The ''kana'' preface to the ''Kokin Wakashū'' (古今和歌集仮名序 ''Kokin Wakashū kana-jo'', 古今集仮名序 ''Kokinshū kana-jo'', or simply 仮名序 ''kana-jo''; ''
rekishi-teki kanazukai
The , or , refers to the in general use until orthographic reforms after World War II; the current orthography was adopted by Cabinet order in 1946. By that point the historical orthography was no longer in accord with Japanese pronunciati ...
'': 假名序) is one of the two
prefaces to the tenth-century Japanese ''
waka'' anthology, the ''
Kokin Wakashū''. It was written by the poet/editor
Ki no Tsurayuki. It is also known in English as the Japanese preface, distinguishing it from
Ki no Yoshimochi Ki no Yoshimochi (紀 淑望, died 919) was a Japanese poet of both ''waka'' and '' kanshi'' (Japanese and Chinese poetry, respectively). He also composed the Chinese preface ('' mana-jo'') to the tenth-century ''waka'' anthology, the ''Kokin Wakash ...
's Chinese preface (''
mana-jo''). It was the first serious work of poetic criticism on the ''waka'' style, and is regarded as the predecessor of later ''
karon'' works.
Authorship, date and context
The ''kana'' preface, or Japanese preface, is one of the two prefaces that were given to the ''
Kokin Wakashū'', a tenth-century anthology of Japanese ''
waka'' poetry. It was written by
Ki no Tsurayuki, the principal compiler of the anthology.
The other is
Ki no Yoshimochi Ki no Yoshimochi (紀 淑望, died 919) was a Japanese poet of both ''waka'' and '' kanshi'' (Japanese and Chinese poetry, respectively). He also composed the Chinese preface ('' mana-jo'') to the tenth-century ''waka'' anthology, the ''Kokin Wakash ...
's Chinese preface (''
mana-jo'').
The ''kana'' preface was written between the
second month of
Engi 6 (906) and the first month of the following year.
Contents
The ''kana'' preface to opens with a detailed and poetic explication of what the core concept of ''waka'' poetry is.
It divides the ''waka'' into six stylistic categories, explaining each of those categories and giving an example. These categories were derived from the Grand Preface to the ''
Shi Jing'', and their application to Japanese poetry has been criticized as "halfhearted" and "meaningless".
It then goes on to discussing the ideal ''waka'' and listing two poets (probably
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and
Yamabe no Akahito) as the ideal poets, and listing six great poets (the ''
Rokkasen'') of what was then the recent past. Finally, it touches on the compilation process for the ''Kokin Wakashū'' and speculates on the future of the ''waka''.
Reception
The opening lines of ''kana'' preface have been regarded as the archetypal work of Japanese classical prose. Its status in the poetic tradition made Tsurayuki the arbiter of Japanese poetic criticism until the
Meiji period.
Donald Keene, in his ''
Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century'', called it "one of the earliest and best-known documents of Japanese poetic criticism".
Haruo Shirane
Haruo Shirane (born 16 September 1951) is the Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Chair of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. At Columbia, Shirane i ...
called the famous opening lines of the preface "line for line,
..undoubtedly the most heavily commented secular prose text of the Japanese tradition".
References
Works cited
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{{Refend
Kokin Wakashū
Ki no Tsurayuki
Karon (waka)