Hitomaro

Hitomaro
Brills Japanese Studies Library

Edited by
Joshua Mostow (Managing Editor) Chris Goto-Jones Caroline Rose Kate Wildman-Nakai
VOLUME 31
Hitomaro
Poet as God
By
Anne Commons
LEIDEN BOSTON 2009
Cover illustration: Fourteenth-century portrait of Hitomaro (ink and colors on silk, 121.4 82.9 cm), Tokyo National Museum. Image: TNM Image Archives. Source: http://TnmArchives.jp/ This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Commons, Anne. Hitomaro : poet as god / by Anne Commons. p. cm. (Brills Japanese studies library ; v. 31) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17461-0 (acid-free paper) 1. Kakinomoto, Hitomaro, . 689700. I. Title. II. Series. PL785.Z5C66 2009 895.6114dc22 2008055177
ISSN 0925-6512 ISBN 978 90 04 17461 0 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands
For Sue and Bernard Commons
CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..................................................................... Map of Japan Showing Sites Mentioned in the Text ............... Introduction ................................................................................ Chapter One Hitomaro and the Manysh: The Birth of a Legend ................................................................................. Chapter Two Hitomaro in Heian Texts: A Sage of Poetry ... ix xi 1 9 39 91 127 175 205 213
Chapter Three Worshipping Hitomaro: From Text to Image ...................................................................................... Chapter Four Medieval Reception: Poetic Deities in the Secret Commentaries .............................................................. Chapter Five Hitomaro in the Early Modern Period: Poetic Icon and Popular Deity ............................................... Bibliography ................................................................................ Index ...........................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book would not have been possible without the generous assistance of many friends, colleagues, and teachers, past and present, not all of whom can be mentioned here. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my dissertation adviser Haruo Shirane, without whose astute guidance, endless patience, and unagging support and encouragement none of this would have been possible. While at Columbia, I was also the recipient of much useful advice and warm encouragement from Ryichi Abe. In Japan, I was extremely fortunate to benet from the incredibly generous and thoughtful guidance of Ii Haruki and Araki Hiroshi at Osaka University. I am very grateful to Stefania Burk, Cheryl Crowley and Christina Lafn for their constructive criticism of parts of the manuscript, and to David Lurie for his guidance on things Manysh-related. I am particularly indebted to Mikael Adolphson, who gave unstintingly of his time as an insightful reader of the manuscript and an invaluable source of support and advice. Special thanks go to Joshua Mostow for his trenchant editorial advice, and to Patricia Radder at Brill; also to Winifred Olsen, for her clear and careful editing. Finally, I am very grateful to the Shinch Foundation for the Promotion of Literature, whose generous nancial support enabled me to carry out two years of research in Japan. Id like to think that Hitomaroin his capacity as a deity of learninghas been guiding my endeavors; any errors remaining in the text, however, are entirely mine.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Masuda (site of Takatsu Kakinomoto shrine) Akashi Heian-Ky / Kyoto Heij-Ky / Nara Yoshino Sumiyoshi Tamatsushima Edo / Tokyo
Map of Japan Showing Sites Mentioned in the Text
INTRODUCTION Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (. c. 690) is today generally regarded as one of the three greatest poets in the Japanese classical canon, frequently held up alongside the medieval poet-recluse Saigy (11181190) and the early modern haikai poet Matsuo Bash (16441694) as an outstanding exponent of premodern Japanese poetry. Most modern Japanese readers know Hitomaro from his poems in the eighth-century anthology Manysh (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, c. 759), and many were introduced to his poems as part of their high school education. However, those living near one of the shrines dedicated to Hitomaro will also know him as a benevolent deity whose favor may be requested for such things as safety in childbirth, safety while traveling, and success in academic endeavors. Meanwhile, the amount of scholarly writing produced annually in Japan on Hitomaros poetry is enormous, and there is also an enduring interest in his life and legend today, as reected in the numerous popular publications available on the subject. Rather than a detailed discussion of Hitomaros works, the present study is concerned with what may be better described as his afterlife, the centuries-long process of his reception and canonization as a court poet and as an enshrined deity worshipped for non-poetic purposes. This is a process which begins with Hitomaros treatment in the Manysh and continues today. However, this study is primarily concerned with the rst thousand years of Hitomaros reception, leading up to a major milestone in his canonization, namely his imperially-sponsored recognition as a deity in 1723, when he received the title Great Bright Deity Kakinomoto (Kakinomoto daimyjin) and a posthumously-awarded court rank. In seeking to illuminate the history of Hitomaros reception, this study examines his role as a symbol of the Japanese court-poetic (waka) tradition, whose canonization is carried out under existing cultural paradigms but then becomes itself a model for the treatment of poets. The process of Hitomaros canonization is considered within both literary and religious contexts, with attention given to the uses he served as a poetic icon and legitimizing symbol of poetrys antiquity and authority, as well as poetrys relationship to larger developments in religious thought. These two forms of canonizationliterary and
introduction
religiousare intimately linked, their integration reected in the development of modes of thought in which poets could become deities and poetry itself came to be regarded as sacred, as the equivalent of Buddhist incantations (dhran ). If the story of Hitomaros canonization is that of the increasing religious dimension of poetic discourse in medieval Japan, it is also the story of the transmission and authorization of court-poetic orthodoxy. Hitomaros elevation in the early part of the Heian period (7941185) to a quasi-supernatural sage of poetry and then to divine status as an ancestral deity of Japanese poetry had from the outset a political element; his potency as a symbolic embodiment of the court-poetic tradition led to his appropriation as a legitimizing gure by parties eager to reinforce their own poetic and political authority. Later, in the medieval (11851600) and early modern (16001868) periods, his presence in the poetic commentaries as a deity of Japanese poetry emphasized the divine nature of poetry in general, and gave further authority in particular to the jealously-guarded secrets enclosed in the teachings passed down by competing poetic houses. This study analyzes the central role played by the court-poetic canon in Hitomaros reception, as his canonization as the gurehead of Japanese poetry was not only contingent on his valorization in highly-regarded texts such as the Kokinwakash (Collection of Old and New Japanese Poems, c. 905), but was, paradoxically, accompanied by relatively little interest in his actual poems preserved in the Manysh. A recurring feature of literary canonization in Japan is the construction of a genealogy or line of descent.1 Hitomaro evolved from a great poet of the past (as presented in the in the Manysh and Kokinsh) to an ancestral poetic deity, and nally the tutelary deity of the Way of Japanese poetry as a whole. That evolution is directly connected to the development of schools or houses of Japanese poetry, for whom the question of originsand thus authenticity, authority, and prestigewas of central importance. Members of the poetic houses were concerned in this-worldly terms with their descentby bloodline or scholarshipfrom great originating gures such as Fujiwara no Shunzei (11141204) and Fujiwara no Teika (11621241). The derivative titles
1 Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki, eds., Inventing the Classics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 3.
introduction
of the imperially commissioned anthologies compiled in the medieval periodthe Shinkokinsh (New Collection of Old and New Japanese Poetry, 1205) and Shinshokukokinsh (New Continued Collection of Old and New Japanese Poetry, 1439), for examplereect the drive of these poets to construct a genealogy of texts as well, texts that trace their line of descent back to the Kokinsh and thus take on some of its symbolic authority. The poets of the medieval schools also sought other-worldly parallels in the origins of their own texts about poetry, particularly the Kokinsh, which include a genealogy of poetic divinities. These divinities, and Hitomaro is among them, are described as the originators of particular poetic or commentarial works, whose subsequent route of transmission is carefully documented. For the medieval schools, these genealogies were of great importance as instruments of legitimization for their own poetic practice. In this sense the process of Hitomaros canonization can be seen as analogous to that of the texts with which he is most closely associated, the Manysh and Kokinsh, all three being imbued with great symbolic value in the context of court-poetic discourse. In broader terms, his canonization can be situated within the context of the canonization of the genre of Japanese court poetry as a whole, reecting its appropriation of modes of thought and practice from other cultural spheres, such as Chinese studies or Buddhism. Hitomaros canonization does not only take place in texts, however: it was also effected through portraiture, ceremonies, and, later, the dedication of shrines. By examining the process of Hitomaros reception across a range of periods, genres, and contexts, this study illuminates the ways that Hitomaro the historical gure is appropriated to become a symbol to which a variety of meanings are appended; he is re-imagined and (re)constructed to meet the needs of a given time, place, and discourse. It is a process that involves different modes of canon-formation and their complex and dynamic interaction, and reveals the mechanisms at work in the canonization and transmission of the court-poetic tradition. The central position of Hitomaro in pre-modern Japanese court-poetic discourse means that the issues raised by his personal canonization are germane to the larger process of the reception of Japanese poetry, the most highly valued pre-modern literary genre.
introduction Background
Virtually nothing is known of Hitomaros life, other than that he appears to have served at court in some capacity and to have composed poetry for ofcial events such as imperial excursions and state funerals in the last decade of the seventh century. He is at best a shadowy gure, with neither the detailed historical biography nor the forceful personality evident in the case of Tenman Tenjin (Sugawara no Michizane, 845903), perhaps the most prominent example of a person (and poet) who later became a deity. The paucity of factual information on Hitomaros life has contributed to the extraordinary malleability of his image, which was formed and reformed according to the time, place, and context in which it appeared. Hitomaro is known to historyas opposed to literatureonly through the poems attributed to or connected with him in the Manysh, along with their editorial notes. The Manysh is in fact the only text dating from around Hitomaros supposed lifetime in which his name appears. His complete absence from the historical record, despite the prominence of his poems in the Manysh, is generally attributed to his low court rank.2 There is slightly more material available which mentions the Kakinomoto clan itself, beginning with the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712), where in the section on the legendary Emperor Ksh (475393 B.C.E.) there is a reference to Ameoshitarashihiko-no-mikoto, the ancestor of the Kasuga no omi.3 And according to the Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720) Ametarashihikokunioshihito-no-mikoto was the ancestor of the Wani no omi, and others.4 From these two items, the Kakinomoto seem to have been a sub-clan of the Wani, a powerful clan based in the southern part of Snokami district, Yamato Province (present-day Ichinomoto-ch, Tenri City, Nara Prefecture). The Kasuga, the rst clan mentioned in the Kojiki entry, were based near the Wani, and from references to Kasuga Wani no omi in the record of the rst year of the Yryaku emperors reign in the Kojiki, it is thought that the clans eventually merged and became known as the Kasuga no omi. A number of these Wani subclans, including the Kakinomoto, received the kabane or clan title of
Sakurai Mitsuru, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron (fsha, 1980), 24. Yamaguchi Yoshinori and Knoshi Takamitsu, eds., Kojiki, Shinpen nihon koten bungaku zensh 1, Shgakukan, 1997, 169. 4 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 27.
2 3
introduction
Asomi (replacing their earlier title of Omi) in the Eleventh Month of Temmu 13 (685).5 The connection with the Kasuga clan is also mentioned in the account of the origins of the name Kakinomoto which appears in the genealogical record Shinsen seishiroku (Newly Selected Record of Names, 815):
The Kakinomoto no Ason have the same ancestor as the kasuga no Ason and are descendants of Ametarashihiko kunioshihito no mikoto. In the reign of Emperor Bidatsu there was a persimmon tree at the gate to their house, on account of which they came to be [called] the Kakinomoto no Omi clan.6
The Shinsen seishiroku sets the origins of the name in the sixth century, during the reign of Bidatsu (r. 572585); a similar etymology for the name Kakinomoto appears repeatedly in later accounts of Hitomaros origins, in which he is said to have appeared at the foot of a persimmon tree (kaki no moto). However, although the Shinsen seishiroku dates from the ninth century, the absence of kaki (persimmon) as a plant name in early texts such as the Kojiki, Nihon shoki, Fudoki, and Manysh makes it difcult to see how it could have been involved in such an early account, and has led to suggestions that the Shinsen seishiroku etymology was also a later legend.7 As noted earlier, there is no mention of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro in historical records; a member of the Kakinomoto clan who does appear, however, is Kakinomoto no Ason Saru, who is one of ten people mentioned in the Nihon shoki on their receipt of the rank of Lesser Brocade, Lower Grade (shkinge, equivalent to the Fifth Rank under the ritsury system) in the Twelfth Month of the tenth year of Temmus reign (682). According to the Shoku nihongi (Continued Chronicles of Japan, 797), Saru died on the twentieth day of the Fourth Month of Wad 1 (708),8 and held the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, at the time.
5 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 27. Asomi was the second-highest of the eight titles ( yakusa no kabane) introduced by Emperor Temmu in 684, which were assigned to clans based on the proximity of their ancestors to the imperial line. 6 Quoted in Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 27, and in Aso Mizue, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, rev. ed., (fsha, 1998), 173. 7 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 2728. 8 For the Shoku nihongi entry on Sarus death, see Aoki Kazuo et al. ed., Shoku nihongi (1), Shin nihon koten bungaku taikei 12 (Iwanami, 1989), 1389. Sarus death in this entry is described by the character sotsu, which indicated the death of a holder of the Fourth or Fifth Rank under the ritsury system.
introduction
Various theories have been posited regarding the relationship between Kakinomoto no Saru and Hitomaro (father-and-son, brothers, same person), but no corroborating evidence exists for any of them. There are three main theories regarding Hitomaros life and role at court: Hitomaro as an ofcial (toneri ), as a court poet (kytei shijin), and as a wandering entertainer ( juny shijin).9 The theory of Hitomaro as a toneri goes back to Kamo no Mabuchi (16971769), who based it on a passage in the Nihon shoki and suggested in his Many k (Thoughts on the Manysh, 1768) that Hitomaro had served Princes Hinamishi and Takechi,10 for both of whom he composed banka or elegies. Theories positing Hitomaro as a court poet suggest that he was an ofcial (in other words, a professional) poet called upon to compose the poems that were an indispensable part of many court events. This approach, which accounts for the large proportion of Hitomaros works which were composed at ofcial events such as imperial processions or imperial funerals, was strongly opposed by the twentieth-century poet Sait Mokichi, who deplored the depiction of Hitomaro as merely a poetic craftsman.11 The third theory regarding Hitomaros role at court is that which casts him as a traveling entertainer. It has been suggested that Hitomaro was not in fact the name of an individual, but rather a semi-proper name which could be used in reference to any member of a clan of wandering entertainers.12 Hito and maro were both typical elements of male names, both meaning man,13 and both serving to signify that the word in question was a male given name. In this light, Hitomaro as a name seems strangely generic: literally meaning man-man, it could possibly be translated as Everyman. It has also been suggested that the hito element in names such as Hitomaro, Akahito or Kurohito derives from terms for groups like jinnin, representatives of the deities, or reijin, entertainers who served at shrines, performing music, poetry and dance.14
9 Yoshimura Teiji, Hitomaro ron no kansei, in Gomi Tomohide ed. Jdaihen. Kza nihon bungaku no sten 1. Meiji shoin, 1969, 201. 10 Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 988. 11 Yoshimura, 208. 12 Nishimura Tru, Uta to minzokugaku, Minzoku, mingei no ssho 6, Iwasaki bijutsusha, 1966, 30: he is referring to Origuchi Shinobu, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, (Origuchi Shinobu zensh, vol. 9). 13 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 29. 14 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 2930.
introduction
Given the basic lack of material on Hitomaros life, however, there is nothing to say that any of these theories apply; it may be better to consider that aspects of all of them are possible, that Hitomaro could have served the court as a toneri or in a similar ofcial capacity and composed poems or otherwise functioned as a court entertainer when the occasion demanded.15 Needless to say, after his valorization in the Kokinsh Kana Preface as a sage of poetry, Hitomaro was canonized in court-poetic discourse as a court poet, and as one in particularly close attendance on his sovereign. This idealized view of his position stems from the fact that his canonizers were themselves court poets, seeking to enshrine him as one of their own. Apart from the basic premise supportable by the headnotes to his poems in Manysh, namely that Hitomaro served at court in some capacity that included to some degree the composition of poems at public events, the lack of information about his life allowed later readers and writers much freedom in constructing a biography appropriate to a poetic god.
