- Convenor:
-
Joshua Mostow
(University of British Columbia)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Gian Piero Persiani
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Pre-modern Literature
Short Abstract
The three papers show different uses the uta-awase format was put to: from a riddle “game” where the answers were surprisingly given in advance, to its use in poetic theory, to its function as an anthology-format for early-modern printed editions of women’s poetry.
Long Abstract
The three papers in this panel explore the uses and functions of the uta-awase (poem-matching) format in classical Japanese poetry from the tenth to seventeenth centuries.
The first presentation examines the Ko-Uemon-no-kami Tadatoshi kindachi nazo-awase (Tadatoshi Riddle Match) of 981. The riddles are accompanied by poems which often give the answer to the riddle before the opposing team had a chance to guess. How is this a competition? Employing the work of philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, the presenter will explain the ways that the supposedly competitive game format and the rhetorical techniques of waka were actually used to strengthen social bonds between the participants.
The second presentation focusses on several works by Retired Emperor Gotoba (1180-1239). Examining the two uta-awase—one the record of an actual competition between contemporary poets and the other an imaginary confrontation between poets “of different eras” (jidai fudō)—the presenter will compare the written judgements of the first with the poems and arrangements of the latter, and compare both to the explicit pronouncements found in the Gotoba-in gokuden (Former Emperor Gotoba’s Secret Teachings) to examine the degree of consistency between these three works.
The final presentation compares two early-modern printed editions of anthologies of women poets: the Onna Kasen shinshō (A New Commentary on The Female Poetic Immortals) by the earliest important ukiyo-e artist, Hishikawa Moronobu, published in Edo in 1682; and the Onna Hyakunin isshu (The Women’s One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each), by the female artist and calligrapher Isome Tsuna, published in 1688 in Kyoto. One work is in the thirty-six poet uta-awase format, while the other is in the hyakushu, or “hundred-poem sequence,” format. The presenter will explore what each format allows the editors of the two collections, and how the differences might relate to the editions’ differing purposes, audiences, and geographies.
The purpose of the panel is to show that the game format was hardly limited to actual competitions, but could be utilized for a variety of purposes, including social bonding and pedagogy, both poetic and feminine.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
This paper explores Emperor Gotoba’s (1180–1239) poetics by linking the theories in Gokuden to his judgments in Entō ōn’uta-awase. It analyzes how principles like topic adherence (dai), allusion (honkadori), and pedigree shape the canonical selections in his Jidai fudō uta-awase.
Paper long abstract
Emperor Gotoba (1180-1239; r. 1183-1198) is recognised as a major figure in early mediaeval Japanese poetics, being both an accomplished poet and a critic with a vision of what poetic quality entailed. Explicit articulations of his poetics, however, consist mainly of the text of Gotoba-in gokuden (Former Emperor Gotoba’s Secret Teachings; 1212-26) and the judgements he wrote for Entō ōn’uta-awase (The Former Emperor’s Poetry Match on a Distant Isle; 1236), with the latter work being contemporaneous with the final version of his Jidai fudō uta-awase (Poetry Match of Temporal Differences), which is one of a number of works he completed in the final years of his life. Jidai fudō uta-awase is a collection of exemplary poems of the past and present, organised in the format of a poetry match.
This paper attempts to answer three interconnected questions: first, to what extent are Gotoba’s remarks about poetic quality in his Gokuden practically applied and developed in his judgements in Entō ōn’uta-awase? Second, what are the key features of Gotoba’s poetics which can be inferred from the content of these two texts? Finally, to what extent are these poetics visible in Jidai fudō uta-awase?
Analysis of Gokuden reveals Gotoba’s preoccupation with features such as: adherence to the topic (dai) of a poem; the tension between topic and conception; the appropriate use of allusions to other poems (honkadori) and prose sources, as well as the importance of foundational study and pedigree in the production of poems. Many of these principles are explicitly applied in Entō ōn’uta-awase, making the match a practical syllabus based on the theories articulated in his Gokuden. While Jidai fudō uta-awase is less clear-cut, it seems many of the poems were chosen because they met his criteria for canonical authority, thematic discipline, sophisticated allusion, and refined execution.
