Man'yōshū and Kokinshū are two of the most important anthologies in Japan. Both of them have had great impacts on traditional Japanese poems, as well as contemporary writings. Although both of Man'yōshū and Kokinshū are extant collections of Japanese poetry, they are very different in various aspects. Differences in their forms, techniques, contents, expressions and aesthetic principles are possibly due to the time of completion. By comparing the aforementioned aspects in Man'yōshū and Kokinshū, distinct characteristics of each of them will be ultimately explained and revealed.
Man'yōshū is the earliest collection of Japanese poetry completed in 759. The genre has a total of 20 books and it contains 4,516 waka poems. Prior of examining its distinguished traits, it is necessary to note that Japan had stopped sending missionaries to Tang Dynasty of China in 835. Therefore, it is understandable that Man'yōshū had been greatly influenced by Chinese literal writing styles. Japanese natives considered Man'yōshū is a “literature of their own” (Japanese knowledge). The most distinct parts of Japanese poetry are that it composes in a syllabic pattern such as 5-7-5-7-7 in tanka instead of uniformity of kanji number in Chinese poems; moreover, the use of Japanese language in makurakotoba (fixed epithet), kakekotoba (homonym) and kotodama (word-soul), and lastly, the use of Kana rather than that Kanji in compilation. Despite the fact that Japan had developed some of its native techniques in poetry, techniques such as parallelism and repetition being used in Japanese poetry are definitely residues from Chinese literature.
Perhaps the most prominent poetic form of Man'yōshū is chōka. It composes in a syllabic pattern of 5-7-5-7-5…7-7 and...
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...idst of sadness. The composition of the poem has slightly touched the sentimental part of human, which connects the readers and the girl through skillful elaborations.
In conclusion, through the facts, explanations and examples I have given on Man'yōshū and Kokinshū, they are proved to be very different anthologies from each other. Poems in both of them have different forms, techniques, contents, expressions and aesthetic principles, as well as time of completion. However, they are equally important to the attribution of traditional Japanese poems and contemporary literate achievements.
Works Cited
Collection of Early and Modern Japanese Poetry: Composed on the first day of spring by Ki no Tsurayuki.
Encyclopedia of Japan, available though Japan Knowledge.
Keene, D. (1955). Man'yōshū: Climbing Kagu-yama and looking upon the land. New York: Grove Press
The two poems that I have selected for the Analytic Paper are “Blue Light Lounge Sutra For The Performance Poets At Harold Park Hotel” and “Thanks” by Yusef Komunyakaa. The former was read and analyzed as part of a class discussion early on in the quarter while the latter is a piece never analyzed, but closely related to another that was examined for its content and stylistic techniques (“Facing It”, Penguin Anthology, page 441). Though both were written by the same author, there are specific discrepancies in rhythm and wording that create artistic differences that suit the subject of each piece.
In romantic words, the poet expresses how much she does think of love. She state it clear that she will not trade love for peace in times of anguish.
Royall, Tyler. ""I Am I": Genji and Murasaki." Monumenta Nipponica 54.4 (1999): 437, 475-476. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.
Riichi, Yokomitsu. Shanghai. Michigan: The Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan , 2001.
Literature shows us the changes of our society from time to time. It also gives us an idea about people, culture, politics, gender traditions, as well as an overall view of previous civilizations. As a part of literature, poetry introduces us to different cultures with different perspectives. Ancient Egypt and ancient China may differ in terms of culture, politics, economic stability, tradition, or even in religious belief. However, in poetry, especially in love lyrics both Egyptian and Chinese poems portray common area of describing women, social attitudes toward love, sexuality and the existence of romance or selfishness in relationships. . If we look at the Egyptian poem “My god, my Lotus” and the Chinese poem “Fishhawk”, we will see both poems have similarities in describing relationships. Also, they have the similarity of imagining the lovers and their expression of love toward each other. However, both poems have some significant differences in terms of representing female sexuality, gender disparity and the display of love.
10. "Book of Poetry : Minor Odes of the Kingdom : Decade Of Bei Shan : Bei Shan 2 - Chinese Text Project." Chinese Text Project. N.p., n.d. Web.
The poem's speaker mistreated,gloomy and being isolated. She is a person who loss and assimilation if not loose your self. “That this
Comparing Ben Bertram’s [Response] and Kogawa’s Road Building by Pick Axe is an interesting exercise. There are two primary points of comparison : First, why did each author choose to use the form of poetry that they did, haiku for Bertram and blank verse for Kogawa; Secondly, what using that form of poetry accomplished for their poem. The reason that these poems should be read together is because Bertram raises several important questions about Kogawa’s writing that will help you to better understand Kogawa’s message.
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
The poem is a combination of beauty and poignancy. It is a discovery in a trajectory path of rise and fall of human values and modernity. She is a sole traveler, a traveler apart in a literary romp afresh, tracing the thinning line of time and action.
In the same way Japanese poetry often alludes to or derives from the canon of poetry that precedes it, noh plays are often based off of classical Japanese literary sources that form the framework for the play’s themes and moral message. Many of these plays reference poems from revered anthologies, such as the Shinkokinshū, within the play’s dialogue, but it is the monogatari or tales that provide the foundation for certain noh plotlines because of their vast array of character references and plotlines. These tales are the primary sources of information for two plays in particular written by the famous Japanese playwright Zeami: Atsumori and Matsukaze. The warrior-play Atsumori draws from the famous war epic The Tale of Heike to further an anti-war message grounded in the original text, as well as to further explore Buddhist themes of attachment and karmic ties. Matsukaze draws its origins and background from Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji and Ariwara no Narihira’s The Tales of Ise for location, tone, and themes of longing in order to juxtapose the Buddhist duality of attachment and detachment from this world.
In his preface of the Kokinshū poet Ki no Tsurayaki wrote that poetry conveyed the “true heart” of people. And because poetry declares the true heart of people, poetry in the minds of the poets of the past believed that it also moved the hearts of the gods. It can be seen that in the ancient past that poetry had a great importance to the people of the time or at least to the poets of the past. In this paper I will describe two of some of the most important works in Japanese poetry the anthologies of the Man’yōshū and the Kokinshū. Both equally important as said by some scholars of Japanese literature, and both works contributing greatly to the culture of those who live in the land of the rising sun.
Ito, Teiji. The Japanese Garden—An Approach to Nature. Trans. By Donald Richie. Yale University Press, 1972.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia, eds. An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 21. Print.
The Heian period(794-1185), the so-called golden age of Japanese culture, produced some of the finest works of Japanese literature.1 The most well known work from this period, the Genji Monogatari, is considered to be the “oldest novel still recognized today as a major masterpiece.”2 It can also be said that the Genji Monogatari is proof of the ingenuity of the Japanese in assimilating Chinese culture and politics. As a monogatari, a style of narrative with poems interspersed within it, the characters and settings frequently allude to Chinese poems and stories. In addition to displaying the poetic prowess that the Japanese had attained by this time period, the Genji Monogatari also demonstrates how politics and gender ideals were adopted from the Chinese.