15
Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 23.
CHAPTER ONE
HITOMARO AND THE MANYSH: THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND The long process of Hitomaros reception and canonization begins in the text in which his most reliably attributed poetry is preserved, the eighth-century anthology Manysh. Disparate images of Hitomaro are presented in the Manysh: Hitomaro the court poet; Hitomaro the traveler, dying alone in the wilderness in the distant western province of Iwami; and Hitomaro the great poetic gure of the past. This last version of Hitomaro, found in tomo no Yakamochis (717?785) letter to his cousin Ikenushi (the preface to Manysh XVII:3969), foreshadows his treatment as a poetic ancestor in the late Heian period. This chapter focuses mainly on the initial stages of Hitomaros legend, as represented by the two sequences of poems by or about him which are set in the province of Iwami (modern Shimane Prefecture), namely the so-called Iwami smonka (Iwami love poems, Manysh II:131140) and the Iwami banka (Iwami elegies, Manysh II:223227). The account of Hitomaros death given in the Iwami banka can be situated within the poetic sub-genre known as kroshinin no uta, poems recited on the discovery of a dead traveler by the wayside. The conventionalized literary account of Hitomaros death given in the Iwami banka sequence reects not only the inuence of the kroshinin no uta genre but also the fact that even by the time of the compilation of the rst two volumes of the Manysh (thought to be the oldest in the anthology), Hitomaro had already attracted sufcient interest for such a legendary treatment of his death to be preserved. The Manysh is the earliest anthology of Japanese poetry, and consists of 4516 (or by some counts 4540) poems arranged in twenty volumes. Its latest datable poem is from 759, but its editing process seems to have stretched over many years, with some volumes regarded as considerably later compilations than others. The rst and second volumes are thought to be the oldest, possibly compiled as an anthology in their own right in the early Nara period (early eighth century);1
1 Shinada Yoshikazu, Manysh no kankan, in Manysh jiten, ed. Inaoka Kji (Gakutsha, 1993), 396.
10
chapter one
they are regarded as the core of the Manysh, and at their heart are poems by and associated with Hitomaro.2 The Manysh includes 88 poems attributed directly to Hitomaro, 19 chka (long poems) and 69 tanka (short poems). There are also approximately 370 poems, almost all tanka, whose source is given as the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro no kash (Poetry Collection of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro), a text in whose composition or compilation Hitomaro appears to have played some role. The total of attributed poems regarded as Hitomaros compositions and Hitomaro kash poems comes to approximately a tenth of the entire Manysh, a contribution exceeded among the named poets only by the 479 poems of tomo no Yakamochi, who is regarded as one of the compilers of the text and whose poems dominate the last four volumes. The poems attributed to Hitomaro are concentrated in the rst three volumes, while the poems from the Hitomaro kash appear in the greatest numbers in volumes VII, IX, X and XII.3 As will be discussed in more detail below, the prominent placement of Hitomaro kash poems in these volumes further suggests the high regard in which he was held by the anthologys compilers.4 There is relatively little overlap between the volumes in which Hitomaros attributed poems are concentrated and those in which poems from the Hitomaro kash appear en masse.5 A signicant proportion of the poems directly attributed to Hitomaro are court-related, composed on ofcial occasions such as imperial excursions to the detached palace at Yoshino6 or as elegies for members of the imperial family.7 The earliest of Hitomaros poems for which the date is known is his banka on the occasion of the temporary enshrinement of Hinamishi no mikoto, who died on the thirteenth day of the Fourth Month of 689 (Manysh II:1679), and the latest is that on the temporary enshrinement of Asuka no himemiko, who died on the fourth day of the Fourth Month of 700 (Manysh II:1968). It may thus be surmised that Hitomaros period of activity at court was centered around the last decade of the seventh century, during the
Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 151. Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 1623. 4 Watase Masatada, Maki nana Hitomaro kash no tanka, in Manysh o manabu, ed. It Haku and Inaoka Kji, vol. 2 (Yhikaku, 1977), 4. 5 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 24. 6 Manysh I:3637, 3839. 7 Manysh II:167169, 194195, 196198, 199201.
2 3
hitomaro and the MANYSH
11
reigns of Empress Jit (645702, r. 690697) and Emperor Mommu (683707, r. 697707). There is a poem on Tanabata drawn from the Hitomaro kash (Manysh X:2033) which is thought to date from the reign of Temmu (r. 673686),8 suggestingif it is accepted as Hitomaros compositionthat he was active as a poet considerably earlier. From the poems directly attributed to Hitomaro, however, his activity does appear to have been concentrated in the period 689700.9 In addition to such obviously public pieces as imperial banka, the poems directly attributed to Hitomaro also include some works composed on topics unrelated to the court and the imperial family, poems with what appears to be more personal content, such as the Iwami poems and also the poems mourning the death of his wife (II:207209, 210212). However, as will be seen below, the issue of public and private subject matter in Hitomaros poetry is an extremely problematic one; indeed, the placementor misplacementof the dividing line between the public and the private plays a key role in the formation of later legends concerning Hitomaros life. The three basic categories according to which the poems of the Manysh are arranged are smonka, banka, and zka, or miscellaneous poems. These categories are derived from the Wen xuan ( J. Monzen), the vast sixth-century Chinese classied anthology which was widely read in Japanese literary circles in the Nara and Heian periods. The rst two volumes of the Manysh complement each other in terms of their categories: Volume I consists of zka, and Volume II has a section of smonka followed by one of banka. These two volumes thus include between them all three of the major Manysh categories, and within each category the poems are arranged in chronological order, covering the courts at mi (667672), Asuka-no-Kiyomihara (672694) and Fujiwara (694710).10
8 A note following X:2033 describes it as being composed in the elder-brother-ofmetal dragon year (kanoe tatsu no toshi ); this could indicate either Temmu 9 (680) or Tempy 12 (740), but is generally thought to refer to the earlier date. 9 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 2425. Sakurai also notes that although Jit died in 702, her banka is not preserved, in the Manysh or elsewhere. 10 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 1819.
12
chapter one The Iwami Poems
The Hitomaro poems concerned with Iwami are positioned as the nal, climactic poems of the smonka and banka sections of Volume II of the Manysh,11 and this is thought to indicate the high regard in which the compilers held Hitomaro.12 The arrangement of the Iwami poems within the groups, and the headnotes which accompany them, however, also reect clear editorial intent to construct a narrative on Hitomaros life and death. These texts are the only materials linking Hitomaro to Iwami,13 yet their inuence on later versions of his biography was remarkably persistent, and the Iwami narrative is one of the more prominent forms in which Manysh-based images of Hitomaro manifested themselves in his reception in later periods both within and outside court-poetic discourse. The Iwami smonka are the nal poems of the smonka section which makes up the rst half of Volume II. The sequence consists of two chka-hanka (long poem-envoy poem) sets (II:131134, 135137) and a variant of the rst set (II:138139), attributed to Hitomaro, followed by a single tanka attributed to Hitomaros wife, Yosami no otome (II:140), which is presented as a response to the preceding poems.
By Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, when parting from his wife in the province of Iwami to come up to the capital, two poems with tanka14 Manysh II:131 Iwami no umi tsuno no urami o ura nashi to hito koso mirame kata nashi to hito koso mirame yoshieyashi ura wa naku to mo The Bay of Tsuno on the Sea of Iwami: people see no good harbor there, people see no good sandbar there. But even if there is no harbor, even if there is no sandbar,
11 The seven poems following the Iwami banka at the very end of Volume II, under the heading The Nara palace, Nara no miya (II:228234), are generally regarded as later additions to the text (a similarly-appended poem appears at the end of Volume I) (Shinada, 396). 12 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 22. 13 Yagi Satoko, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro no shi ni kansuru utagatari, Sensh kokubun 14 (9/1973): 57. 14 The poem texts followed are those in Inaoka Kji ed., Manysh zench, v. 2. (Yhikaku, 1985), 127183.

yoshieyashi kata wa naku to mo isana tori umibe o sashite watazu no ariso no ue ni ka aonaru tamamo okitsumo asa ha furu kaze koso yorame y ha furu nami koso kiyore tamamo nasu yorineshi imo o tsuyu shimo no okiteshi kureba kono michi no yasoguma goto ni yorozu tabi kaerimi suredo iya t ni sato wa sakarinu iya taka ni yama mo koe kinu natsugusa no omoi shinaete shinouramu imo ga kado mimu nabike kono yama Manysh II:132 Iwami no ya takatsuno yama no ko no ma yori waga furu sode o imo mitsuramu ka Manysh II:133 Sasa no ha wa miyama mo saya ni midaru to mo ware wa imo omou wakare kinureba A certain text has this hanka Bamboo-grass leaves rustle in disarray on the mountain; how I long for the girl I have left behind. Did my girl see the sleeves I waved from between the trees on Takatsuno mountain in Iwami? approaching the shore where whales are hunted, by the wild strand of Watazu is the greenly-growing jewel-weed of the ofng. The wind draws nigh, like wingbeats at morning; the waves come near, like wingbeats at evening. like jewel-weed which draws in, which draws near with the waves was my girl, lying next to me. Leaving her behind like frosted dew, Ive come; at each of this roads countless corners, a myriad times Ive looked back, and yet further and further that village so distant, taller and taller these mountains Ive crossed; my thoughts miserable, like withered summer grass, longing to see the gate of my girl who surely thinks of me. O mountains, lie down!
13
14
Manysh II:134 Iwami naru takatsuno yama no ko no ma yu mo waga sode furu o imo mikemu ka mo Manysh II:135 Tsunosau iwami no umi no kotosaeku kara no saki naru ikuri ni so fukamiru ouru ariso ni so tamamo wa ouru tamamo nasu nabiki neshi ko o fukamiru no fukamete omoedo sa neshi yo wa ikudamo arazu hau tsuta no wakare shi kureba kimo mukau kokoro o itami omoitsutsu kaerimi suredo bune no watari no yama no momijiba no chiri no magai ni imo ga sode saya ni mo miezu tsumagomoru yakami no yama no kumoma yori
chapter one
Did she see, I wonder, the waving of my sleeves from between those trees on Takatsuno mountain in Iwami?
On the Sea of Iwami of sprout-stopping rocks,15 at the Cape of Kara of unintelligible tongues,16 out on the reef deep-sea miru-weed grows; on the wild shore, the jewel-weed grows. my girl, who swayed in sleep against me, like swaying jewel-weed, I deeply loved, like deep-sea miru-weed. But nights we lay thus have not been so many; like vines unentwined I have left her and come. This pain in my heart, lodged in my innards; while longing for her, I turn and look back, but amidst all the urry of yellow leaves falling on Watari mountain, crossed like a great ship I cannot see clearly the sleeves of my girl. As the moon is hidden Crossing cloud-gaps over spouse-concealing
15 Tsunosawau, a makurakotoba which is here attached to Iwami. Its meaning is unclear, but it has been suggested that it refers to the obstruction of growing sprouts (Inaoka, Zench, 156). 16 Kotosaeku, a makurakotoba meaning foreign words which cannot be understood, which attaches in general to Kara (referring to China or the Korean peninsula), and here to the place name Kara no saki (Inaoka, Zench, 156157).

watarau tsuki no oshikedomo kakurai kureba ama tsutau irihi sashinure masurao to omoeru ware mo shikitae no koromo no sode wa trite nurenu Manysh II:136 Aokoma ga ashigaki o hayami kumoi ni so imo ga atari o sugite ki ni keru Manysh II:137 Akiyama ni otsuru momijiba shimashiku wa na chiri magai so imo ga atari mimu Cease your scattering just for a while, yellow leaves falling in the autumn hills, that I may see my girls house. My grey horse is eet of foot, and I have come away from the place of my girl, distant as the clouds. Yakami mountain, regretful the while I lost sight of her and came; so as the evening sun has crossed the heavens, even I, who prided myself on being a strong man have soaked through the sleeves of my hempen robe.
15
One poem with tanka, from a variant text Manysh II:138 Iwami no umi tsu no ura o nami ura nashi to hito koso mirame kata nashi to hito koso mirame yoshieyashi ura wa naku to mo yoshieyashi kata wa naku to mo isana tori umibe o sashite nikitatsu no ariso no ue ni ka aonaru tamamo okitsumo akekureba On the Sea of Iwami there are no bays or harbors; people see no good harbor there, people see no good sandbar there. But even if there is no harbor, even if there is no sandbar, approaching the shore where whales are hunted, by the wild strand of Nikitatsu is the greenly-growing jewel-weed of the ofng. The waves draw near when daylight comes, the wind draws near
16
nami koso kiyore y sareba kaze koso kiyore nami no muta ka yori kaku yoru tamamo nasu nabiki waga neshi shikitae no imo ga tamoto o tsuyu shimo no okiteshi kureba kono michi no yasoguma goto ni yorozu tabi kaerimi suredo sato sakari kinu iya taka ni hashikiyashi waga tsuma no ko ga natsugusa no omoi shinaete nagekuramu tsuno no sato mimu nabike kono yama Manysh II:139 Iwami no umi utsuta no yama no ko no ma yori waga furu sode o imo mitsuramu ka
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when evening falls. like jewel-weed which draws in, which draws near with the waves, swaying in sleep, the outstretched arms of my girl; leaving them behind like frosted dew, Ive come; at each of this roads countless corners, a myriad times Ive looked back, and yet further and further that village Ive left, taller and taller these mountains Ive crossed. My girl of a wife, so longed-for when parted, her thoughts miserable, like withered summer grass, must surely be grieving; I long to see Tsuno village O mountains, lie down!
