is a literary subgenre of the ''

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 fictionali ...

''. It is characterized by an emphasis on ''

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, with prose sections interspersed. While most other ''monogatari'' of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

and later contain ''waka'', the ''uta monogatari'' feature poetry as the core of successive narrative episodes, with the prose sections sometimes limited to a brief note about the composition of the poetry.Keene, Donald. ''A History of Japanese Literature: Volume 1''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. p. 451. .

History

One of the most influential and early examples of ''uta monogatari'' is the ''

Tales of Ise is a Japanese '' uta monogatari'', or collection of ''waka'' poems and associated narratives, dating from the Heian period. The current version collects 125 sections, with each combining poems and prose, giving a total of 209 poems in most version ...

''. An anonymous work sometimes attributed to

Ariwara no Narihira was a Japanese courtier and '' waka'' poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the ''Ogura Hyakunin Isshu'' collection. He i ...

, it is a series of 125 largely unconnected prose narratives about "a man", many of said narratives beginning with the short sentence ''Mukashi otoko arikeri'' ("Long ago, there was a man"). These narratives are largely centered on poetry composed by the "man", usually identified as a fictionalized version of Narihira.Keene, Donald. ''A History of Japanese Literature: Volume 1''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. pp. 452–457. . The name ''uta monogatari'' was first applied to the subgenre during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

Notable examples

* ''

Heichū Monogatari ''Tales of Heichū'' (''Heichū monogatari'') belongs to the genre of '' uta monogatari'' poem tales that emerged in Japanese literature from the mid 10th to the early 11th centuries. As early as the ''Collection of Ten-Thousand Leaves'' ('' Many ...

'' * ''

Yamato Monogatari is a collection of 173 short stories which give details about life in the imperial court in the 9th and 10th centuries. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Yamato monogatari''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 1047. It is an ''uta monogatari'' (a w ...

'' * ''

Takamura Monogatari The , also called the or the , is a Japanese uta monogatari that was written any time between the mid-Heian period to the early-Kamakura period. It is in one volume and consists of two distinct sections. The first section describes a young Ono no ...

Notes

{{reflist Japanese poetry