The ''Kokka Taikan'' (国歌大観) is a compilation encyclopedia of Japanese

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 ...

poetry early and modern, also serving as the ''de facto'' academic indexing system for poetry about which little is known. It is published by Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan. In academic literature or

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, the ''Kokka taikan'' reference number is more likely to be provided for poems by unknown or anonymous authors or when the year or location is unknown. For example, where records of poetry competitions in notable households are harvested, only a period and the location may be known; these poems may be valuable if referenced by masterpieces from the same or rival literary group.

Compilation and extent

The 2012 2nd edition of the ''Kokka Taikan'' comprises over 450,000

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and

Chinese poems Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernacular forms of the language, its poetr ...

.Kadokaw
''Kokka taikan'' DVD-ROM page
/ref> The original encyclopedia, encompassing only Japanese poetry, was compiled by Matsushita Daisaburo and Fumio Watanabe and published between 1901 and 1903. Continuation volumes were published between 1925 and 1926. The reference numbers for these volumes continued in sequence but are marked in referencing with ''zoku Kokka taikan''. The encyclopedia was published by Kadokawa from 1983. The current 2nd edition, published in 2012, is expanded with reference number continuing in sequence and is available on DVD-ROM.

Other collections

More long established collections can be seen as coherently delimited collections. The ''Kokka taikan'' can be viewed as the miscellany, aiming to contain poetry outside the long established collections: *

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

: the very ancient Japanese poetry collated during the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

. *

Monogatari is a literary form in traditional Japanese literature – an extended prose narrative tale comparable to the epic novel. ''Monogatari'' is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition, and almost always relates a fictional or fictionalized st ...

: the 40 or so longer tales that survive from the Heian and

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

s. * Nijūichidaishū: the 21 imperial anthologies of Japanese court poetry.

References

Japanese poetry collections Japanese art Japanese culture Chinese poetry {{poetry-stub