Did my girl see the sleeves I waved from between the trees on Utsuta mountain by the sea of Iwami?
By the wife of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, Yosami no otome, when she was parted from Hitomaro, one poem Manysh II:140 Na omoi to kimi wa iedomo auwamu toki itsu to shirite ka waga koizaramu Dont pine for me, you said, and yet since I know not when we next may meet, I cant but long for you.
These textsboth the poems and their headnotes, the latter added by the now-unknown compilers of this volume of the Manyshplace Hitomaro in Iwami, describe him as having a wife there, and describe his regret on leaving her to return to the capital. Both II:131 and
17
II:135 begin with extended prefatory sections or jo, in which the vibrant natural scenery of the Iwami coast is described. The metaphorical jo of the rst chka describes both its rich animal and plant life and its inaccessibility; that of the second concentrates on the seaweed on the reef and the shore. In both cases, the jo ends with seaweed imagery, and modies the speakers wife, yorineshi imo, my girl lying next to me (II:131); nabiki neshi ko, my girl who swayed in sleep against me (II:135). This comparison of swaying seaweed to the speakers wife is also seen in the banka II:207, When lamenting, weeping tears of blood, after the death of his wife, which includes the lines okitsumo no / nabikishi imo, my girl who swayed/like weed in the open sea. The latter part of both chka involves the speakers journey away from his wife, his increasing distance from her evoked by descriptions of the countless corners of the road, kono michi no yaso kuma (II:131), and by descriptions of the wife as unseen behind the falling leaves and Yakami mountain. The rst chka ends with the speakers anguished appeal to the mountains to bow down, out of his line of sight: nabike kono yama, O mountains, lie down! (II:131), and the second with a description of the speakers overwhelming emotion: although he thought himself a strong man (masurao), the sleeves of his robes are soaked through [with tears], koromo no sode wa / toorite nurenu. As mentioned above, the position of the Iwami smonka at the end of the smonka section of volume II is paralleled by that of the Iwami banka at the end of the banka section of the same volume. The Iwami banka sequence consists of ve thirty-one-syllable tanka:
By Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, bemoaning his fate as he lay dying in the land of Iwami, one poem17 Manysh II:223 Kamoyama no iwane shi makeru ware o kamo shirani to imo ga machitsutsu aruramu Not knowing that I lie pillowed on Kamoyamas boulders, my girl must be awaiting me.
When Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro died, by his wife Yosami no otome, two poems
17
The poem texts followed are those in Inaoka, Zench, 445463.
18
Manysh II:224 Ky ky to waga matsu kimi wa ishikawa no kai ni majirite ari to iwazuyamo Manysh II:225 Tada no ai wa aikatsumashiji ishikawa ni kumo tachiwatare mitsutsu shinowamu
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You for whom I wait today and again today, do they not say you lie among the shells of Stone River?
It seems that we can never again meet face to face rise up, o clouds, and cover Stone River, that I may see and remember.
By Tajihi no Mahito (personal name missing), assuming the feelings of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, one poem in response Manysh II:226 Aranami ni yorikuru tama o makura ni oki ware koko ni ari to dareka tsugekemu A certain text has this poem Manysh II:227 Amazakaru hina no arano ni kimi o okite omoitsutsu areba ikeru to mo nashi Leaving you behind in these wild and lonely elds far from anywhere thinking upon it, I feel no longer alive. Who would have told that I am here, taking as my pillow the shells and stones borne in by raging waves?
The author of the above poem is unknown. However, this poem follows the preceding one in an old text.
The rst poem in the sequence is presented as Hitomaros death poem ( jiseika), and seems to describe a sudden death in the mountains of Iwami, far from home. This is followed by two poems by Hitomaros wife, named in the headnote as Yosami no otome, and then comes a poem in response to hers, attributed to an unnamed member of the Tajihi clan. This poem is from Hitomaros point of view, and reprises the image of the speaker lying in the wilderness, although here the scene is the coast rather than the mountains. The use of coastal or marine imagery in some of the poems and mountain imagery in others is the
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major textual problem of this sequence and will be discussed in more detail below. Finally comes a poem from an unspecied old text (kohon), which has been taken as being from the point of view of Hitomaros wife.18 The sequence is thus presented as a dialogue between the dying man and his wife waiting at home, and is understood as being in the voices of Hitomaro and Yosami no otome even though other authors, Tajihi no Mahito and the anonymous author of II:227, are credited with the compositions of the poems themselves. In addition, the note following II:227, if it is to be believed, suggests that the sequence, in whole or in part, was extant in another text before being incorporated into the Manysh. Historically, the literal interpretation of these texts has dominated, and the later legends associating Hitomaro with Iwami are based on readings of the texts as referring to real events, as being transparently representative of Hitomaros life. However, it must be stressed that in the later construction of Hitomaros legend from these texts, the role of the unidentied compiler and/or author of the headnotes of this volume of the Manysh is as important as that of the poet himself. The crucial settings for the poems are provided in the headnotes (in the case of Hitomaros death poem, II:223, the headnote provides the sole link with Iwami); it is possible to grasp the plot of the narrative unfolding in these texts through reading the headnotes alone. These layers of editorial mediationthe arrangement and annotation of the Iwami poems within the Manyshclearly demonstrate that the mythologizing process based on a literal interpretation of their content was well under way by the time Volume II was compiled. The editorial treatment of these poems has ensured that the reception and assimilation into legend of the smonka has been very closely linked to that of the banka, due to their common setting in Iwami and their common cast of characters, Hitomaro and Yosami no otome, identied as his wife.19 The inuence of the Iwami poems is seen in a number of later Hitomaro-related texts. These include the earliest account of Hitomaros life and career, that found in the excerpt from the Iwami no kuni fudoki (Record of the Province of Iwami) included in Yas (1291?) commentary Shirin saiy sh (Notes on Leaves Taken From the Forest of
It Haku, Hitomaro shenka, Manysh no kajin to sakuhin, Kodai wakashi kenky 3. Hanawa shob, 1975, 328. 19 It Haku, Hitomaro no shgai: sono shi ni tsuite, Kokubungaku kaishaku to kansh 38:12 (9/1973): 9.
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Words, 1366), which records Hitomaro as being appointed Governor of Iwami in 675.20 Hitomaros death in Iwami is mentioned in texts such as the origin account (engi ) of the Hachiman Hitomaro shrine in Yuya-ch, Nagato Province, included in the Bch fudo chshinan (Report on the Record of the Provinces of Su and Nagato, n.d.),21 and in the biography of Hitomaro presented to the Kakinomoto shrine at Takatsu in 1652 by Kamei Koremasa.22 However, it does not appear in the Heian-period Sanjrokunin kasenden (Biographies of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, c. 1094).23 A further development of the Iwami legend is seen in texts where Iwami is identied not only as the site of Hitomaros death, but also as his birthplace. This may be seen in a number of medieval commentaries within the court-poetic tradition, some of which describe not merely his birth, but reect Hitomaros divinized status through their depictions of his miraculous appearance in Iwami; he is not simply born in Iwami but rather appears suddenly as a splendid youth aged about twenty at the foot of a persimmon tree. (The medieval accounts of Hitomaros origins will be discussed in detail in Chapter Four.) In a similar vein, the standard early-modern and modern biographical interpretation which came to be applied to the Iwami poems was that Hitomaro was posted to Iwami as a provincial ofcial late in life;24 he subsequently returned to the capital, and at some point, either on that journey or a later one to or from Iwami, died suddenly while traveling. This theory rst appears in Kamo no Mabuchis Many k (Thoughts on the Manysh) (in the bekki or appendix, 1768), in which he postulates a posting to Iwami very late in life for Hitomaro, who was then summoned to the capital for a meeting of ofcials25 on the rst day of
Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 170. Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 180181. 22 Kakinomoto no Hitomaro denki. Shint taikei: jinja hen 36: Izumo, Iwami, Oki no kuni, ed. Shint taikei hensankai, 501503. Shint taikei hensankai, 1983. 23 Gunsho ruij v. 283, ed. Zoku gunsho ruij kanseikai, 372383. Zoku gunsho ruij kanseikai, 1930. 24 Inaoka Kji describes this as an accepted theory (tssetsu) relating to Hitomaros biography (Inaoka Kji, Hitomaro no Iwami ni okeru shi wa densh ka, Kokubungaku 25:14 (11/1980): 107). 25 Chshshi, messengers dispatched by provincial ofcials under the ritsury system to present the annual report on the government of the province to the central administration.
20 21
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the Eleventh Month, the beginning of which journey is described in the Iwami smonka.26 Irrespective of their views of Hitomaro as mortal or divine, the later texts which include legends placing him in Iwami reect an acceptance of the Iwami poems and headnotes at face value, as being representative of actual events. Belief in the biographical accuracy of accounts linking Hitomaro and Iwami has led to much commentarial attention being directed toward resolving the perceived inconsistencies in the Iwami narrative as it is presented in the Manysh. Some of the more prominent debates are those concerning the identity of the Iwami wife, the identity of Tajihi no Mahito, and the exact location of the places mentioned in the poems, particularly the Kamoyama and Ishikawa mentioned in the banka.27 Most theories place Kamoyama and Ishikawa in Shimane Prefecture, the former Iwami Province; currently, the most widely supported theory seems to be that put forward by Sait Mokichi, who suggested in his Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (1940) that they correspond to the upper reaches of the Gnokawa, Yukakae, chi-ch, chi-gun, Shimane Prefecture.28 Other commentators, however, have opted for sites nearer the capital, with Kamoyama identied as a peak in the Kazuraki range in Yamato Province (modern Nara Prefecture) and Ishikawa identied as a river in Kchi Province (modern saka Prefecture).29 This latter interpretation is based on the identication of Hitomaros wife based on the appellation given her in the Manysh, Yosami no otome. This is not a specic name, but, like other references in the Manysh to individuals identied as [clan/area name] no otome,30 may indicate merely that the person so designated was
Inaoka Kji, Iwami smonka to Hitomaro den: sakuhinron ni yoru denki no saikent, Many 103 (3/1980): 5. 27 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 216. 28 Mokichi erected a poem-stone on the spot he believed to be the site of Hitomaros death: Hitomaro ga / tsui no inochi o / owaritaru / Kamoyama o shi mo / koko to sadamemu, I wish to conrm/that this is Kamoyama/where Hitomaro/met his nal end (Nakanishi Susumu, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Nihon shijin sen 2, Chikuma shob, 1970, 210). 29 The latter theories placing Kamoyama and Ishikawa in or near Yamato are described in Tsuchiya Bunmei, Manysh shich, and Kanda Hideo, Hitomaro kash to Hitomaro den (Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 216). 30 Such as, for example, Izumo no otome (III:329), Tamba me no otome (IV:711 13), Hitachi no otome (IV:521) or Hijikata no otome (III:428).
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a woman of the clan specied, in this case, the Yosami, whose home territory lay in Kchi.31 The identity of the Yosami no otome presented as Hitomaros wife in the headnotes to II:140 and II:224225 is thus seen by some as a key to determining the location of the events which the texts describe. A further point of debate concerning the identity of Yosami no otome, however, is the question of whether she is the same person as the Iwami wife (tsuma) referred to in the headnote to the Iwami smonka (II:131139). Despite the fact that the Iwami wife is not specically identied as Yosami no otome, it seems clear from the arrangement of poem II:140 in the Manysh that the compilers did assume that Yosami no otome and the Iwami wife were the same individual,32 thus casting these poems as an exchange between the traveling poet and the wife left behind. Fictionality in the Iwami smonka As noted above, the traditional reception of the Iwami smonka and Iwami banka held them to be representative of events in Hitomaros life, and these interpretations reected and amplied legends linking Hitomaro and Iwami. There are, however, aspects of both sets of the Iwami poems that resist the transparent readings of these texts which enabled them to become the stuff of Hitomaros legend. One argument that has been advanced to refute the interpretation of the Iwami smonka as referring to events late in Hitomaros life is based on textual analysis of the poems: Inaoka Kji notes an increasingly complex use of parallelism and makurakotoba in Hitomaros poetry in the later poems (those dating from after 691), and speculates that having made this transition, Hitomaro would be unlikely to return to an earlier style of composition.33 He thus regards the Iwami smonka as works from earlier rather than later in Hitomaros life. Another aspect of Hitomaros biography that may be reconstructed from the Iwami smonka is that concerning his role at court, as extrapo-
31 Proponents of this theory have found further supporting evidence in the fact that the Tajihi clan, an unidentied member of which is credited with the composition of II:226, was based near the Yosami, in the kinai region (Inaoka, Densh, 106). 32 Inaoka, Zench, 182. 33 Inaoka, Iwami smonka to Hitomaro den, 12.
23
lated from the possible circumstances of the poems composition. Both the Iwami smonka and Iwami banka include variant texts, identied by such terms as a certain text (aru hon) or an old text (kohon), textual features which have formed the basis of subsequent theories on the circumstances of composition for both sequences. The main and variant texts of the Iwami smonka sequence can be summarized as follows:
First chka-hanka set Variant of II:132 Second chka-hanka set Variant of II:1312 Yosami no otome poem II:131133 II:134 II:1357 II:1389 II:140
The two main approaches taken to the problem of the textual variants within the Iwami smonka sequence are those according to which they are understood either as variants arising from multiple lines of transmission of the texts, or as drafts, earlier versions of the poems by the poet himself, included in the Manysh along with the later, revised versions. The positing of these variants as drafts, however, necessitates consideration of the circumstances under which the poems may have been composed. It Haku has advanced the theory that Hitomaro was a poet-performer at court, composing not only ofcial, public poetry such as elegies for members of the imperial family or commemorations of the sovereigns excursions, but also poetry on apparently personal topics for performance as entertainment for others at court.34 It has suggested that the Iwami smonka (and possibly the Iwami banka) were composed under such circumstances.35 He characterizes the major differences between the main text (II:1313) and the variant (II:1389) as being too localized and specic to have arisen through independent lines of transmission of the poems.36 It sees the structure of the poetic sequence II:1317 as centripetal in nature, with II:1357 functioning as a close-up, as another angle of view, more conned in scope, on the same moment of parting depicted in II:131133.37 This line of argument runs counter to the established theory, rst put forward by Kamo no Mabuchi, that the content of II:1357 is thought to occur
It, Hitomaro no shgai, 12. It, Hitomaro no shgai, 12. He suggests that the popularity of the Iwami smonka led to the composition of the Iwami banka as a sequel. 36 It Haku, Iwami smonka no kz to keisei, Manysh no kajin to sakuhin, book 1, Kodai wakashi kenky, volume 3, Hanawa shob, 1975, 286. 37 It, Iwami smonka no kz, 291.
