Teika’s Poetics

Numerous poetic treatises have been attributed to Teika, some fraudulently. This chapter attempts to derive Teika’s poetics based on explicit and implicit remarks he made about waka poetry. It begins by first determining the limits of Teika’s theoretical oeuvre, and excludes from consideration the texts Maigetsushō (Monthly Notes) and Teika jittei (Teika’s Ten Styles). The remaining texts suggest that Teika held a pessimistic view of the ability of language to represent lived experience, and that he valorized a style prevalent among poets in the ninth century, in which the words carried unspoken overtones.

Introduction

The late medieval poet and monk Shōtetsu (1381–1459) deeply revered Teika. This chapter begins the study by seeking the reasons for Shōtetsu’s reverence, provides an overview of Teika’s life and oeuvre, and introduces the structure of the book.

Spirit of Han, Genius of Yamato

Teika was biliterate in classical Japanese and classical Chinese, and well read in the Chinese historical and literary classics. His diary was kept mainly, but not entirely, in kanbun, a Japanese variant of classical Chinese. Portions of the diary in which Teika wrote in kana are studied for what they might reveal about Teika’s attitude toward classical Chinese language, history, and culture. Teika also wrote Matsuranomiya monogatari (The Tale of Matsura), a romantic adventure tale set in Tang-period China. A reading of the tale suggests that Teika had a highly favorable view of classical Chinese culture, and did not regard it as entirely foreign.

Teika After Teika

Criticisms and evaluations of Teika as a person and as a poet began during his own lifetime. The history of reception of Teika’s biography, poetry, and other works is surveyed from the thirteenth century up until modern times. Although Teika was generally regarded as an extremely skilled poet and occasionally venerated as a demigod of waka, factional battles among his descendants led to criticism of his poetry. Rumors of an illicit affair with his contemporary Princess Shokushi inspired a fifteenth-century noh play and further embellished his reputation among early modern readers. Teika’s distinctive calligraphy plays a prominent role in his posthumous fame.

A Documentary Biography

Teika lived to the age of eighty, and we have a great deal of information about his life. Much of it comes from his own diary, Meigetsuki, which he kept for over fifty years. Teika was born into a literary house and achieved early success as a poet, but suffered a number of setbacks, including the fall from power of his patrons, the Kujō family. He returned to the center of poetic activity thanks to the backing of Retired Emperor Go-Toba, commissioner of the eighth imperial anthology of waka poetry, the Shin Kokinshū. After Teika and Go-Toba became estranged, Teika’s career advanced even further when military authorities exiled Go-Toba and his sons in retaliation for their attempt to topple the Kamakura shogunate.

Conclusion

The conclusion offers reasons for Teika’s success as a poet and courtier. His rise to fame was contingent on historical vicissitudes, but required a formidable degree of talent and perseverance. Various paradoxes observed in Teika’s personality, career, and environment are ultimately unresolvable.

The Bodhidharma Style and the Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds

Teika’s early poetry was pejoratively termed “daruma-uta,” or “Bodhidharma poems,” by his rivals, a reference to the founder of Zen Buddhism. The term implied that the poetry was incomprehensible gibberish, like a Zen kōan. Through examples gleaned mainly from Roppyakuban utaawase (The Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds), this chapter attempts to outline the parameters of the new style, and examines the difficulty of innovating in a strongly traditional literary genre. Of particular interest is taigen-dome (nominal termination), the practice of ending a poem with a noun, which is rare in Japanese grammar. Taigen-dome is used as an index for linguistic innovation, and an analysis of it suggests that Teika’s rivals were not as conservative as they seem.