustained the waka phenomenon of the tenth century. As Bourdieu notes, "the sociology of art and literature has to take as its object not only the material production but also the symbolic production of the work, i.e. the production of the value of the work, or, which amounts to the same thing, of belief in the value of the work." Some of the developments that the chapter examines are the emergence of a new view of poetry-making as a pathway to immortality, a new image of the poet as a literary giant worthy of the respect and admiration of society, the emergence of a proto-celebrity culture around poets and their work via poem-stories (utagatari), and the sedimentation of the connection between poetry and courtly elegance (miyabi). Chapter 4 focuses on the body of ingredients and skills that poets used to make poems. I discuss how poetic know-how was acquired through study, what it consisted of, and several methods to apply it in actual composition. A discussion of the Kokin waka rokujō (Six Tomes of waka, c. 974), a giant poetry collection probably intended to serve as a reference book for poets, completes the chapter. Chapter 5 deals with contemporary criteria to evaluate poetry. Two main texts are examined: the Tentoku yo’nen dairi utaawase (Poetry contest at the Palace of the Fourth Year of Tentoku, 960), and the Waka kuhon (Nine Grades of waka, c. 1009) by Fujiwara no Kintō (966- 1044). The final section of the chapter discusses Tokieda Motoki's argument that since poetry was used in everyday life as a medium of communication, the aesthetic value of a poem was often less important than its performative value. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of tables and figures .......................................................................................................... iv Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION - WAKA AS COLLECTIVE CULTURAL PHENOMENON ................... 1 CHAPTER 1 – THE STRUCTURE OF THE POETIC FIELD IN THE TENTH CENTURY. 10 The genesis of a position .......................................................................................................... 10 Rank and poetic practice .......................................................................................................... 12 The “poet-ization of the upper aristocracy" ............................................................................... 20 Rank and poetic practice 2 ....................................................................................................... 24 Poetry and career ...................................................................................................................... 33 Public poetry and the kugyō ..................................................................................................... 35 The case of women poets ......................................................................................................... 39 Onnauta and the woman's voice .............................................................................................. 46 CHAPTER 2 – PATRONS AND THE PUBLIC ...................................................................... 53 A brief history of waka patronage through the mid-tenth century ........................................... 55 The patron as poet: the Murakami gyoshū ............................................................................... 67 The patron’s role ...................................................................................................................... 71 Aspects of the elite's patronage of waka .................................................................................. 73 Patrons and the specialists ......................................................................................................... 80 Women as patrons .................................................................................................................... 89 The waka Public ....................................................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER 3 - VIEWS OF POETRY AND THE POET IN TENTH-CENTURY COURT SOCIETY ................................................................................................................................. 113 Toward autonomy .................................................................................................................... 114 i Enter the great Poet ................................................................................................................ 120 A new arena of social confrontation ........................................................................................ 123 Views of the poet and changes in the poetic market .................................................................. 126 From work to author ................................................................................................................ 130 Literary glory and the Kokinshū compilers ................................................................................ 137 Utagatari and literary celebrity ............................................................................................. 140 Irogonomi, miyabi and the poet-lover ........................................................................................ 145 CHAPTER 4 – POETIC KNOW-HOW, WAKA EDUCATION, AND COMPOSITIONAL PRACTICE AFTER THE KOKINSHŪ ................................................................................. 155 Waka education in the 10th century ............................................................................................ 156 The waka idiom.......................................................................................................................... 166 a. Diction .............................................................................................................................. 166 b. Word associations ............................................................................................................ 171 c. Lines, patterns, poems .......................................................................................................... 175 d. Themes ................................................................................................................................. 178 e. Treatment .......................................................................................................................... 181 Imitation vs. shared knowledge ......................................................................................... 183 From ingredients to poems ....................................................................................................... 185 Other ways to combine kokoro and mono ................................................................................ 192 A reference book for poets: the Kokin waka rokujō ..............................................................