34 35
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later in time than that of II:1313, reecting the changing position of the speaker as he progresses on his journey.38 Arguing against the chronological sequencing of the texts as outlined by Mabuchi, Hashimoto Tatsuo sees the Iwami smonka as dialogic in nature, as views of the same scene from the points of view of the wife (II:1313) and the departing husband (II:1357).39 While the Mabuchi theory allows for, but does not exclusively imply, an interpretation of the texts as a chronologically arranged account of actual events, readings such as those presented by It or Hashimoto refute the poems-as-chronicle approach which has facilitated their use as source material for Hitomaros legendary biography, and stress the texts ctive quality. It accounts for the ctionality of the texts by positing Hitomaro as a poet-performer (uta haiy) at the heart of a literary salon at the court of Empress Jit. He proposes the following sequence of composition for the Iwami smonka: Hitomaro composes the rst set, II:1389, in response to demands from his audience, and their success is such that he is then pressed to compose further on the subject, in response to which he composes II:1357. Hitomaro later revises his initial compositions and adds the sasa no ha tanka (II:133) to create the sequence II:1313, and this sequence is completed by the addition of II:140, composed either by Hitomaro or an enthusiastic member of his audience.40 The poems are thus the joint product of the poet and his audience, a result of the dynamic interaction of Hitomaro and his admirers.41 Whether or not one accepts the ner details of Its argument (including, for instance, his supposition that the poems, however ctional their specic content as dictated by the demands of the salon, were nonetheless based on an actual journey Hitomaro made to Iwami),42 as applied to the Iwami smonka, the theory is persuasive for a number of reasons. It seems not unreasonable to imagine that the recognition of his talents evident in the commissioning of Hitomaros compositions for ofcial events might lead to requests for unofcial performances as
38 Shioya Kaori, Iwami smonka no ksei: wakare to kyozetsu no juy, in Manysh: Hitomaro to Hitomaro kash, ed. Misaki Hisashi. Nihon bungaku kenky shiry shinsh 2 (Yseid, 1989), 71. 39 Shioya, 74. She is referring to Hashimoto Tatsuo, Iwami smonka no kz, Nihon bungaku 26:6 (6/1977). 40 It, Iwami smonka no kz, 294296. 41 It, Iwami smonka no kz, 295, 298. 42 It, Iwami smonka no kz, 298.
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well. The poems-as-performance theory also breaks down the distinction that is often drawn in discussions of Hitomaros poetry between the obviously public and the ostensibly private poems, as even poetry with what appears to be intensely personal contentsuch as the Iwami smonkacould have been publicly presented. As can be seen in the case of the Iwami poems, the role that the apparently private poems plays in Hitomaros reception is signicant in that they are the texts through which attempts are made to discern the details of his personal life. This public/private (hare/kei ) distinction is a problematic one, complicated by such issues as the (now unknown) original context in which the poems were presented, the mediation of textual features such as headnotes and anthologization (by individuals other than the poet), and by overtly literary elements in the poems themselves, suggesting elements of ctionality ignored by later hagiographers. Comparisons have been drawn, for example, between the Iwami smonka (II:1317) and a set of poems by Lu Ji (261303) with a similar themeleaving home and traveling to the capitaland a similar double structure, found in the Wen xuan.43
Two Poems Composed on the Road to the Capital44 Lu Ji [204] Taking the reins, I climb the long road; in sorrow I bid my family farewell. When they ask where I am going, I am caught in the net of worldly affairs. Sighing, I follow the northern shore; leaving my longings, I reach the southern ford. Going and going, how far I have come; the eld road runs to the distance, and no-one is there. Mountains and swamps twist and turn; trees and thickets are dark in the gloom. Tigers roar on the deep valley oors; chickens call from tall tree tops. A sad wind ows in the middle of the night; a lone beast moves ahead of me. These things bring feelings of sorrow;
Inaoka, Zench, 164165. This text is from Uchida Sennosuke and Ami Yji eds., Monzen (shihen) ge, Shinshaku kanbun taikei 15, Meiji shoin, 1964: 417418.
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deep thoughts enfold me in misery. Standing still, I gaze toward my home; looking back at my shadow, I feel sorry for myself. [205] Traveling far, I cross mountains and rivers; the mountains and rivers are long and are broad. Waving my whip, I climb gentle slopes; relaxing the reins, I follow level grasslands. At evening I rest, and sleep holding my shadow; at morning I move on, and go bearing my thoughts. Stopping the reins, I lean on soaring crags; listening hard, I hear the sad winds echoes. White light falls onto the clear dew; how bright the full moon shines! Slapping my pillow, I cannot sleep; arranging my clothes, alone in lengthy longings.
Like the Iwami smonka (II:131 and II:135), the rst poem here describes the speaker turning to look back at the village left behind; the second poem, like the latter part of II:131, stresses the great distance covered by the speaker.45 Like II:135, the second poem ends with a reference to clothing. It is signicant in this context that similar suggestions of possible Chinese models have been made regarding another set of ostensibly private poems by Hitomaro, those bearing the headnote When lamenting, weeping tears of blood, after the death of his wife (Manysh II:207212). These poems, consisting of two chka with accompanying hanka, represent a dramatic departure from the poetic norm in their application of a public genre of verse, the banka, to a private topic, the death of a spouse. Hashimoto Tatsuo has argued for the inuence on Hitomaro of Wen xuan poems by Pan Yue (247300) (like Lu Ji, a Chinese poet familiar to Japanese readers at the time)46 entitled Lamenting Her Death, on the death of his wife,47 itself an uncommonand thus distinctivetopic of early Chinese poetry.48 As a further hint as to the ctional and conventionalized nature of Hitomaros poems mourning his deceased wife, Hashimoto
Inaoka, Zench, 165. Inaoka, Zench, 165. 47 Hashimoto Tatsuo, Kakinomoto Hitomaro kyketsu aidka, in Manysh o manabu, volume 2, ed. Inaoka Kji and It Haku (Yhikaku, 1977), 2434. 48 C.M. Lai, The Art of Lamentation in the Works of Pan Yue: Mourning the Eternally Departed, Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994): 411.
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also claims that the distribution within the Manysh of the place name Karu, described in Manysh II:207 as the home village of Hitomaros wife, shows a pattern of association between Karu and the topos of the secret wife, the clandestine affair.49 Thus in situating his wife in Karu, Hitomaro may be hinting at the nature of their relationship by evoking a conventional cultural association. Another interpretation through which the Iwami smonka may be understood as public rather than private despite their ostensible personal content examines them within the context of Hitomaros supposed career as a bureaucrat. Mabuchis suggestion in Many k that Hitomaro was summoned from his posting in Iwami to the capital on ofcial business is noted above. Gary Ebersole has suggested that the description of the pain of separation in these poems serves to indirectly indicate Hitomaros devotion to his masters, in that the public recitation of poetry of longing and separation provided an opportunity to display ones nobility, including a higher sensibility and sense of duty, through the social renunciation of private desires;50 he situates the Iwami smonka within a larger pattern of Manysh poems of separation and longing in chka form often involving performance of ofcial duties in obedience to imperial commands.51 Fictionality in the Iwami banka The structure of the Iwami banka sequence can be summarized as follows:
Hitomaro death poem Yosami no otome poems Tajihi no Mahito poem Anonymous poem II:223 II:224 II:225 II:226 II:227 (mountain imagery) (mountain imagery) (mountain imagery) (sea imagery) (mountain imagery)
As mentioned above, the reception and canonization of the Iwami smonka and Iwami banka were closely intertwined, and the plot of the narrative traditionally read into these two sets of texts construed
Hashimoto, Kakinomoto Hitomaro kyketsu aidka, 2434. Gary Ebersole, Ritual Poetry and the Politics of Death in Early Japan, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989, 50. 51 Ebersole, 50.
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the banka as a sequel to the smonka. It Haku suggests that the compositional circumstances for the banka were similar to those for the smonka, that the banka too were composed by Hitomaro the poet-performer in the context of a literary salon at Jits court,52 and were composed as sequels to the smonka in response to audience demands. It sees their composition as an inevitable development in the course of the reception of the Iwami smonka, as the completion of Hitomaros Iwami drama.53 However, the nature of the various texts in the banka sequence means that they defy the kind of categorization as drafts and nal revisions that seems possible in the case of the Iwami smonka. While the Iwami smonka form a fairly coherent and integrated sequence, with recognizable similarities in terms of content and imagery, and comparatively minor differences between the main texts (II:1313) and the variants (II:138139), the Iwami banka are much more diverse, the sequencesuch as it ismore disjointed. A major division has been drawn between the texts that involve mountain imagery and those which involve sea imagery. Hitomaros putative death-bed poem, II:223, and the nal, anonymous poem, II:227, clearly belong to the rst type, and the Tajihi no Mahito poem, II:226, to the second. It is less clear to which category the poems by Yosami no otome, II:224 and II:225, belong. The varied imagery of the poems in the Iwami banka group has led to suggestions that they were a later accretion of poems based on legends about Hitomaro, legends which included multiple traditions regarding his place of death.54 In discussing the ctional qualities of Hitomaros putative death poem, II:223, It Haku notes that this poem can be situated within a tradition of such poems written by those who die while traveling, beginning with Yamato Takeru and his death poem in the Kojiki, and also including the Manysh poems composed by Arima no miko shortly before his execution (II:141142). It draws this comparison by way of proof that the death poem was composed as part of a ctional
It, Hitomaro shenka, 332. It, Hitomaro shenka, 333. 54 In other words, there may have existed a traditional version of Hitomaros death as occurring in the mountains, and another traditional account according to which it took place by the sea. Inaoka Kji has suggested that the original form of poem II:224 included the phrase tani ni majirite, in the valley, but that this was changed to kai ni majirite, amongst the shells, during the transmission of the poem, possibly as a result of association with the Iwami smonka, in which sea images feature prominently.
52 53
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narrative by Hitomaro, but this approach is also perfectly compatible with the theory that the poems were an accumulation of later texts based on traditions concerning Hitomaros death. In either case, this would run counter to the interpretation of the poem and its headnote as reective of historical fact. As an archetypal death-while-traveling poem, one could equally argue that it is exactly the sort of poem that one would expect to be composed about Hitomaros death by others, and not necessarily by the poet himself. As later compositions, the texts themselves can be seen to represent a stage in the reception of the Iwami smonka, as they build on the connection established therein between Hitomaro and Iwami. They also of course form a stage in the reception of Hitomaro himself, in whom sufcient interest was apparently taken for such a poetic narrative or uta monogatari to be composed about his death and subsequently anthologized in one of the earliest volumes of the Manysh. Poems for Dead Travelers Another clue to the generic quality of the Hitomaro death poem and the poems which follow it may be found in their placement within the Manysh, directly after this set of poems: by Hitomaro:
A poem with envoys by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, on seeing a dead man amidst the stones on Samine Island in Sanuki Manysh II:220 Tamamo yoshi Sanuki no kuni wa kunikara ka miredomo akanu kamukara ka kokoda ttoki ametsuchi hitsuki to tomo ni tari yukamu kami no miomo to tsugikitaru Naka no minato yu fune ukete waga kogikureba tokitsu kaze kumoi ni fuku ni The land of Sanuki of the jewelled weed is it for its nature that gazing on it, we do not tire? Is it for its divinity that we revere it thus? Perfect and complete like the heavens and earth, like the sun and the moon, it is surely the face of a god. From the port of Naka, come down from the age of the gods, when we launch our boat and row it out, as the tide-wind gusts through the clouds,
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oki mireba toi nami tachi he mireba shiranami sawaku isana tori umi o kashikomi yuku fune no kaji hikiorite ochikochi no shima wa kedo naguwashi Samine no shima no arisomo ni iorite mireba nami no to to shigeki hamahe o shikitae no makura ni nashite aratoko ni korofusu kimi ga ie shiraba yukite mo tsugemu tsuma shiraba ki mo towamashi o tamahoko no michi dani shirazu hoshiku machika kouramu hashiki tsumara wa Manysh II:221 tsuma mo araba tsumite tagemashi sami no yama no no e no uwagi sugi ni kerazu ya Manysh II:222 okitsu nami kiyosuru ariso o shikitae no makura to makite naseru kimi ka mo
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when we look to the ofng, the rolling waves rise; when we look to the shore, the white waves clamor. In fear of the sea where whales are hunted, we strained on the oars of our traveling boat. Though there are many islands scattered here and there, on the rocky strand of Samine island, so beautifully named, when we made our shelter and looked: taking as your pillow of hempen cloth this shore where waves roar constantly, you lie fallen on this rough bed. If I knew your house I would go and tell the news; if your wife knew, she would come asking for you. But not knowing even the road, straight as a jewelled spear, with troubled mind, she must be waiting and longing for you, your beloved wife.
Were your wife here, she would have plucked and eaten them but the season has already passed, of the herbs in the elds on Sami Mountain.
Taking as your pillow of hempen cloth this wild strand where waves of the ofng draw near, you lie sleeping.
This poem with envoys on the discovery of a dead man on the island of Samine can be situated within the sub-genre of banka known as
31
kroshinin no uta, poems on nding a dead person by the roadside. There are about a dozen such poems in the Manysh, where they are identiable by their headnotes detailing the circumstances of the discovery of the body.55 Two of the best-known examples are the following, from Volume III of the Manysh, the rst attributed to Prince Shtoku (574622) and the second to Hitomaro:
Manysh III:415 A poem composed by Prince Shtoku when he was visiting Takahara-no-i and grieved at the sight of a dead man on Mount Tatsuta ie naraba imo ga te makamu kusamakura tabi ni koyaseru kono tabito aware Manysh III:426 A poem by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, grieving over a corpse seen on Mount Kagu kusamakura tabi no yadori ni taga tsuma ka kuni wasuretaru ie matamaku ni Lodging on a journey with grass for your pillow, whose husband are you, your country forgotten, your family waiting at home? Were you at home, your girls arm would be your pillow; how pitiful this traveler fallen on the journey, pillowed by the grass.
Kusamakura, grass for pillow, is a conventional image in travel poetry, but from its context in these two poems it is clearly being used here in a similar way to images typical of kroshinin no uta, in which the deceased is often depicted as sleeping in the open, much as a living traveler would. Kroshinin no uta tend to feature images such as rocks or crags for pillows, in the case of death in the mountains, and waves and rocky shores as pillows, in the case of a death at sea,56 both of which motifs appear in the Iwami banka. These poems for the homeless dead have an important pragmatic and ritual aspect: they were viewed as a means to pacify the restless spirit of the deceased, for whom the appropriate funeral rites were
Kevin Collins, Seizing Spirits: The Chinkon Ritual and Early Japanese Literature (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1997), 97. 56 Sakurai Mitsuru, Kroshinin no uta to otome aishka no nagare, Kokubungaku kaishaku to kansh 35:8 (7/1970): 48.
