20 Facts About Japanese poetry

1.

Much of the literary record of Japanese poetry begins when Japanese poets encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang dynasty .

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2.

Since the middle of the 19th century, the major forms of Japanese poetry have been tanka, haiku and shi or western-style poetry.

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3.

Today, the main forms of Japanese poetry include both experimental poetry and poetry that seeks to revive traditional ways.

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4.

The history of Japanese poetry involves both the evolution of Japanese as a language, the evolution of Japanese poetic forms, and the collection of poetry into anthologies, many by imperial patronage and others by the "schools" or the disciples of famous poets .

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5.

The study of Japanese poetry is complicated by the social context within which it occurred, in part because of large scale political and religious factors such as clan politics or Buddhism, but because the collaborative aspect which has often typified Japanese poetry.

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6.

Older forms of Japanese poetry include kanshi, which shows a strong influence from Chinese literature and culture.

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7.

Much traditional Japanese poetry was written as the result of a process of two or more poets contributing verses to a larger piece, such as in the case of the renga form.

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8.

In other cases, the Japanese poetry collaborations were more competitive, such as with uta-awase gatherings, in which Heian period poets composed waka poems on set themes, with a judge deciding the winner.

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9.

Much of Japanese poetry has been transmitted historically through published anthologies, many of them with imperial patronage.

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10.

And, the earliest preserved works in the Japanese language preserve some previous poetry from this earlier period.

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11.

Oldest written work in Japanese poetry literature is Kojiki in 712, in which O no Yasumaro recorded Japanese poetry mythology and history as recited by Hieda no Are, to whom it was handed down by his ancestors.

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12.

Japanese poetry ordered the compilation of three anthologies of kanshi.

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13.

Kuge refers to a Japanese aristocratic class, and waka poetry was a significant feature of their typical lifestyle, and this includes the nyobo or court ladies.

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14.

Japanese poetry left many paintings accompanied by his own haiku poems.

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15.

For poets standing at that border, Japanese poetry had to be reinvented just as Japan as a nation began reinventing itself.

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16.

Yoshioka Minoru, the very embodiment of what the postwar period meant to Japanese poetry, had influenced virtually all of the younger experimental poets, and received the admiration even of those outside the bounds of that genre .

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17.

Western poets who appeal to the taste of Japanese poetry lovers in Japan are principally French, Paul Valery, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire; and Rainer Maria Rilke is a favorite .

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18.

English poetry is not very popular except among students of English literature in the universities, although Wordsworth, Shelley, and Browning inspired many of the Japanese poets in the quickening period of modern Japanese poetry freeing themselves from the traditional tanka form into a free verse style only half a century ago .

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19.

In more recent women's Japanese poetry, one finds an exploration of the natural rhythms of speech, often in a specifically feminine language rather than a high, literary form, as well as the language of local dialects .

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20.

Largest anthology of haiku in Japanese poetry is the 12-volume Bunruihaiku-zenshu compiled by Masaoka Shiki, completed after his death, which collected haiku by seasonal theme and sub-theme.

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