An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry

By Earl Roy Miner

Book Overview

The poetry written by the Japanese imperial court between A.D. 550 and 1350 is regarded as one of the great literatures of the world. This volume introduces readers to that literature, offering at once a condensation, a reorganization, and an extension (to A.D. 1500) of "Japanese Court Poetry" (1901). (Poetry)

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804706352
• ISBN13: 9780804706353
• Release Date: September 1968
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 173 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Best Introduction to Early Japanese Poetry Available

In his Preface Professor Miner notes that "the immediate origin of this little book" was a course of lectures he gave in 1967, six years after the collaborative publication of Japanese Court Poetry with Robert H. Brower. His reflections in the interim led him "to feel that literary preoccupations need to be tempered with attention to the fundamental human concerns of Japanese court poetry." We are all the beneficiaries of this change in focus. Japanese Court Poetry is certainly a scholarly landmark, and it does not detract from its stature to claim in the same breath that this concise, well-organized Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry has no equal as an introductory survey. One suspects that the clear, compact presentation may owe something to the fact that the book began as a series of lectures, where every word must be weighed. Miner's opening sentence succinctly defines his use of the phrase "Japanese court poetry" to mean "a historical segment (ca. 550-1500) of what Japanese themselves call waka, or Japanese poetry -- serious verse written in their own language, as opposed to Chinese, from the earliest literate times." (p.1) He later discusses what he sees as a general contrast between the assumptions underlying Japanese poetry and Western literature. "Their common elements aside, Western literature by comparison reveals a faith in action, in ideas, and in moral responsibiity -- these are what matter. Japanese literature emphasizes human feeling and reflection in participation with much that we think is opposed to man -- especially nature and the divine. The contrast, if simplified more, is between Western faith in persuasive ideas and Japanese faith in cultivated feeling. . . Faith in human feeling -- belief in its integrity and truth -- is probably the most consistent feature of Japanese literature from earliest to contemporary times." (p. 9) Food for thought. . .and discussion. But Miner also explains the nuts and bolts: kokoro versus kotoba, the forms of poetry (tanka, choka, sedoka, renga, etc.), "pillow-words," honkadori, the poetic diary, and so on. Chapters Three through Seven systematically survey the poetry of Hitomaro through that of major poets to 1500. Chapter Eight recaps Major Themes, followed by a Glossary, a Finding List for Poems, and an Index. A nice tight little package of fewer than 200 pages. I highly recommend this book both for the general reader and for the student of Japanese literature. (It was Required Reading in a course on early Japanese literature which I taught for many years.)