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not being carried out.57 Encountering a dead individual for whom the proper rites had not been performed was an extremely dangerous experience for a traveler, who risked both delement from the corpse and spiritual danger from the unpacied ghost of the dead person. Travel itself was a hazardous undertaking, and the dangers it posed were amplied considerably by an encounter with an agitated spirit. In such a situation, the kroshinin no uta was a crucial part of the travelers ritual response to this spiritual danger.58 A key characteristic of kroshinin no uta was the anonymity of the dead: with no way to send word to the family, who could then perform the proper commemorative rites, the discoverer of the body would respond with a poem intended to both placate the spirit of the deceased (tama-shizume) and appropriate positive aspects of the spirits energy (tama-furi ).59 Images of the wife and the home feature prominently, to calm the spirit by reinforcing the bond between the deceased and his family, as seen in the Prince Shtoku (Manysh III:415) and Hitomaro (Manysh II:220222, III:426) examples above.60 The image of the wife waiting at home is conspicuous in the Iwami banka (in II:224225), and it has been suggested that this poetic sequence was a later compilation intended to pacify Hitomaros spirit.61 Spirit pacication (chinkon or irei ) has been identied as an essential quality of banka,62 and the nature of banka in the Manysh in particular, where it has been noted, for instance, that the poems at the beginning of volumes II, III and IX are all death poems by princes who were victims in succession disputes, whose dispossessed spirits would be in need of consolation.63 In terms of their placatory role, banka can be compared to the genre of travel poems, the essential qualities of which have been identied as longing for home and tamuke, offerings made to roadside deities for protection while traveling.64 Both traveling away from home and death can be described
57 Knoshi Takamitsu, Kroshinin no uta no shhen, in his Kakinomoto no Hitomaro kenky, Hanawa shob, 1992, 386. 58 Collins, 118. 59 Collins, 150. 60 Knoshi, 380. 61 Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 164. 62 Sakurai, Kroshinin no uta, 42. 63 Sakurai, Kroshinin no uta, 43. The poems are those by Arima no miko (II:141142), tsu no miko (III:416) and Uji no waki iratsuko (IX:1795). 64 Sakurai, Kroshinin no uta, 45.
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as experiences involving separation from family,65 and both involve the crossing of boundaries (sakai ), whether between geographical areas or between the worlds of the living and the dead. Kroshinin no uta can be seen as a nexus where travel and death intersect, as the original form taken by tamuke was the offering of clothing to placate the spirits of dead travelers one has encountered while on a journey.66 The placement of Hitomaros death poem in the Manysh directly after his chka and envoys on the discovery of a dead man on the island of Samine (II:220222) also hints at its own position within the genre of kroshinin no uta, although here the perspective is that of the dying man himself. It seems quite feasible to interpret II:223, Hitomaros purported death poem, as a text based on or to some extent inspired by readings of Hitomaros other banka, particularly II:220222, as well as his III:426 on nding a dead man on Kaguyama. In other words, Hitomaros death poem can be interpreted as the application by a later author of the kroshinin no uta mode to what were thought to be the facts of Hitomaros life. A death while traveling alone in the mountains would certainly have left Hitomaros spirit in need of placation, and to II:223 were added Tajihi no Mahitos II:226, similarly composed from the dead mans point of view and similarly lamenting his death in the wilderness, and II:224225 by Yosami no otome, whose identication as Hitomaros wife makes clear the position of the Iwami banka as a continuation of the story begun in the Iwami smonka. The Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro no kash The regard in which Hitomaro was held by the compilers of the Manysh is also evident in the placement within its various volumes of poems from the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro no kash, a collection of 369 poems, consisting of 332 tanka, 35 sedka, and 2 chka.67 Modern scholarly opinion is divided as to the nature and extent of Hitomaros involvement with the Kash;68 although one theory advanced is that it
65 Kitano Satoshi, Tabi no minzoku, in Sakurai Mitsuru ed., Manysh no minzokugaku, 101. fsha, 1993. 66 Sakurai, Kroshinin no uta, 44. 67 It Haku, Manysh no kz to seiritsu (2 v. Hanawa shob, 1974), v. 1, 203. 68 For an eminently readable summary of scholarly treatment of the Kash, see David Lurie, On the Inscription of the Hitomaro Poetry Collection: Between Literary History and the History of Writing, Manysh kenky 26 (2004): 450.
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was a collection of poetry which he recorded, rather than composed, during the reigns of Temmu and Jit.69 However, from the collections title, it seems likely that the Manysh compilers considered it to be Hitomaros work, and their treatment of its poems can thus be interpreted as an indication of their admiration for Hitomaro. The Kash poems in the Manysh are distributed as follows:70
Table 1: Distribution of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kash poems in the Manysh Volume Number of Kash poems II 1 III 1 VII 56 IX 49 X 68 XI 161 XII 27 XIII 3
As can be seen from the above data, the poems from the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kash poems are concentrated mainly in volumes VII, IX, X, XI, and XII. Numbers, however, do not tell us the whole story: what is truly signicant about the Kash poems in the context of the Manysh is the way that they are arranged within these volumes. In volume VII, for instance, the rst to make use of the Kash as a major source, the placement of Kash poems is conspicuous in the two main parts, Miscellaneous Poetry (zka) and Metaphorical Poetry (hiyuka). The Kash poems are placed at the beginning of several of the topic-dened sections of miscellaneous poetry.71 The sections Composed on Clouds (VII:10871089) and Composed on Mountains (VII:10921098), for example, begin with Kash poems and continue with anonymous poems.72 Indeed, some of volume VIIs topic sectionsincluding the rst, Composed on Heaven (VII:1068)consist solely of Kash poems. The special status accorded Kash poems is made even more overt in the sections of metaphorical poetry. This poetry is also organized into topic-based sections; however, where the miscellaneous poetry has Kash and anonymous poetry together in a single section, the metaphorical poetry is arranged with six separate sections
Inaoka Kji. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. Kokubungaku 30:13 (1985): 46. It, Manysh no kz to seiritsu, v. 1, 203. 71 Watase Masatada, Maki nana Hitomaro kash no tanka, 1. 72 Watase, Maki nana Hitomaro kash no tanka, 2. The Kumo o yomu section consists of three poems, the rst two of which are from the Kash; Yama o yomu has seven poems, the rst three of which are from the Kash.
69 70
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for Kash poems placed ahead of sections with identical topics but non-Kash poems.73 A similar pattern of distribution of Kash poems occurs in volumes XI and XII.74 It describes this as an Old and New Japanese Poetry Collection (kokin yamatouta sh) structure, in which parts of the Manysh were assembled in pairs, the rst part consisting of old poems (from the Hakuh Period, 645710) and the second of new poems (from the Nara Period, 710784).75 According to this analysis, the Kash poems represent the old type of poetry, and are followed by anonymous new Nara-Period compositions. It can thus be argued that the reverence felt by the Manysh compilers towards the Kash poems is demonstrated by their selection as the representative old poems,76 serving as models for the later poems. To put the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kash in context, it should be noted that it is one of a number of personal and other poetry collections partly incorporated into the Manysh. The most conspicuous other such sources include the Ruij karin (Forest of Classied Poems, thought to have been compiled by Yamanoue no Okura), the Kasa no Kanamura sh, the Takahashi no Mushimaro sh, the Tanabe no Sakimaro sh, as well as other earlier collections referred to simply as consisting of old poems (koka sh).77 These collections are crucial intertexts for the Manysh, not simply sources but essential structural elements of the larger anthology due to the extensive sequences of their poetry incorporated into Manysh (the position of the Kash poems in volume XI being a prime example of this).78 Thus the Kash is not unique in being a personal poetry collection assimilated into the Manysh; what is distinctive, however, is the prominent position given to many of its poems. This has particular signicance in light of the fact that many of these collectionsincluding the Kashno longer exist as independent texts outside of the Manysh; thus the re-contextualization of these poems and their sources through their placement in the Manysh has important implications for their later reception.
Watase, Maki nana Hitomaro kash no tanka, 3. It, Manysh no kz to seiritsu, v. 1, 205206. 75 It identies volumes III and IV as having this kind of binary structure, and also sees it underlying the arrangement of the Kash poems in vols. VII, IX, X, XI, and XII, 252 (Manysh no kz to seiritsu, v. 1, 176.) 76 Murase Norio, Maki jni Hitomaro kash no uta, in Manysh o manabu, ed. It Haku and Inaoka Kji (Yhikaku, 1977), vol. 6, 86. 77 Hisamatsu Senichi, Manysh to sono genshiry, 264. 78 Hisamatsu Senichi, Manysh to sono genshiry, 272.
73 74
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Further evidence of the high regard in which Hitomaros poetry was held by the Manyshs compilers may be found in volume XV, where travel poems attributed to Hitomaro earlier in the Manysh are recited in what may be interpreted as a prophylactic manner by envoys dispatched to the Korean peninsula in 736. These poems will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter, in connection with legends regarding Hitomaros journey to the continent. The Gate of the Mountain Persimmon From the examples above, it is clear that the Manysh demonstrates an implicit interest in Hitomaro as an individual and admiration for his skill as a poet on the part of at least some of its compilers. There is one further instance of Manysh admiration of Hitomaro, one with particular signicance in light of his treatment in later texts: the Manysh also includes the rst explicit reference to Hitomaro as a great poet of an earlier age, a role in which he would be decisively canonized by the later Kokinsh. The following passage in classical Chinese by tomo no Yakamochi was written as the preface to a chka (Manysh XVII:3969) in the Third Month of 747, while Yakamochi was serving as governor of Etch. Yakamochi had been seriously ill in the spring of that year, and when he began to recover in the Second Month he exchanged several letters with his cousin tomo no Ikenushi, assistant vice-governor of the same province. Manysh XVII:39693972 were composed on the third day of the Third Month in response to a poem-letter received from Ikenushi the previous day.
Manysh XVII:3969 (preface) Also sent, one poem with tanka79 [Your] great virtue in showing such kindness to one as lowly as mugwort, your immeasurably deep feeling, has answered and soothed this unworthy heart. Receiving your favor, my joy is without compare. However, when I was young, I did not enter the garden of artistic pursuits, hence [writing like] waterweed spills from my brush, and my nature and technique are meagre. In my younger years, I came not to the gate of the mountain persimmon, and when composing poetry, I lose my diction in the forest
79
Text from Hashimoto Tatsuo ed., Manysh zench, v. 17 (Yhikaku, 1985), 148.
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[of poems]. Here I gratefully [receive] your words, To follow brocade with wisteria, and have again recorded poems, stones which mingle with the jewels. Being originally vulgar and a fool, I have [bad] habits, and am unable to stay silent. Accordingly I present many lines, responding before I become a laughingstock. The words are as follows:
The phrase translated above as gate of the mountain persimmon reads sanshi no mon in the original. It appears in no other known text, Japanese or Chinese;80 its only other use in the Manysh comes in Ikenushis response to Yakamochis letter and poem, in which he seems to echo Yakamochis use of the term as representing a poet or poets of the past. Various theories have been advanced as to whom this phrase refers. The earliest interpretation to emerge is that found in the Nishihonganjibon (late Kamakura period) and Onkodbon (late Muromachi period) texts of the Manysh, in interlinear notes which identify Hitomaro and Yamabe no Akahito (. ca. 724736) as the poets referred to by sanshi no mon. The oldest commentary to make this identication is Kitamura Kigins (16241705) Many shsuish (Notes on Gathered Grain of the Manysh, 16821690).81 The inuence of Ki no Tsurayukis (c. 868c. 945) Kokinsh Kana Preface (905) seems clear in the choice of Hitomaro and Akahito as the referents of sanshi no mon, and although this seems to have been the dominant interpretation during the medieval and early modern periods, modern scholars have raised the possibility of alternatives, including the suggestion that sanshi no mon may even have referred to Hitomaro alone.82 However, similarthough not identicalphrases found in Chinese sources seem to refer to two people, identied by the rst character of their names, rather than one. Examples include Cao Liu, referring to Cao Zhi (192232) and Liu Zhen (?217), found in the Six Dynasties poetic treatise Shipin (Classication of Poems), by Zhong Hong (. ca. 483513), and Pan Lu, referring to Pan Yue and Lu Ji, in Wen xuan.83 Ikenushis comparison of Yakamochis poetic talents to those of Pan Yue and Lu Ji (in the preface to XVII:3973) seems to be based on a phrase
80 Ono Hiroshi, Sanshi no mon, in Jdai bungaku kenky jiten, ed. Ono Hiroshi and Sakurai Mitsuru, f, 1996, 292. 81 Ono, 292. 82 This suggestion was rst made by Origuchi Shinobu in 1933, in his Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (Manysh kza 1) (Ono, 292). 83 Kojima Noriyuki. Jdai nihon bungaku to chgoku bungaku. Hanawa shob, 1962, 163.
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from Shipin,84 suggesting both the texts availability to poets at the time and its desirability as a model. In addition to its use by Manysh poets, the inuence of Shipin seems likely in Ki no Tsurayukis evaluation in the Kokinsh Kana Preface of the work of the poets who later came to be known as the Rokkasen or Six Poetic Immortals.85 Thus it seems likely that sanshi no mon refers to two poets rather than just Hitomaro. Rather than relying on textual evidence and attempting to make a concrete identication of the individual poets, however, the term may be understood in a more general sense as referring to the great waka poets of the past, who were to be looked up to in an abstract way rather than concretely emulated in ones own poetry.86 According to such a reading, Hitomaro and Akahito become symbols; the specic distinctions between them are unimportant, as their signicance lies in the fact that they collectively represented a waka tradition of which Yakamochi was extremely conscious after his work on the Manysh.87 It has been suggested that Yakamochis use of Hitomaro as a symbol of the tradition of waka poetry is indicative of his own tendency toward classicism (koten shugi ), expressed in his admiration for the poets and poetry of the past; this can be situated within classicism as a more general trend running through the Tempy period (729749).88 His use of the term sanshi no mon, invoking Hitomaro as an embodiment of the poetic past, can be taken as a reection of his literary and historical consciousness at the time, in the spring of 747. It also pregures Tsurayukis similarly symbolic use of Hitomaro (and Akahito) in the Kokinsh Kana Preface, from which subsequently developed the image of Hitomaro as poetic ancestor that was central to his role in the eigu ceremonies held in his honor and to his treatment as a divinity in many medieval texts.
Kojima, 161. Helen Craig McCullough, Brocade by Night: Kokin Wakash and the Court Style in Japanese Classical Poetry, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985, 314315. 86 Takagi Ichinosuke, Okura to Tabito (Manysh taisei 9, ed. Shimonaka Yasabur, 2554. Heibonsha, 1953) (Nakagawa Yukihiro, Sanshiron, in Jdai bungakukai ed., Many no sten. Kasama shoin, 1982: 98). 87 Nakagawa, 98 (citing Saig Nobutsuna, Nihon kodai bungakushi, 1963). 88 Nakagawa, 94.
