The Danrin school (談林派) is a school of
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. ...
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
founded by the poet
Nishiyama Sōin (1605 to 1682). The name literally means 'talkative forest' – in other words a ‘Literary Forest’.
Origins
The school arose in reaction against the serious "bookishness" and concern for traditional culture popular in Japanese poetry at the time, under the influence of
Matsunaga Teitoku and the
Teimon school. In place of their formalism and didacticism, the new school looked to humour and low comedy for fresh inspiration,as well as to becoming more in touch with the common people, and therefore infusing a greater spirit of freedom into their poetry.
Themes and language
The Danrin school favored plain language, everyday subjects, and the use of humor, often mocking or debunking the elegance of court
waka
Waka may refer to:
Culture and language
* Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand
** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe
** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe
** Waka taua, a Māori w ...
. Its members explored people's daily life for sources of playfulness, but while opening up the world of haiku to fresh influences, they ran the risk of ending up with mere frivolity.
Bashō/Tosei
The renowned poet
Matsuo Bashō had begun his poetic training in the Teimon school; but was much impressed by his meeting with Sōin, changing his pen name from Sōbō to Tosei, and becoming a member of the Danrin school. Though he later broke away from the latter, his mature style was to benefit from his ability to blend the seriousness of such earlier figures as
Saigyō
was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period.
Biography
Born in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of ...
and
Sōgi with the artistic freedom nurtured by the Danrin poets.
[Nobuyuki Yuasa trans., ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' (1983) p. 19 and p. 152]
See also
*
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
*
Haiga
is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of ''haikai''. ''Haiga'' are typically painted by haiku poets (''haijin''), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, ''haiga'' was based on simp ...
*
Uejima Onitsura
Uejima Onitsura (上島鬼貫, April 1661 – 2 August 1738) was a Japanese haiku poet of the Edo period, famous in the Osaka region for his haiku poetry. Belonging to the Danrin school of Japanese poetry, Uejima is credited (along with other Ed ...
References
Japanese poetry
Poetry movements
Japanese literary movements
17th-century Japanese literature
{{Poetry-stub