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

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often close ...

s to the tenth-century 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 ...

'' anthology, the ''

Kokin Wakashū The , commonly abbreviated as , is an early anthology of the '' waka'' form of Japanese poetry, dating from the Heian period. An imperial anthology, it was conceived by Emperor Uda () and published by order of his son Emperor Daigo () in abo ...

''. It was written by the poet/editor

Ki no Tsurayuki was a Japanese author, poet and court noble of the Heian period. He is best known as the principal compiler of the ''Kokin Wakashū'', also writing its Japanese Preface, and as a possible author of the '' Tosa Diary'', although this was publish ...

. 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 ''

'', a tenth-century anthology of Japanese ''

'' poetry. It was written by

, 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.

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 The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

'', 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 Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本人麻呂 or 柿本人麿; – ) was a Japanese ''waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but ap ...

and

Yamabe no Akahito Yamabe no Akahito (山部赤人 or 山邊赤人) (fl. 724–736) was a poet of the Nara period in Japan. The ''Man'yōshū'', an ancient anthology, contains 13 '' chōka'' ("long poems") and 37 '' tanka'' ("short poems") of his. Many of his poem ...

) as the ideal poets, and listing six great poets (the ''

Rokkasen The are six Japanese poets of the mid-ninth century who were named by Ki no Tsurayuki in the ''kana'' and '' mana'' prefaces to the poetry anthology '' Kokin wakashū'' (c. 905–14) as notable poets of the generation before its compilers. Hist ...

'') 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 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 ...

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japane ...

, 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

* * * * * {{Refend Kokin Wakashū Ki no Tsurayuki Karon (waka)

Authorship, date and context

Contents

Reception

References

Works cited