HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Kyōka'' (, "wild" or "mad poetry") is a popular, parodic subgenre of the
tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...
form of
Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...
with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. The form flourished during the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
(17th–18th centuries) and reached its zenith during the
Tenmei is a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the An'ei Era and before the Kansei Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1781 : The new era name of Ten ...
era (1781–89).


Background

In much the way poets in the '' kanshi'' style (Chinese poetry by Japanese poets) wrote humorous ''
kyōshi or "wild poetry," is a hybrid form of Japanese poetry that uses the tradition of '' kanshi'' (Japanese poetry written in Chinese characters). It was popular around 1770-1790 and avoids typical poetic forms, often including humorous expressions a ...
'' poems, poets in the native Japanese '' waka'' style composed humorous poems in the 31-metre style. Tanaka Rokuo suggests the style may have drawn inspiration from ''gishōka'' (, "playful and mocking verse"), poetry that targeted guests at banquets where they were read out in an atmosphere similar to that of a
roast Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelizatio ...
. During the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
(17th–19th centuries) there were two major branches of ''kyōka''; one based in
Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
(modern Tokyo), and ''Naniwa kyōka'' in the
Kansai region The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropol ...
. ''Naniwa kyōka'' arose in
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
in the 16th century, at first practised by aristocrats such as
Matsunaga Teitoku was a Japanese ''haikai'' and ''waka'' poet. As a teacher of ''Teimon Haikai'', he spread ''haikai'' throughout Japan. He was considered by R H Blyth to be the most important of Matsuo Bashō's predecessors. Achievements Teitoku played a signi ...
(1571–1654). It later found practitioners amongst commoners and centred in Osaka, whose earlier name ''Naniwa'' lent its name to the regional form. In the late 18th century, the economic policies of senior councillor
Tanuma Okitsugu (September 11, 1719 – August 25, 1788) was a chamberlain (''sobashū'') and a senior counselor ('' rōjū'') to the ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieharu of the Tokugawa Shogunate, in the Edo period of Japan. Tanuma and his son exercised tremendo ...
led to a sense of liberation, and various publishing forms flourished during this time. Edo
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
poets such as Yomo no Akara (1749–1823), (1740–1800), and (1743–1802) gathered for meetings and contests of ''kyōka'' poetry, which they took to publishing in the following decade. The earliest and largest collection was the ''Manzai kyōka-shū'' (, "Wild Poems of Ten Thousand Generations") that Akara edited and had published in 1783. ''Kyōka'' in Edo reached its zenith during the
Tenmei is a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the An'ei Era and before the Kansei Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1781 : The new era name of Ten ...
era (1781–89). The form attracted those from the various social classes, including low-level
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
s, commoners such as merchants, and scholars of Chinese and Japanese classics. Though its popularity spread to commoners, ''kyōka'' required considerable classical education and thus reached a limited audience; its popularity did not last into the modern era. Numerous ''kyōka'' poems appear throughout
Jippensha Ikku was the pen name of Shigeta Sadakazu (重田 貞一), a Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan. He was among the most prolific writers of the late Edo period — between 1795 and 1801 he wrote a minimum of twenty novel ...
's comic ''
kokkeibon The was a genre and type of early modern Japanese novel. It came into being late in the Edo period during the 19th century. As a genre, it depicted the comical behavior occurring in commoners' daily lives. The ''kokkeibon'' genre is the successo ...
'' novel ''
Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige , abbreviated as ''Hizakurige'' () and known in translation as ''Shank's mare, Shank's Mare'', is a comic picaresque novel (kokkeibon) written by Jippensha Ikku (十返舎一九, 1765–1831) about the misadventures of two travelers on the Tōka ...
'' (1802–22).


Form

''Kyōka'' poetry derives its form from the ''
tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...
'', with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. Most of the humour lies either in placing the vulgar or mundane in an elegant, poetic setting, or by treating a classical subject with common language or attitudes. Puns, wordplay, and other word games were frequently employed—and make translation difficult. A common technique was '' honkadori'' (), in which a classical poem was taken as a base (or ''honka'' ) and altered to give it a vulgar twist. Other common techniques include (intertextually associated words), '' kakekotoba'' (pivot words), and '' mitate'' (figurative language). The ''
makurakotoba are figures of speech used in Japanese poetry in association with certain words. The set phrase can be thought of as a "pillow" for the noun or verb it describes, although the actual etymology is not fully known. It can also describe associatio ...
'' epithets common to ''waka'' are not used in ''kyōka''. The following example demonstrates how Ki no Sadamaru (, 1760–1841) used a well-known ''waka'' poem by the classical poet
Saigyō was a Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Biography Born in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the ag ...
(1118–1190) from the ''
Shin Kokin Wakashū The , also known in abbreviated form as the or even conversationally as the Shin Kokin, is the eighth imperial anthology of waka poetry compiled by the Japanese court, beginning with the '' Kokin Wakashū'' circa 905 and ending with the '' Shin ...
'' (1205) as a ''honka'': In the original, Saigyō had broken a branch from a cherry tree on
Mount Yoshino is the general name for the mountain ridge that stretches from the south bank of the Yoshino River in the town of Yoshino central Nara Prefecture, Japan, to the Ōmine Mountains, stretching for about eight kilometers from north-to-south, or the ...
in modern
Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
to remind himself of a prime cherry-viewing spot; when he returns the next year, he chooses instead to go cherry-blossom viewing in an area he had not been to before. Ki no Sadamaru parodies the original by changing a few syllables, so that the poet finds himself wandering around, unable to find the branch he had broken.


Notes


References


Works cited

* *


External links


Examples of ''kyōka''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyoka Japanese literary terminology Japanese literature Japanese poetry Articles containing Japanese poems Waka (poetry) Humorous poems Satirical poems