popular Latin or Anglo-Saxon languages and trying to lisp the first infantile poems of their troubadours, their naïve stories of saints and crude heroes. Japan had already produced in Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji the most genial novel in its language and one of the greatest works of world literature.
With The Tale of Genji comes another genre in which Japan pioneered and remains today one of the outstanding producers: the diary (nikki). In their diaries Japanese writers have developed a kind of biographical writing in which the idiosyncrasies of their national character are marked more clearly than in any other genre.
In the theatre, both in the literary text and in the scenic art of bringing words to life, the Japanese genius again was able to find an art strongly expressive of its national personality. If we consider all these genres together, or if we compare them with the creations of Western literature, we come to the most surprising and provocative reflexions.
FORM AND CONTENT IN JAPANESE POETRY
Poetry in Japan is esteemed, as in no other country in the world. Many Japanese emperors, great politicians, warriors, and scholars were poets. Today, poetry still holds a high position officially and socially. It is one of the duties of the emperor to preside at the Kosho Hajime, New Year's poetry contest, which takes place in the Imperial Palace.
Every year the emperor chooses a theme and a word for the poets competing. Japanese from all over the world (and today even a few foreigners) submit their compositions in tanka form; the selected ones are read before the throne. The Imperial Bureau of Poetry (O-uta Dokoro) was permanently established in 1888 by the Meiji emperor. In former days these palace competitions were so intense "that some of the competitors actually died from despair."
Poetry is so widely cultivated in Japan that there are more than one thousand reputable poetry magazines and innumerable poetry clubs all over the country. It is a frequent practice for cultured Japanese to write poetry during their leisure, at least as a sort of mental exercise. Even in small remote villages haiku contests are held and the winning poems are exhibited on the main door of the temple. The admirers of great poets erect large stones carved with their favorite poems (called kahi, or poetry monuments). This shows not only the wide regard for poets and poetry but also the high standards of education in Japan.
A foreign reader easily comes to the conclusion that poetry is the genre that counts least among Japan's impressive achievements, and that probably on account of the nature of its development and its widely consecrated technique it is the one that has less deepened the movements of the heart, and explored less the fields of human destiny. As Michel Revon put it, Japanese poetry has more finesse than inspiration.
Japanese poetry, which expresses through a very limited range of notes the feelings of the heart and the pleasures of the spirit in the pure contemplation of natural beauty, seems perhaps too sky and self-contained to a foreigner accustomed to the vast flights of thought of great Western poets. The self-imposed formulas of the tanka, a form of 31 syllables, and. haiku, with 17, of course cannot allow the range of poetic eloquence necessary to express the raptures, the indignations, the fertile rebellions of the spirit. This explains the fundamental tone of Japanese poetry—a delicate serenity, a refined spiritual sadness, a quintessence of the deep feeling of communion of man with nature.
The shortness of the poem has, in addition, the disadvantage that its creation is too easy for bad poets; therefore, there is the danger of seeing it debased to becoming the routine of a literary school or a mere technical exercise. This happened, in China with a concentrated form, tz'u, which, though longer than tanka, obeyed strict rules precisely establishing the number of lines of the poem, the number, length, and distribution of tones in each verse.
Tanka, a form of waka, appeared very early in Japanese poetry. The Manyoshu consists of a collection of 4,516 poems, all tanka with the exception of 262 longer poems known as choka. The choka, or long narrative poem, never exceeded 150 lines, and was not continued after the eighth century.
THE CLASSIC ANTHOLOGIES
In the Manyoshu we see how soon Japanese poetry reached maturity, creating forms which have prevailed since then. The predominant lyric tone, the genuine simplicity, the atmosphere of peace and melancholy, the concentration, the subtle delicate suggestion, and the highly polished phrase remain as permanent qualities. That is why the Nara period is considered by Japanese to be the golden age of poetry. "Never since has the native muse been so delicate in sentiment, refined in language, or displayed such exquisite skill in phrasing and composition."
Among the 450 poets of the Manyoshu, of which 70 are women, there are people of all classes, from emperors to beggars; this contributes to its fresh spontaneity and poetic sincerity, unmatched in Western mediaeval anthologies. The poetry or me Manyoshu is great poetry.
A collection of ancient Japanese songs, collectively known as Nihon Jodai Kayo, has recently been translated into English by Donald Philipi. It includes 313 poems or songs; the majority were probably sung and handed down until the time they were put into writing. Philipi's translation is entitled This Wine of Peace, This Wine of Laughter. They belong to the pre-Nara and Nara period (710-794) and some of them were contemporary with the Manyoshu; they were selected from a number of other sources, mainly from the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and from the Nihongi (Chronicles of Ancient Japan). These ancient songs have a charming simplicity, the freshness and perfume of wild flowers.
After the Manyoshu, poets began to give more attention to form, and decadence was the result. The official prestige of poetry continued the same, nevertheless, and twenty-one anthologies were made by imperial command between the tenth and the fifteenth centuries. The first of the anthologies, the Kokinshu (Collection of Poems, Ancient and Modern), was compiled about 905 by Ki no Tsurayuki—one of the principal poets of anthology. The Kokinshu has 1,111 poems, only 5 of which have more than 31 syllables. Many of these poems were composed in court poetry tournaments, like those of some European anthologies. The use of words is most elaborate; technique is much improved, but there is nothing of the spontaneity and vigour of the Manyoshu. Japanese poetry, bent towards aestheticism, had taken the progressively sterile path of concentration in form. This tendency towards decadence is accentuated in the Shin Kokinshu (New Kokinshu), published at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the last of the three classic anthologies most esteemed by the Japanese.
Besides the official anthologies, there were private compilations called kashu made within certain families. Teika Fujiwara (1162-1241) produced a collection of eighty-three poems collected over a period of five centuries called Kindai Shuka (Superior Poems of Our Time). The most famous of all private anthologies is the Ogura Hyaku-nin-isshu (One Hundred Poems from One Hundred Poets), organized in the first half of the thirteenth century, perhaps by Teika Fujiwara also. It has the peculiarity of containing poems following a chronological order, rather than the system of classification by topics adopted in the official anthologies; it includes poems from the seventh century until the time it was published. Indeed, the existence of these anthologies indicates the volume of rich Japanese poetry and its social importance.
Tanka was the dominating poetic form for centuries. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the rising of a wealthy middle class, new poetic liberties were required in form and in subject, A new form appeared, the haikai, consisting of 36, 50, or 100 lines. The first verse, hokku, became independent later, and was called haiku. This short poem of 17 syllables continues to be the favourite form of Japanese people today.
Basho, in the seventeenth century, brought the haiku form to perfection. With the creation of this new form poetic expression became still briefer, more dependent on the powers of concentration and suggestion; technically, it requires greater skill. Basho wrote that "he who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who can create ten is a master."
Tetsujiro Inoue has rebelled against the constraint of the traditional forms:
