( ''A Secret Treatise of Renga Principles'') is a text on

renga ''Renga'' (, ''linked verse'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. ...

poetics. It was written by

Nijō Yoshimoto , son of regent Nijō Michihira, was a Japanese ''kugyō'' (court noble), waka poet, and renga master of the early Nanboku-chō period (1336–1392). Yoshimoto's wife gave birth to Nijō Moroyoshi. With another woman, he had sons Nijō Morots ...

around 1349. It had a great influence on the development of renga.Miner, Earl Roy, ''Japanese linked poetry'', Princeton University Press, 1980, pbk.

Development

Yoshimoto learned

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 ...

from Ton'a and

from Gusai and Kyūsei. While he authored several treatises on waka, it is for renga that he is best known. By the age of thirty, he was regarded as an authority on the subject. In 1345, Yoshimoto composed . This text served as the draft for ''Renri Hishō'', and over the next four years he slightly revised and edited it until it became ''Renri Hishō''. The differences between the two texts are extremely minimal. The text currently remains in a single manuscript in the collection. It is a mid-

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

copy.

The text begins with a

kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. ...

preface by Priest Gen'e and concludes with an afterword by Kyūsei. The main text consists of two major sections: general discourse on renga ranging from history to ways to learn, and rules for composing renga. These rules, more formally known as , became the foundation for later renga poetics such as the 1372 .

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Renri Hisho Late Middle Japanese texts Japanese poetry

Development

Contents

Notes

References