Kokinshū Kana-jo

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'': 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'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'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 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)