84 85
CHAPTER TWO
HITOMARO IN HEIAN TEXTS: A SAGE OF POETRY Following a period of intense enthusiasm in the eighth century for Chinese genres, the Heian period (7941185) saw the rise of Japanese poetry to a canonical status comparable to that of poetry in Chinese (kanshi ). The decisive development in this process was the compilation of the rst imperially commissioned anthology (chokusensh) of Japanese poetry, the Kokinsh, in the early tenth century. The Kokinsh was initially legitimized as a poetic authority by its imperial commission, and its status as a repository of poetic norms was conrmed by its canonization as such by Fujiwara no Shunzei in the late twelfth century. Its compilation was not only a crucial development in Japanese court poetry, but also an event of paramount importance for the canonization of Hitomaro. In addition to poetry, the Kokinsh includes prose prefaces (one in Japanese, one in Chinese) which set out in some detail the illustrious history and essential qualities of Japanese poetry. The Japanese or Kana Preface (Kanajo) in particular was canonized as the founding text of Japanese poetic theory and criticism, and Hitomaro is lionized therein as a sage of poetry (uta no hijiri ), a quasi-supernatural gure presented as the representative poet of a gloriousbut only vaguely denedpast age. As described in the previous chapter, Hitomaro had been similarly singled out as an ancestral poetic gure by tomo no Yakamochi in the Manysh (as part of the Gate of the Mountain Persimmon), but it was his treatment as such in the prestigious Kokinsh (as opposed to the less canonical Manysh) that cemented his place at the apex of the court-poetic tradition. This identication of Hitomaro as a special category of poet, a sage of poetry, was the rst important development in his canonization in the Heian period; the second was the Hitomaro eigu (portrait-offering) ceremony in 1118, which will be discussed in the next chapter and which was instrumental in Hitomaros transition from a sage to a deity of poetry. The Kokinsh was not the only Heian-period text to gure prominently in Hitomaros canonization, though it was by far the most signicant; indeed the Kokinsh is probably the single most inuential text in the entire history of Hitomaros reception. Other poetic texts, both public
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and private, also had important roles to play in developing Hitomaros image in the Heian period. Signicant editorial attention is paid to Hitomaro in the third imperially commissioned poetry anthology, Shiwakash (Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poetry, 1007), in which he is presented as a traveler and exile. This can be seen as a continuation of Hitomaros treatment in the Manysh, but may also be understood in the context of poems composed by envoys to the continent and in relation to the archetypal narrative of the exiled noble (kishu ryritan), a trope which is found in prominent Heian texts such as Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) and Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise). In a further parallel with the protagonists of these textsparticularly Ise monogatariit has also been argued that Hitomaro is presented as a gifted lover as well as a gifted poet in the Shish through the selection of love poems attributed to him there. In addition, the early Heian Period saw Hitomaro canonized as one of a group of outstanding poets, the so-called Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals (sanjrokkasen) rst gathered together by the prominent poet and critic Fujiwara no Kint (9661041) in his collection of exemplary poems and poets, Sanjrokuninsen (Selection of Thirty-Six Persons, 10091012). Hitomaro in the Kokinsh prefaces We see in the careful construction of the Iwami smonka and banka sequences of the Manysh the fascination that Hitomaro held for the compiler or compilers of volumes I and II of that anthology. Hitomaros recognition by later Manysh poets is indicated implicitly by the placement of poems from his putative personal collection and explicitly by tomo no Yakamochi in his reference to the gate of the mountain persimmon. In the Kokinsh, however, Hitomaro is no longer merely an object of fascination or respect but one of reverence, accorded a semi-divine status. Hitomaro makes his rst appearance in the Kokinsh in its Kana Preface, where he is described in glowing terms as holding high court rank and being in close attendance on the emperor. Here we see a further development of the trend set in the legendary version of Hitomaros death described in the Iwami banka, in which Hitomaros constructed image becomes detached from the poems most denitely ascribed to him: the Hitomaro of the Kokinsh is no longer directly dependent on or supported by the poems which bear his name, but has become an autonomous image, a semi-divine poetic gure whose
hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry
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actual poetry is of less importance than his aura of poetic greatness, a greatness clearly evident in the terminology used to describe him in the Kokinsh. The Kokinsh Kana Preface, written by its chief compiler, Ki no Tsurayuki, is the rst critical statement on the nature of Japanese poetry, and became a seminal text of court-poetic discourse. Its famous opening line denes Japanese poetry as that which takes the human heart as seed, and is composed of a myriad leaves of words.1 This is followed by an account of the divine origins of waka with the deity Susano-o-no-mikoto, to whom is attributed the rst thirty-one-syllable poem. Presented next is an outline of the six types of poetry, or rikugi, which, like a number of other elements of the Kana Prefaces critical structure, is based on a Chinese model. The textual antecedent here is the enumeration of the liuyi which appears in the Great Preface to the Shijing ( J. Shiky; Classic of Poetry, ca. 600 B.C.E.).2 Tsurayuki then laments the decline of Japanese poetry in recent times: neglected, it has become like a buried log, unknown to people (mumoreki no, hito shirenu koto to narite).3 He goes on to contrast this sorry state of affairs with an idealized earlier age of waka, when emperors commissioned poems from their courtiers, and people freely composed poetry on all manner of elegant topics. The poet presented in the Kana Preface as most representative of this golden poetic age is Hitomaro:
Even as [ Japanese poetry] was being thus passed down from the earliest times, it spread during the reign of the Nara emperor. Perhaps it was that [the Nara emperor] understood the heart of poetry. In that age there was a sage of poetry of the Senior Third Rank called Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. [That such a poet should live during such a reign] may be said to be a case of lord and subject in perfect union. The red leaves owing on the Tatsuta River on an autumn evening looked like brocade to the eyes of the emperor; the cherry blossoms of Mount Yoshino on a spring morning were realized as clouds in the heart of Hitomaro. There was also a person called Yamabe no Akahito. His poems are extraordinarily
1 Yamato uta wa, hito no kokoro o tane to shite, yorozu no koto no ha to zo narerikeru (Arai Eiz and Kojima Noriyuki eds, Kokinwakash, Shin nihon koten bungaku taikei 5, Iwanami shoten, 1989, 4). 2 The relevant passage in the Great Preface is as follows: Thus there are six principles ( yi ) in the poems: 1) Airs ( feng); 2) exposition ( fu); 3) comparison ( pi ); 4) affective image (hsing); 5) Odes ( ya); 6) Hymns (sung) (Stephen Owen, Readings in Chinese Literary Thought. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992, 45). 3 Arai and Kojima, 9.
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skilful. It is difcult to stand Hitomaro above Akahito, or to stand Akahito below Hitomaro.4
This passage has a number of problematic points, the rst being the identity of the Nara emperor (Nara no mikado) during whose reign Hitomaro is here supposed to have lived. Although sometimes taken as a reference to an emperor who reigned at the Heij capital (modern Nara City), such as Shmu (r. 724749) or Mommu (r. 697707), the Nara no mikado can also be identied as Heizei (r. 806809), the second emperor of the Heian period, whose posthumous title uses the same characters as Heij and whose tomb lies in what is now Nara. Support for the identication of the Nara no mikado as Heizei is found elsewhere in the Kana Preface, in a passage that comes almost directly after the one quoted above:
Since that time, there have been over a hundred years, and ten reigns have passed.5
That time, kono mutoki, refers to the time of the compilation of the Manysh, which, it is implied, took place in the reign of the Nara emperor. This connection is made more explicit in the Kokinshs Chinese preface (Manajo), by Ki no Yoshimochi (d. 919):
Long ago, Emperor Heizei issued an edict to his retainers and ministers, and commanded them to compile the Manysh. Since then, ten reigns have elapsed, and a hundred years have passed.6
The tenth reign back from that of Daigo (885930; r. 897930), commissioner of the Kokinsh, is that of Heizei; counting back a hundred years from 905 brings one to the Daid era (806810), under Heizei. However, this was over a hundred years after Hitomaros period of greatest activity at court (as dated from the headnotes to his poems in the Manysh). This discrepancy led some early commentators to express doubt over the apparent placement of Hitomaro in the reign of Heizei in the Kana Preface. One such was the Rokuj poet Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (11041177), who addressed the issue of the identity of the Nara no mikado in the Hitomaro kanmon (Report on Hitomaro) included in his Fukurozshi (Bag Manuscript), a collection of anecdotes and poetic lore dating from 1157. A kanmon was a report prepared by a
4 5 6
Arai and Kojima, 1112. Arai and Kojima, 13. Arai and Kojima, 3467.
43
scholar, priest, diviner, etc., in response to questions asked by superiors at court, providing answers by nding precedents and other information. The range of topics covered in kanmon is extremely wide, but the Hitomaro kanmon, dated 1153, is the oldest extant poetry-related kanmon. Its purpose is indicated in a prefatory note: An investigation of doubts as to whether Hitomaro was a minister at the court of Daid and whether the Manysh was compiled at that time, as mistakenly [said] by a certain person.7 After examining various texts, including the Manysh, the Kokinsh, the Yamato monogatari (Tales of Yamato, 951) and the Wen xuan, Kiyosuke ultimately concludes that Hitomaro was a minister of Shmu, and the Manysh was probably selected by the same emperor. Regarding the matter of Daid, I have seen no proof [to place Hitomaro or the Manysh in that reign].8 From the above we may gather that the date of the past age in which Tsurayuki places Hitomaro in the Kana Preface is unclear, and was so even to the earliest commentators. However, in terms of the process of Hitomaros canonization, the actual historical date is unimportant: the salient features of the reign of the Nara emperor described by Tsurayuki are, rstly, that it is well in the past, thus establishing the antiquity of Japanese poetry, and, secondly, that it was a time when Japanese poetry ourished in the hands of poetic sages and their sovereign. The reign of the Nara emperor thus served to set a precedent for the enthusiastic and skilful composition of poetry in Japanese by members of the uppermost echelons of society, by describing an enviable state to which Japanese poetry at the time of the Kokinshs compilation should strive to return. Indeed, the very vagueness of Hitomaros historical position here only adds to his charisma as a remote and venerable gure from the poeticrather than simply historicalpast. Hitomaros Rank In the Kana Preface passage on Hitomaro in the reign of the Nara emperor, Tsurayuki describes Hitomaro as holding the Senior Third Rank (kimitsu no kurai ). It seems to be extremely unlikely, however,
288.
8
Fujioka Tadaharu et al. eds., Fukurozshi ksh: kagaku hen. Izumi shoin, 1983, Fujioka et al., 350.
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that this was ever the case.9 The circumstances of the composition of Hitomaros purported nal poem are described in the headnote to Manysh II:223 as follows: Iwami no kuni ni arite, shi ni nozomu toki . . ., when in the province of Iwami, facing death . . .. Inaoka Kji notes that the use of the word shi for death suggests that the person involved was of the Sixth Rank or below;10 the deaths of higher-ranking individuals were referred to with terms such as sotsu (for holders of the Fourth and Fifth Ranks) or k (for holders of the Third Rank and above). Furthermore, holders of the uppermost three ranks in the court hierarchy were among those collectively termed kugy, high nobility, and the Senior Third Rank was typically held by such eminences as Major Councillors (dainagon), ranking only one step below ministers of state. It would have been unthinkable for a holder of such high rank to be completely absent from the historical record, as Hitomaro is. Doubts over Tsurayukis claim for precisely this reason are evident in the eleventh-century Sanjrokunin kasenden, which provided biographical information for the thirty-six outstanding poets selected by Fujiwara no Kint in his Sanjrokuninsen. The Sanjrokunin kasenden is thought to be the work of Fujiwara no Morifusa (governor of Higo, d. 1094?). The entry on Hitomaro is the rst to appear in the Sanjrokunin kasenden, and includes the following passage:11
As for this person, every year in the appointment and promotion rounds, he received a bureaucratic position, [but] when one seeks [a record of ] his advancement, it is nowhere to be seen. However, in the Manysh of old, it says that he composed a poem at the time of an imperial excursion to the province of Ki in the rst year of Taih.12 It says that he followed the imperial palanquin. Thinking on this, those that followed the palanquin on the day of the excursion in question would have been sure to have been of the Fifth Rank and above. As it [says] in the preface to the Kokinwakash, the wise man of former times is recorded as the Kakinomoto ofcial [tay]. It can probably be said that he was of the
9 Nakanishi Susumu, Botsugo no Hitomaro, in Kakinomoto no Hitomaro: hito to sakuhin, ed. Nakanishi, fsha, 1989, 232. 10 Inaoka, Zench, 455. 11 Text here appears in Gunsho ruij, vol. 65, 372. 12 This seems to be a reference to Manysh II:146, which is preceded by the headnote, A poem on seeing the tied pine at the time of the imperial excursion to the province of Ki in Taih 1, younger-brother-of-re-ox (from the poetry collection of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro). Taih 1 was 701, and the sovereign making the excursion is thought to have been Jit, now retired.
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Fifth Rank. In the preface to the Kokinkingyokush,13 it says that in the reign of the Nara [sovereign], there was great popularity of Japanese poetry. That emperor surely understood the interest of poetry. In that same reign was Kakinomoto no Hitomaro of the Senior Third Rank. He was a sage of Japanese poetry. When one considers the passage in question, one can say that there are many discrepancies. From the Daid era [this sovereign] was called the Nara emperor. However, when one looks for the time of Hitomaros existence in the Manysh, [his life] was after the reign of Emperor Tenji [r. 668671]; he was someone of the reign of Emperor Mommu [r. 697707]. Why is he known as someone of the reign of the Nara emperor? The clause about the Senior Third Rank is questionable.
The author here seems to conclude that Hitomaro was in fact a holder of the Fifth Rank rather than the Third, basing his conclusion in part on the passage in the Kokinsh Mana Preface which reads, However, there was someone called the Former Teacher Kakinomoto no tay.14 Under the ritsury system of government, tay referred to holders of the First to Fifth ranks, and the term came to refer by extension to the holders of the Fifth Rank in particular; in other words, mid-ranking court ofcials. The Mana Preface passage does not necessarily mark a great departure from the Kana Preface, as the term tay could have referred to a holder of the Third Rank; however, the author of the Sanjrokunin kasenden questions this on the basis of the Manysh headnote and the lack of a record of Hitomaros career in the ofcial sources. An estimate of Hitomaros rank as Fifth in the Sanjrokunin kasenden does not accord with the language used to describe his death in the headnote to Manysh II:223, but both these texts (the Manysh and the Sanjrokunin kasenden) do at least seem to be at odds with Tsurayukis presentation of Hitomaro as a holder of the Senior Third Rank. Divergence from Tsurayukis views on Hitomaros rank may even be found within the Kokinsh itself, in the chka by Mibu no Tadamine (dates unknown; a compiler of the Kokinsh) entitled A long poem which was presented with some old poems, which appears as XIX:1003 and includes the following phrases (emphasis added):
An alternative title for the Kingyokush (Collection of Gold and Jewels), a collection of outstanding poems of the early Heian period compiled in the early eleventh century by Fujiwara no Kint. 14 Arai and Kojima, 342.
