Paper short abstract:

This paper has two aims: First, it approaches renga poetry from the viewpoint of written artefacts. Second, it focuses on the question how contemporary renga positions itself towards the tradition of premodern classical renga. I will also introduce findings from research trips in 2018 and 2020.

Paper long abstract:

Although linked poetry is a comparably well-researched subject even in Western Japanese Studies, research has, with few exceptions, largely been concerned with texts, literary theory and, if the social context was considered, with the history of eminent masters.

However, renga has always been a performative art or an "art of the place" (za no bungei, ba no bungei), requiring people to meet and interact. It is from this interaction that the poems emerged as a collaborative work and were written down by a scribe. From a viewpoint of material studies, we might therefore ask: What kind of written artefacts emerged from the performances? How are they structured? Are there traces in paratexts, design or binding that allow us to infer to types of performance like, for example, sessions after a dream vision (musô renga) or sessions conducted as a prayer (kitô renga)? How were manuscripts used during and after the meetings? What is the significance of manuscripts within the cultural setting of renga poetry?

By the early 20th century, classical renga was nearly extinct with probably one exception. Beginning in the 1980s, revival movements have started to spread the practice again. What are the similarities and differences between premodern and modern or neoclassical renga? How do modern renga poets place themselves within the tradition? What are the chances of preserving the practice of neoclassical linked poetry as a cultural heritage in the future? What role do written artefacts play in the age of digitalization? Will handwriting still have a future?

Presenting the results of research trips in 2018 and 2020, the paper aims at providing some answers to these questions. I will argue that renga performances and manuscripts as objects of research challenge the traditional scientific taxonomy of knowledge that differentiates fields like literature, religion, art history, cultural anthropology, codicology etc. as well as modern and pre-modern studies. I will also argue that even if one should not naively conclude from modern to pre-modern practices, studying neoclassical renga might also open up new questions and perspectives on artefacts and practices of the pre-modern period.