The Pursuit of Harmony : : Poetry and Power in Early Heian Japan / / Gustav Heldt.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Archive Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Heldt, Gustav,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (456 p.)

The Heian court of the late ninth and early tenth centuries represents one of the most innovative and influential periods in the history of Japanese poetry. It witnessed the creation of entirely new forms of verse in poetry matches, screen poems, and officially sponsored anthologies, none of which had a precedent in earlier times. At the apex of these phenomena lay compilation of the Kokin wakashu (Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern), whose status as the first imperial anthology of native poetry would make it integral to Japanese court culture for centuries afterward. Despite the enormous historical significance of these new forms of poetry and the marked interest displayed by powerful individuals in patronizing them, however, little sustained attention has been paid to the ties between the practices of producing and performing verse and processes of economic, ideological, political, and social change in this period. This book is intended to address such issues through an investigation of the ways in which different members of the court community deployed poems in the pursuit of power.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- A Note to the Reader -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One Heian Histories of Poetic Harmony -- Chapter Two Household Harmony in Uda’s Poetry Matches -- Chapter Three Compiling Community in the Kokinshū -- Chapter Four Writing Yamato Verse in the Kana Preface -- Chapter Five Screen Poetry and Reflections of Power -- Epilogue Yamato Verse and Yamato Japan -- APPENDIXES -- Appendix A Preface to the Ryōunshū -- Appendix B Preface to the Bunka shūreishū -- Appendix C Preface to the Keikokushū -- Appendix D Chōka for Ninmyō’s Fortieth Birthday Celebration -- Appendix E Kana Record of the Teiji Villa Poetry Match -- Appendix F Kana Record of the Kyōgoku Consort Poetry Match -- Appendix G Preface to Poems for the Royal Procession to the Ōi River -- Appendix H Mana Preface to the Kokinshū -- Appendix I Kana Preface to the Kokinshū -- Appendix J Diagrams of Palace and Residence -- NOTES -- Glossary -- Works Cited -- Index