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Matsuo Bashō
born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with '' Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton'' (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses." Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became we ...
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Hokusai
, known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the iconic print ''The Great Wave off Kanagawa''. Hokusai was instrumental in developing ''ukiyo-e'' from a style of portraiture largely focused on courtesans and actors into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals. Hokusai created the monumental ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' as a response to a domestic travel boom in Japan and as part of a personal interest in Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically, ''The Great Wave off Kanagawa'' and ''Fine Wind, Clear Morning'', that secured his fame both in Japan and overseas. Hokusai was best known for his woodblock ukiyo-e prints, but he worked in a variety of mediums including painting and book illustration. Starting as a young child, he continued workin ...
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Renku
, or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns providing alternating verses of 17 and 14 morae. Initially ''haikai no renga'' distinguished itself through vulgarity and coarseness of wit, before growing into a legitimate artistic tradition, and eventually giving birth to the haiku form of Japanese poetry. The term ''renku'' gained currency after 1904, when Kyoshi Takahama started to use it. Development The oldest known collection of haikai linked verse appears in the first imperial anthology of renga, the ''Tsukubashū'' (1356–57).Shirane, Haruo (2012). ''Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600''. Columbia University Press. p. 522. Traditional renga was a group activity in which each participant displayed his wit by spontaneously composing a verse in response to ...
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The Seashell Game
is a 1672 anthology compiled by Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, in which each haiku is followed by critical commentary he made as referee for a haiku contest.Jestice, Phyllis G. (2004). ''Holy people of the world: a cross-cultural encyclopedia.'' ABC-CLIO, It is Bashō's earliest known book, and the only book he published in his own name.Ueda, Makoto (1970). ''Twayne's World Authors Series.'' Twayne PublishersUeda, Makoto (1982). ''Matsuo Bashō''. Kodansha, p148 The work contains 60 haiku by 36 poets, including two by Bashō himself.Ueda, Makoto (1992). ''Bashō and his Interpreters''. Stanford University Press, p29 The format is based on a children's game where two seashells were placed side by side and compared. Bashō compares pairs of haiku by different authors in the same manner in the book. According to scholar Sam Hamill Sam Hamill (May 9, 1943 – April 14, 2018) was an American poet and the co-founder of Copper Canyon Press along with Bill O’Daly and Tree Swenson. ...
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Miko
A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained to perform tasks, ranging from sacred cleansing to performing the sacred dance. Appearance The traditional attire of a is a pair of red (divided, pleated trousers), a white (a predecessor of the kimono), and some white or red hair ribbons. In Shinto, the color white symbolizes purity. The garment put over the during dances is called a . Traditional tools include the , the (offertory -tree branches), and the . also use bells, drums, candles, , and bowls of rice in ceremonies. Definition The Japanese words and ("female shaman" and "shrine maiden" respectively)Kokugo Dai Jiten Dictionary, Revised edition, Shogakukan, 1988. are usually written as a compound of the kanji ("shaman"), and ("woman"). was archaically written (, or "g ...
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On'yomi
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. The characters have Japanese pronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After World War II, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known as shinjitai, by a process similar to China's simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the common folk. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common communic ...
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Pen Name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise the author's gender, to distance the author from their other works, to protect the author from retribution for their writings, to merge multiple persons into a single identifiable author, or for any of a number of reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of the work. The author's real identity may be known only to the publisher or may become common knowledge. Etymology The French-language phrase is occasionally still seen as a synonym for the English term "pen name", which is a "back-translation" and originated in England rather than France. H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler, in ''The King's English'' state that the term ''nom de plume'' evolv ...
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Haikai
''Haikai'' (Japanese 俳諧 ''comic, unorthodox'') may refer in both Japanese and English to ''haikai no renga'' (renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. It meant "vulgar" or "earthy", and often derived its effect from satire and puns, though "under the influence of atsuo Bashō (1644–1694) the tone of haikai no renga became more serious". "Haikai" may also refer to other poetic forms that embrace the haikai aesthetic, including haiku and senryū (varieties of one-verse haikai), haiga (haikai art, often accompanied by haiku), and haibun (haiku mixed with prose, such as in the diaries and travel journals of haiku poets). However, haikai does not include orthodox renga or waka. Pre-Bashō Schools Teimon School The Teimon School, centred around Matsunaga Teitoku, did much to codify the rules of haikai, as well as to encourage the writing of stand-alone Hokku. Danrin School The Danrin schoo ...
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Mora (linguistics)
A mora (plural ''morae'' or ''moras''; often symbolized μ) is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable. For example, a short syllable such as ''ba'' consists of one mora (''monomoraic''), while a long syllable such as ''baa'' consists of two (''bimoraic''); extra-long syllables with three moras (''trimoraic'') are relatively rare. Such metrics are also referred to as syllable weight. The term comes from the Latin word for "linger, delay", which was also used to translate the Greek word χρόνος : ''chrónos'' (time) in its metrical sense. Formation The general principles for assigning moras to segments are as follows (see Hayes 1989 and Hyman 1985 for detailed discussion): # A syllable onset (the first consonant or consonants of the syllable) does not represent any mora. # The syllable nucleus represents one mora in the case of a short vowel, and two morae in the case of a long vowel or diphthong. Consonants se ...
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Page (servant)
A page or page boy is traditionally a young male attendant or servant, but may also have been a messenger in the service of a nobleman. During wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ... ceremonies, a Page boy (wedding_attendant), page boy is often used as a symbolic attendant to carry the rings. Etymology The origin of the term is uncertain, but it may come either from the Latin ''pagus'' (servant), possibly linked to peasant, or an earlier Greek word (''pais'' = child). The medieval page In Middle Ages, medieval times, a page was an attendant to a nobleman, a knight, a governor or a castellan. Until the age of about seven, sons of noble families would receive training in manners and basic literacy from their mothers or other female relatives. Upon reach ...
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Ichikawa Danjūrō II
was a Japanese kabuki performer in the lineage of a celebrated family of actors from the Edo region.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al.'' (2005). "Ichikawa Danjūrō" in Ichikawa Danjūrō is a stage name. Career The earnestly prayed-for son of Ichikawa Danjūrō I, Danjūrō II acted under the name Ichikawa Kuzō I from 1697 to 1704, the year his father was killed in a backstage quarrel with another actor. Danjūrō II assumed his father's stage name five months after this incident and held it until 1735, when he took the name Ichikawa Ebizō II. Thereafter, the name was handed down in a direct line through the generations, e.g., Danjūrō III and Danjuro IV were the adopted sons of Danjūrō II; Danjūrō VI was the adopted son of Danjūrō V, and Danjūrō VII was the adopted son of Danjūrō VI. In the conservative Kabuki world, stage names are conveyed in formal system which converts the kabuki stage name into a mark of accomplishment. In 1840, Danjūrō IV created ''K ...
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