Three Major Poem Anthologies Compared
Compilation of Compilation of New Compilation Ten-thousand Poems Ancient and of Poems Ancient Anthology title Leaves Modern and Modern Shin- Man’yō shū Kokin waka shū Kokin waka shū after 795 905? 1205 approx. date presented (Nara-Heian; ancient) (Heian; high classical) (Kamakura; middle) anthology structure 4, 536 poems in 20 scrolls 1,100 poems in 20 scrolls 1,978 poems in 20 scrolls compiler Ôtomo no Yakamochi Ki no Tsurayuki and others Fujiwara no Teika and others seasons seasons laments felicitous poems felicitous poems parting poems laments types of poems broadly exchanged poems travel poems travel poems defined poems about objects love poems misc. poems love poems misc. poems laments sacred poems misc. poems Buddhist poems unaffected, vigorous, virile courtly elegance of a opulent, gorgeous, sensual beauty classical, proper, disciplined beauty style (soboku yūken, beauty (enrei, 艶麗) 素朴勇健) (yūga tenrei, 優雅典麗) mysterious, sublime beauty sentiment with artistic 幽玄 dominant aesthetic emotionally moving (yūgen, ) sensibility thoughtful construction or (kandô, 感動) principles (jōshu, 情趣) composition (ushin, 有心) pivoting words; pillowing words word junctions 掛詞・懸詞 prominent poetic (makura kotoba, 枕詞) (kakekotoba, ) "taking up an older poem"; allusive variation
technique preface related words (honkadori, 本歌取) (jo, 序) (engo, 縁語)
long poem (chōka, 長歌) short or Japanese poem short or Japanese poem (tanka, 短歌; waka, 和歌) short or Japanese poem (tanka, 短歌; waka, 和歌) (tanka, 短歌; waka, 和歌) 7-5 rhythm 7-5 rhythm (breaks come form 5-7 rhythm (breaks come after line 3) (breaks come after line 3) after line 2 or line 4) often ends with a noun often ends with an aux. verb (taigen, 体言) or often ends in grammatical (jodōshi, 助動詞) nominalized conjugating word particle (joshi, 助詞) (rentaikei, 連体形) Nukata Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Ariwara no Narihira Priest Saigyō some poets of note Yamabe no Akahito Ono no Komachi Fujiwara no Shunzei Yamanoue no Okura Ki no Tsurayuki Princess Shikishi Ōtomo no Tabito Ise Fujiwara no Teika Ōtomo no Yakamochi
© John R Wallace 2008