Paper short abstract
This paper will examine riddles and poetry—two elements of game design in the Ko-Uemon-no-Kami Tadatoshi kindachi nazo-awase of 981, where a family gathering turned into an opportunity to use waka as a technical resource to create a clever ludic experience through the combination of both elements.
Paper long abstract
On the 26th day of the fourth month of 981 an event took place known as the Ko-Uemon-no-kami Tadatoshi kindachi nazo-awase (Family of Late Captain of the Right Outer Palace Guards Fujiwara no Tadatoshi Riddle Match), where family members of the late Fujiwara no Tadatoshi (928–973) gathered and held a short riddle match with a corresponding poem supporting each riddle. Nazo-awase have appeared in literary works and records such as Sei Shonagon’s Makura no sōshi (The Pillow Book) as fiercely competitive events, but on this occasion the poems often gave away the answer to the riddle—being chanted right after the riddle was posed—raising the question: why was the game played in such a seemingly counterintuitive way?
This paper will examine elements of game design that shaped this nazo-awase to answer why it strays from the usual competitive game framework. Using C. Thi Nguyen’s theories of striving play and inscribed temporary agency that players take on during a game, the answer becomes clear that the lusory goal of stumping the opposing team with a difficult riddle became secondary to the purpose of playing: creating and appreciating clever wordplay to strengthen social bonds of the participants. This paper will also analyze the inclusion of waka in the game design of this nominal nazo-awase as a specific choice that gave players access to the poetic techniques of waka as a technical resource with which to play the game. Specifically, the use of engo, poetic associations, and kake-kotoba were the main rhetorical practices that players chose to create cleverness in their riddle and poem combinations, showcasing how the players were able to utilize and navigate their temporary limited agency for the game to pursue the purpose of playing this nazo-awase.
Paper short abstract
This paper compares two early-Edo editions: Onna Kasen shinshō (uta-awase, pub. Edo) by Hishikawa Moronobu (male) and Onna Hyakunin isshu (hyakushu, pub. Kyoto) by Isome Tsuna (female). How do these different formats respond to differences in purpose, audience, and geography?
Paper long abstract
This paper will compare two early printed illustrated versions of what might be called “onna shūkashū” 女秀歌集, or “collections of exemplary poems by women.” The earlier is the Onna Kasen shinshō (A New Commentary on The Female Poetic Immortals) by the earliest important ukiyo-e artist, Hishikawa Moronobu, published in Edo in 1682. Published six years later is the Onna Hyakunin isshu (The Women’s One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each), calligraphed and illustrated by the prolific female artist and calligrapher Isome Tsuna and published in 1688 in Kyoto.
While the origins of Fujiwara no Kintō’s original Sanjūrokunin sen (The Selected Poems of the Thirty-Six Poets, ca. 1009-1012) are complex, extant illustrated versions of exemplary collections of thirty-six female poets—like illustrations of the Hyakunin isshu—can only be traced back to the Edo period. While the earliest examples of both appear to be works by official ateliers—the Tosa, Kano, and Sumiyoshi—printed versions appear shortly thereafter.
Moronobu’s text is designed as a poem-matching contest (uta-awase) and includes an imaginary portrait of the poet, with her poem inscribed above her figure in chirashi-gaki (“scattered writing”), a brief written commentary, and an illustration of the “heart” (kororo) taking up a full third of the page at the top. Tsuna’s text is partly a manual for nyohitsu (“women’s brush”)—a distinctive epistolary form of calligraphy derived from court women’s writing that flourished among a variety of classes, including courtesans, until the mid-18th century—with no written commentary but including a pictorialization of the dai (題), or circumstances of the poem’s composition. While all the thirty-six poets of Moronobu’s edition also appear in Tsuna’s one hundred, their position in their respective collections, as well as the poems chosen to represent them, differ. This paper aims to explore and explain the reasons for these differences—especially the uta-awase format compared to the hyakushu (“one-hundred poem sequence”)—as linked to the editions’ differing purposes, audiences, and geographies.