13
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Aware mukashi e Ariki ch Hitomaro koso wa Ureshikere Mi wa shimo nagara Koto no ha o Amatsu sora made Kikoeage
chapter two
How fortunate was Hitomaro, said to live in the days of old; though his station was lowly, he lifted up his words to the heavens . . .15
Despite such doubts as to his actual status, the inuence of the description of Hitomaro in the Kokinsh Kana Preface was so pervasive that references to Hitomaro as a holder of the Senior Third Rank occur frequently in post-Kokinsh texts, particularly in accounts of his (legendary) life. The fourteenth-century commentary Gyokuden jinpi (Deep Secrets of the Jeweled Transmission), for example, gives a detailed description of his supposed ofcial career:
In the same year [675], on the third day of the Ninth Month, he was appointed Administrator of the Left Capital [Saky daibu] of the Third Rank, Lower Grade, and also Governor of Harima. On the rst day of the Third Month of the next year, he was appointed Head of the Crown Princes household and head of the Bureau of Carpentry, of the Senior Third Rank, Upper Grade. After his death, in the reign of Kken [749758], he was appointed to the Senior Second Rank and made Great Minister of the Center.16
This account ultimately takes Hitomaro beyond the Third Rank and attributes to him a posthumous promotion to the Senior Second Rank, effectively the highest rank as the First Rank was seldom awarded. Tsurayukis description of Hitomaro as a sage of poetry and holder of high rank, close to his sovereign, can be understood as part of his strategy to legitimize Japanese poetry as a publicly acceptable literary form equal in status to poetry in Chinese, rather than merely a means of social interaction; it also depicts an illustrious poetic forebear whose social and political position was superior to that of the waka poets of Tsurayukis own day. Thus it is understandable that Tsurayuki would ascribe a high rank to Hitomaro, who for him represented a glorious poetic past. But Tsurayuki does more than just grant Hitomaro high
Arai and Kojima, 304. Katagiri Yichi, Chsei Kokinsh chshaku sho kaidai 5. Kyoto: Akao shobund, 1986, 555.
15 16
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court rank and an enviable position at the emperors side; he elevates him to the status of hijiri, translated here as sage. The term hijiri (for which the character sei is often used) is derived from the phrase hi shiri, one who knows the sun, in reference to a wise person (in early texts it could also refer to the emperor); thus, although hijiri came to be used to refer to gures possessing religious virtue (and was later chosen to translate the Latin sanctus), it also carried overtones of expertise and knowledge, both appropriate in the case of a gure such as Hitomaro. Hitomaro is referred to in the Kokinsh Kana Preface as an uta no hijiri (sage of poetry), but in the Mana Preface both he and Akahito are termed waka no hijiri [sen] (sage of Japanese poetry).17 A distinction must be drawn between the term used in the Mana Preface, sen, meaning wizard, hermit or immortal, particularly in a Daoist sense, which is also found in the term kasen, poetic immortal, referring to a gifted poet, and the more exclusive term kasei, which is used for Hitomaro and to a lesser extent Akahito, but very rarely in reference to any other poets. The model for the Kokinsh prefaces uta no hijiri and waka no hijiri [sen] is thought to be Bo Juyis (772846) use of the term shisen.18 In addition to the meaning of a poet who disports himself like an immortal from the world of poetry, Bo Juyi also uses shisen to mean a poet who is like an immortal in the distant world of the court.19 This second meaning is clearly derived from the rst, but involves an implicit comparison between the imperial court and the world of the immortals. This meaning also, by extension, invests the terms uta no hijiri (and its Sinied descendant, kasei ) and waka no hijiri [sen] with a distinctly political dimension, reected in Tsurayukis placement of Hitomaro, his uta no hijiri, in an idealized past where poet and ruler were in perfect accord.20 The concept of literature as a means of mediation between a ruler and his subjects can be traced back to the Great Preface of the Shi jing,21 but the idea of the poetic sage as a gure at home in both settings, poetic and political, seems to be derived from Bo Juyis view of poets and poetic consciousness.22 Tsurayukis formulation of the term
Arai and Kojima, 342. Shinma Kazuyoshi, Haku Kyoi no shijin ishiki to Kanke bunsh, Kokin jo: Shima, shisen, waka no hijiri, Wakan hikaku bungaku 17 (8/1996): 22. 19 Shinma, 25. 20 Shinma, 29. 21 Owen, 46. 22 Shinma, 30.
17 18
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uta no hijiri (and Yoshimochis waka no hijiri [sen]) can be understood as an example of Bo Juyis reception in Heian literature. After the glowing praise for Hitomaro, another Manysh poet, Yamabe no Akahito, is mentioned. The pairing of Hitomaro and Akahito here may be echoing Yakamochis gate of the mountain persimmon passage in Manysh (XVII:3969); in any event, the appearance of the two poets together in Tsurayukis Kana Preface had a decisive inuence on later interpretations of the phrase gate of the mountain persimmon as referring to Hitomaro and Akahito, regardless of Yakamochis original intent. The Kana Preface passage further implies that Hitomaro and Akahito were contemporaries when in fact they were a generation apart, Akahito being regarded as one of a group of later (Nara-period) poets who drew on earlier poemsparticularly Hitomarosin their own work. (This conation of the historical lifetimes of Hitomaro and Akahito is taken one unlikely step further in medieval waka commentaries such as the Bishamondbon kokinshch (Bishamon Hall Notes on the Kokinsh), in which Hitomaro and Akahito are described as being different names for the same individual.23) Although Akahito is described here as Hitomaros poetic equal (It is difcult to stand Hitomaro above Akahito, or to stand Akahito below Hitomaro), he is given far less effusive treatment, and is described as a person who composes extraordinarily skilful poetry rather than a sage of poetry, an important qualitative difference which is reected in the exemplary poems given for each poet in the old interpolated notes (koch) to the Kana Preface.24 In the case of Akahito, the emphasis is on his poetry, and the two poems given for him in the interpolated notes (added to the Kana Preface by an unknown commentator at an early stage of its reception) are poems attributed to him in the Manysh:
Katagiri Yichi, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 215. The Kokinsh Mana Preface describes both Hitomaro and Akahito as waka no hijiri [sen], but historically the Mana Preface has been less highly regarded than the Kana Preface, and it is the latter which has been canonized as the formal or ofcial preface to the Kokinsh (Katagiri Yichi, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, Kdansha, 1998, I:92). Thus the Mana Prefaces description of both Hitomaro and Akahito as sages of Japanese poetry has been less inuential in their reception than the description appearing in the Kana Preface, which does draw a qualitative distinction between the two.
23 24

Manysh VIII:1424 [One of ] Four poems by Yamabe no Sukune Akahito haru no no ni sumire tsumi ni to koshi ware zo no o natsukashimi hitoyo ne ni keru Having come to the spring elds to pluck violets, entranced by those elds, I slept there all night!
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Manysh VI:919 [An envoy to] a poem by Yamabe no Sukune on the occasion of the imperial excursion to the province of Ki on the fth day of the Tenth Month in the winter of Jinki 1 (Elder-brother-of-wood-rat) [724] waka no ura ni shio michikureba kata o nami ashibe o sashite tazu nakiwataru At Waka Bay, when the tide comes in and the dry shore vanishes, toward the reed-beds the cranes cross crying.
Hitomaro, on the other hand, has moved from being merely a poet (albeit a great one) to being an uta no hijiri, a poetic sage. This is an image of Hitomaro which seems to have arisen almost independently of his poetry: just as Hitomaros reception in the Manysh involved poems associated with him but of doubtful attribution, such as the Iwami banka, so in the interpolated notes also the poems put forward as representative of his oeuvre are of uncertain provenance. Rather than Manysh poems of reasonably certain authorship, the exemplary poems given are two of the anonymous poems tentatively linked to Hitomaro in the text of the Kokinsh itself. Indeed, the presence of such attributions in the Kokinsh, however unlikely, for Hitomaro but not Akahito may be taken as a further indication of the greater regard in which Hitomaro was held. The poems given for Hitomaro in the old interpolated notes to the Kana Preface are as follows:
Kokinsh IX:409 (Travel) Anonymous Topic unknown honobono to akashi no ura no asagiri ni shimagakure yuku fune o shi zo omou Dimly, dimly, in the morning mist of Akashi Bay, I think of a boat going island-hidden.
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Kokinsh VI:334 (Winter) Anonymous Topic unknown ume no hana sore to mo miezu hisakata no amagiru yuki no nabete furereba The plum blossoms I cannot see which they are as the distant sky is so misty with snow falling everywhere.
This patterngenuine Manysh poems being given as samples of Akahitos work and poems of doubtful attribution appearing as samples of Hitomaros workis repeated in other collections of exemplary poems, such as Kints Sanjrokuninsen and the Ogura hyakunin isshu (Ogura Collection of One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each) attributed to Fujiwara no Teika. The representative poem for Akahito in the latter collection is a variation on one of his best-known Manysh poems, III:318 (the same variant appears as Shinkokinsh VI:675), while that for Hitomaro is an anonymous Manysh poem (XI:2802) which was one of many such poems to be newlyand improbablyattributed to him in Shish (as Shish XIII:778). The poems included as representative works for Akahito and Hitomaro in the Ogura hyakunin isshu are:
Shinkokinsh VI:675 (Winter, Topic unknown) Yamabe no Akahito Tago no ura ni uchi idete mireba shirotae no Fuji no takane ni yuki wa furitsutsu Going out on Tago Bay, when I look, on Fujis high peak, white as hempen sleeves, snow is falling.25
Shish XIII:778 (Love, Topic unknown) Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ashihiki no yamadori no o no shidari o no naganagashi yo o hitori nemu kamo This long long night, long as the trailing tail of the bird of the foot-dragging hills, I sleep alone!26
The attribution to Hitomaro of old anonymous poems, however, does not begin in the Kokinsh; as shown in the previous chapter, it may be seen in the Manysh itself, in the arrangement of poetry from the
25 Komachiya Teruhiko ed., Shiwakash, Shin nihon koten bungaku taikei 7, Iwanami shoten, 1990, 200. 26 Komachiya, Shiwakash, 226.
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Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kash, which, although of uncertain size, authorship and origin, seems to have been regarded by the Manyshs compilers as Hitomaros work. The very existence of Hitomaros Kash and its treatment in the Manysh marked the beginning of a process of association with and attribution of old anonymous poems to Hitomaro which continued throughout the Heian period and beyond. Such accumulation of anonymous poems may also be seen to some extent in the case of other Manysh poets such as Akahito and Yakamochi,27 and also in that of Kokinsh poets such as Ono no Komachi (. ninth century). Yet the genuine poems of the other poets never seemed to be overshadowed by those spuriously attributed to them to the extent that Hitomaros were; his continued popularity and ability to command respect despite this unsteady textual basisin terms of actual poetic textsindicate the extent to which he had attained some kind of autonomous existence as a poetic icon. Another crucial difference in the treatment of Akahito and Hitomaro in the Kokinsh Kana Preface is that while both are described as having poetic gifts, only Hitomaro is described as being in a politically as well as poetically ideal situation: he is the one to whom high court rank is ascribed, and he is the one who has achieved perfect union with his sovereign (the political implications of the term uta no hijiri are outlined above). No such claims are made in the Kana Preface for Akahito (who, it is implied, was Hitomaros contemporary and was thus also living in the reign of the Nara no mikado). This combination of poetic and political standing was the key quality that made Hitomaro, rather than Akahito, the more attractive candidate for worship two hundred years later by the poets of the Rokuj house as they sought a poetic ancestor to venerate in their eigu ceremony,28 a practice through which they hoped to consolidate their own poetic and political position at court.
27 There are, for example, several anonymous Manysh poems (VIII:1426, X:1843, X:1977, X:2014) which appear in more than one of the Hitomaro sh, Akahito sh, and Yakamochi sh in the Sanjrokuninsh. Manysh X:1812 appears in both the Hitomaro sh and the Akahito sh despite being identied in Manysh as a poem from the Hitomaro kash. 28 Kitahara Motohide, Hitomaro eigu to inseiki kadan, Kodai bunka 51:4 (4/1999): 35.
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chapter two Hitomaro Poems in the Kokinsh
Despite the glowing praise given Hitomaro in the Kokinsh prefaces, his poems could not be included in the Kokinsh itself because of an explicit editorial policy against including Manysh poems. In the section of the Kana Preface describing Daigos command for the compilation of the Kokinsh, Tsurayuki notes that he and his fellow compilers were instructed to select old poems not in the Manysh, and their own poems (Manysh ni iranu furuki uta, mizukara no o mo).29 Nevertheless, there are seven poems in the Kokinsh which, although ofcially anonymous, are tentatively attributed to Hitomaro in editorial notes following the poems (sach). The poems are:
Kokinsh III:135 (Summer) Anonymous Topic unknown waga yado no ike no fujinami sakinikeri yamahototogisu itsuka kinakamu The wisteria waves by the pond at my dwelling have bloomed; when will the mountain cuckoo come and sing?
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.30 Kokinsh IV:211 (Autumn) Anonymous Topic unknown yo mo samumi koromo karigane nakunae ni hagi no shitaba mo utsuroinikeri The night is cold, and none will lend a robe; as the wild geese call out the bush clovers lower leaves have started to change color.
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.31 Kokinsh VI:334 (Winter) Anonymous Topic unknown ume no hana sore to mo miezu The plum blossoms I cannot see which they are
29 30 31
Arai and Kojima, 16. Arai and Kojima, 56. Arai and Kojima, 78.

hisakata no amagiru yuki no nabete furereba as the distant sky is so misty with snow falling everywhere.
53
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.32 Kokinsh IX:409 (Travel) Anonymous Topic unknown honobono to akashi no ura no asagiri ni shimagakure yuku fune o shi zo omou Dimly, dimly, in the morning mist of Akashi Bay, I think of a boat going island-hidden.
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.33 Kokinsh XIII:621 (Love) Anonymous Topic unknown awanu yo no furu shirayuki to tsumorinaba ware sae tomo ni kenubeki mono o As nights we cannot meet pile up like drifts of fallen snow, so too shall I vanish, just melting away.
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.34 Kokinsh XIII:671 (Love) Anonymous Topic unknown kaze fukeba nami utsu iwa no matsu nare ya ne ni arawarete nakinuberanari When the wind blows the waves beat the crag, washing bare the roots of the pine; so too shall I be exposed crying aloud my love.
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.35
32 33 34 35
Arai Arai Arai Arai
and and and and
Kojima, Kojima, Kojima, Kojima,
110. 134. 192. 205.
