Japanese Poetry: The Roles of Poetry in Narrative Prose of the Heian Period

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Recommended: Poetry and prose in the Japanese era

The ninth century was one of major turning points of Japanese literature history, in which the kana syllabary was developed, along with abolishment of the legation to China (Handout 8). Moreover, the invention of the Japanese native writing systems served as a stimulus to the creation of a prose literature, as well as the births of prominent female writers (Handout 8). Two types of the prose went mainstream in the Heian literature: monogatari (tale) and nikki (diary) (Handout 8). Murasaki Shikibu’s Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) is probably the most famous work from the era and therefore I will focus on it as an example in the monogatari genre in this paper; as for the second genre, I will use Ki no Tsurayuki’s Tosa Nikki (Tosa Diary) in the discussion here.

Murasaki Shikibu employs poems as keystones of a scene to confirm truths about the characters and more interestingly to bring surprises to the reader. An example may be the emotional poem Kiritsubo made for the Emperor in return to his words of sorrow and fear about losing her, and sincerity of his feelings for her: “You promised never to leave me, not even at the end” (p. 7):

 Now the end has come, and I am filled with sorrow that our ways must part: the path I would rather take is the one that leads to life… If only I had known (p. 7)

These words were the only part that displays Kiritsubo’s real voice in the entire chapter, where I felt like I, for the first time, acknowledged her existence as a character, as well as her love for the Emperor, her humbleness to the relationship with him, and her sorrow about leaving him. To take another example of the feature of Murasaki Shikibu poems, the pair below exchanged between Genji and Utsusemi at the very end of the chapter s...

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...y of poem-writing in the Heian period. Poems were effectively added to both of the plots to provide characters’ psychological situations, conclude scenes, and characterize each writer’s literary styles. Moreover, the literature works composed in the era have played crucial parts as memory keepers of Japanese history, to whichever genres they may belong. Without them, we could not have learned lifestyles, values, and customs in those old days, as well as Japanese cultural and ethnical traits.

Works Cited

Kochi Literary Museum. (2010). Ki no Turaryki to Tosa Nikki. (Ki no Tsurayuki and Tosa Diary). http://kochi-bunkazaidan.or.jp/~bungaku/tosanikki.html Retrieved on June 4, 2010.

NAC Hiroshima. (2010). Genji Monotagari Web Kakioroshi Gekijo (Tale of Genji Web Plays). http://www.nac-hiroshima.jp/drama/daihon/genji/genji09.html Retrieved on June 4, 2010.

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