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Kokinsh XVII:907 (Miscellaneous) Anonymous Topic unknown azusayumi isobe no komatsu tare ka yo ni ka yorozuyo kanete tane o makikemu Catalpa bow who, and in what time, thinking of a thousand ages ahead, might have planted the seed of the small pine on the rocky shore?
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro36
Some textual variants of the Kokinsh also have a Hitomaro-related note for the following poem, to give a total of eight Hitomaro-related poems:37
Kokinsh V:284 (Autumn) Anonymous Topic unknown Tatsutagawa momijiba nagaru kamunabi no Mimuro no yama ni shigure fururashi On the Tatsuta River, the autumn leaves ow; on Mimuro Mountain, the abode of the gods, cold rain must be falling.
Also, On the Asuka River, the autumn leaves ow. This poem is not noted as Hitomaros. Other texts are the same.38
The poem takes a typically intellectual Kokinsh approach to its material, speculating as to the reason for observed natural phenomena: the leaves must be oating down the river because of the runoff from the autumnal rains falling on Mount Mimuro. Nonetheless, of all the Kokinsh poems with any kind of Hitomaro connection, this is the only one with any noticeable similarities to a Manysh poem. Comparisons have been drawn between this poem and the following, the opening lines of which are clearly similar to those suggested in the note to Kokinsh V:284:39
Arai and Kojima, 273. Yokoyama Satoshi, Heian Hitomaro k: Kokinsh o chshin to shite. Nish gakusha daigaku jinbun rons 39 (7/1998): 6. 38 Arai and Kojima, 96. The second part of the note, This poem is not noted as Hitomaros. Other texts are the same, does not appear in the SNKBT, NKBZ, or Shinch NKSS texts, but does appear in the text used in the Iwanami bunko Kokinwakash, ed. Saeki Umetomo (Iwanami, 1981). 39 Yokoyama, Heian Hitomaro, 8.
36 37

Manysh X:2210, Anonymous On autumn leaves Asukagawa momijiba nagaru Kazuraki no yama no ko no ha wa ima shi chirurashi On the Asuka River, the autumn leaves ow; the leaves of the trees on the Kazuraki mountains must be falling now.
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However, despite Kokinsh V:284s similarity to this poem (and thus its possible plausibility as a Hitomaro poem), its attribution to Hitomaro is probably due rather to the Kana Preface description of the emperor viewing the leaves on the Tatsuta River than to any echoes of the Manysh. The footnote following the poem in Kokinsh, thought to have been written in by Fujiwara no Teika,40 is pointing out the lack of a Hitomaro attribution. The reason why such an attribution would have been expected for this poem by later readers becomes clear when we consider the poem that directly precedes it:
Kokinsh V:283 (Autumn) Anonymous Topic unknown Tatsutagawa momijiba midarete nagarumeri wataraba nishiki naka ya taenamu On the Tatsuta River, the leaves seem to ow in disarray; crossing now would surely tear asunder their brocade.
A certain person said that this was [a poem] by the Nara emperor.41
This poem, which precedes V: 284, is ofcially anonymous but attributed to the Nara emperor in a note very similar to those in which attribution to Hitomaro is made for other Kokinsh poems. Thus the notes suggest an expectation that Hitomaro was with the Nara emperor when the latter perceived the leaves on the Tatsuta River as brocadeas described in the Kokinsh Kana Prefaceand recorded his thoughts in the form of poetry. This scenario, tentatively suggested here by the notes, is given more full and denite form in a slightly later text, the tenth-century poem-tale (uta monogatari ) Yamato monogatari, the 151st section of which reads as follows:
40 41
Katagiri, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, I:985. Arai and Kojima, 96.
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On the day that the same emperor looked upon the autumn leaves on the Tatsuta River, which were at their most splendid, Hitomaro [composed this poem]: Tatsutagawa momijiba nagaru kamunabi no Mimuro no yama ni shigure fururashi The Emperor: Tatsutagawa momijiba midarete nagarumeri wataraba nishiki naka ya taenamu Thus they amused themselves.42 On the Tatsuta River, the leaves seem to ow in disarray; crossing now would surely tear asunder their brocade. On the Tatsuta River, the autumn leaves ow; on Mimuro Mountain, the abode of the gods, cold rain must be falling.
Finally, the attribution to Hitomaro is made explicit in an imperially commissioned anthology, the most highly prized genre of waka collection. The third imperial anthology, Shiwakash, which was instrumental in cementing the attributions to Hitomaro of a number of poems previously ofcially regarded as anonymous, includes the Tatsuta River poem (Kokinsh V:284) with the following headnote:43
Shish VI:219 (Winter) Kakinomoto no Hitomaro At the time when the Nara emperor made an excursion to see the autumn leaves on the Tatsuta River, this poem was presented together [with His Majestys]
One may speculate that it was this denite attribution that Teika had in mind when he noted that the Kokinsh made no such statements about the poems authorship. As noted earlier, Kokinsh V:284 is the only Hitomaro-related poem in the Kokinsh to bear even a passing resemblance to any Manysh poem. There are a handful of Manysh poems that appear (sometimes in variant form) in the Kokinsh, but the poems attributed by their notes to Hitomaro are not among them.44
42 Katagiri Yichi et al. ed., Taketori monogatari, Ise monogatari, Yamato monogatari, Heich monogatari, Nihon koten bungaku zensh 8 (Shgakukan, 1972), 399. 43 Komachiya, Shiwakash, 63. 44 Yokoyama, Heian Hitomaro, 10.
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It must be kept in mind here that, just as in the case of the Iwami banka in volume II of the Manysh, the attributions and contexts of the Hitomaro-related poems in the Kokinsh are provided by the editorial notes which accompany them, either as headnotes (kotobagaki ), introducing the poems topic or the circumstances of its composition, or footnotes, which add further information, including authorship if none has been specied. The notes play a crucial role in determining the way a poem is read, and have greatly inuenced the interpretation and canonization of Hitomaro-related poems in the Manysh (for instance, Hitomaros death poem, II:223, linked to Iwami only through the headnote), the Kokinsh (the tentative attribution of seven poems to Hitomaro, including the Akashi Bay poem), and the Shish (the attribution of anonymous Manysh poems to Hitomaro). The power of such editorial notes as an instrument of canonization is amplied in a prestigious text like the Kokinsh, whose treatment or presentation of the poems itself becomes canonical, determining the course of their subsequent reception. Whether it was the Kokinsh compilers themselves who added the footnotes in which the attributions to Hitomaro are made is unclear, although they are thought to have been added to the text at a fairly early stage, and may be representative of the general view of Hitomaro around the time of the Kokinshs compilation.45 Likewise, the old interpolated notes to the Kana Preface are thought to have been inserted into the text of the Kokinsh by the mid-eleventh century; a note in the Kiyosuke-bon Kokinsh records that the Kokinsh text owned by Fujiwara no Michitoshi (10471099) included an attribution of the old notes to the Kana Preface to Kint.46 This attribution is the earliest extant attempt to determine their authorship (although Kiyosuke himself doubted that Kint was in fact responsible). The old notes are very similar to Kints notes on the Mana Preface in several places, and modern scholarly opinion is divided as to whether this reects Kints authorship or whether his notes served as the textual basis for a later commentator, who adapted them to the Kokinsh Kana Preface, both reecting the reverence accorded Kint by later poets and foreshadowing the establishment of the medieval waka houses and their
Katagiri, Kokinsh zenhyshaku, I:216. Nishimura Kayoko, Kokinsh kanajo koch no seiritsu, in her Heian kki kagaku no kenky (Izumi shoin, 1997), 18.
45 46
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commentarial traditions.47 Regardless of their authorship, the old interpolated notes serve as a very early and very signicant stage in Kokinsh reception, the rst of the many layers of interpretation and editorial mediation to surround the text over the centuries. Unlike later commentaries, the old notes are written into the Kokinsh and often treated as part of the text itself, and they play an important role in the reception of the Hitomaro-attributed poems in the Kokinsh, as they highlight two of those poems for particular attention by quoting them as exemplary poems for Tsurayukis sage of poetry. The most central of these to Hitomaros later receptionindeed, one of the most important texts involved in that processis the anonymous travel poem Kokinsh IX:409.
Kokinsh IX:409 (Travel) Anonymous Topic unknown honobono to akashi no ura no asagiri ni shimagakure yuku fune o shi zo omou Dimly, dimly, in the morning mist of Akashi Bay, I think of a boat going island-hidden.
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.
This poem (hereafter referred to as the Akashi Bay poem) recurs countless times in subsequent Hitomaro-related texts and is subject to a dizzying range of interpretations, being read as everything from an elegy for Prince Takechi48 to a magical incantation for improving ones poetry.49 Within the context of the Kokinsh, its attribution seems consistent with then-current ideas about Hitomaros poetry: the Kana Preface passage identifying Hitomaro as a sage of poetry mentions his poetic confusion of the cherry blossoms of Mount Yoshino with clouds (the cherry blossoms of Mount Yoshino on a spring morning
47 Sugita Mayuko, Kint kagaku to Kokinsh jo ch: kanajo koch to Kint jo ch no sengo, in Suzuki Jun et al. ed., Waka: kaishaku no paradaimu. Kasama shoin, 1998, 117. 48 The seventeenth-century Hitomaro himitsush (Secret Notes on Hitomaro) identies this poem as a banka for Prince Takechi (654696), the eldest son of Emperor Temmu who was commemorated by Hitomaro in a banka in the Manysh (II:199201). 49 In, for instance, the Reizei house commentary Kokinsh ch, in which aspiring poets were encouraged to recite the poem three times every morning and make the appropriate offerings to a portrait of Hitomaro (wa Iwao, Hitomaro no jitsuz [wa shob, 1990], 238).
59
were realized as clouds in the heart of Hitomaro). The technique of visual confusion, or mitate, involved in this description of Hitomaros poetry features in both the Akashi Bay poem and the second of the two exemplary poems given for Hitomaro in the old notes to the Kokinsh Kana Preface:
Kokinsh VI:334 (Winter) Anonymous Topic unknown ume no hana sore to mo miezu hisakata no amagiru yuki no nabete furereba The plum blossoms I cannot see which they are as the distant sky is so misty with snow falling everywhere.
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.
The prominence accorded the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409) in later poetic texts and its canonization as the prime manifestation of Hitomaros genius was due not only to its inclusion in the Kokinsh but to the fact that it was singled out as one of Hitomaros exemplary poems by the old notes to the Kana Preface. The poem was particularly highly prized by Kint, who included it in the uppermost level of poetry in his Waka kuhon (Nine Grades of Japanese Poetry, after 1009), a selection of exemplary poems arranged in grades modeled on the nine levels of rebirth in the Pure Land paradise. The poem was selected for inclusion in a number of other anthologies and critical texts between its emergence in the Kokinsh in 905 and the rst eigu ceremony for the worship of Hitomaro in 1118; it is included in Shinsen waka sh (Newly Selected Collection of Poems, c. 934); Kokin waka rokuj (Six Notebooks of Old and New Japanese Poems); Kingyokush (Collection of Gold and Jewels, 1007); Zenjgoban utaawase (Former Poetry Contest in Fifteen Rounds, c. 1008); Sanjninsen (Selection of Thirty People, c. 1009); Sanjrokuninsen (10091012); Shinshish (Inner Chamber Secret Notes, c. 1012); Wakan reish (Collection of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing, c. 1012); Shunrai zuin (Shunrais Poetic Essentials, 11111113); and in all three textual lines of the Hitomaro sh (Hitomaro Collection).50 What is most striking about these texts is that seven of them (Kingyokush to Wakan reish) were compiled by Fujiwara
50 Sasaki Takahiro. Hitomaro no shink to eigu. Kokubungaku Kenky Shirykan ed. Manysh no shomondai. Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1997, 136137.
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no Kint51 Like Tsurayuki before him, Kint was making a deliberate attempt to give the waka tradition some authority, to raise its position as a literary art to a similar one to that occupied by Chinese poetry.52 The great esteem in which this particular poem was held by inuential literary gures such as Kint did much to enhance Hitomaros reputation, and may also have been a contributing factor in his selection for the Rokujs eigu ceremony, which can be seen in part as a result of the reception of Kints poetic preferences.53 Manysh Reception As described above, the Kokinsh includes Manysh poems despite the compilers explicit intent to exclude them, and also attributes nonManysh poems to Hitomaro. The compilers apparent inability to determine what is and is not a Manysh poem reects the state of Manysh reception in the early Heian period. Reading the Manysh was a daunting prospect for early Heian readers, and the difculties involved can be inferred from Sugawara no Michizanes preface to his Shinsen manysh (Newly Selected Manysh) of 893, in which the eminent scholar complains that the Manyshs phrases are in disorder and its characters confused; to enter it is difcult and to understand it is hard.54 The title of Shinsen manysh reects an awareness of the Manysh as historical model and ancestral text, as does the twenty-volume structure and the original title of the Kokinsh, Shoku manysh (Continued Manysh), which serves as further evidence of the belief held by the Kokinsh compilers that the Manysh was an anthology compiled by imperial command.55 This belief is also apparent in the Kokinsh Mana Prefaces description of the Heizei emperor ordering the compilation of the Manysh.
Sasaki, Hitomaro no shink to eigu, 137. Konishi Jinichi. A History of Japanese Literature: Volume Three: The High Middle Ages. Tr. Aileen Gatten and Mark Harbison. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991, 27. 53 Sasaki, Hitomaro no shink to eigu, 137. 54 Monku sakuran shi, jitai zatsuj shi, hairu koto kataku satoru koto katashi. Quoted in Suzuki Hideo, Many ka no densh, in his Kodai waka shi ron. Tky daigaku shuppan kai, 1990, 359. 55 Yamaguchi Hiroshi, Kokin senja no Many ishiki, in Ozawa Masao ed., Sandaish no kenky. Meiji shoin, 1981, 153.
51 52
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Despite Michizanes comments, however, progress was being made in Manysh study: all of the tanka in the Manyshabout four thousand poems, or ninety percent of the entire textwere supplied with reading marks, the so-called koten or old marks, in the early Heian Period.56 The koten were probably added to the Manysh during the 960s by the Nashitsubo no gonin (Five Men of the Pear Chamber), a committee led by Minamoto no Shitag (911983) that had also compiled the second imperial anthology, Gosensh (Collection of Later Selections), in 951. Following the work of the Nashitsubo no gonin, the Manysh was circulated more widely, probably in the form of books of excerpts rather than as twenty-volume texts.57 However, even before the koten were supplied to the text, there seem to have been a large number of Manysh poems in circulation that were passed down orally and independently of the collection as a whole. The existence of such poems is suggested by the similarity in tone of old Kokinsh poems to Manysh poems, and also from the inclusion in the Kokinsh of poems that also appear in the Manysh.58 Thus by the eleventh century Manysh poems were being passed down by two routes: in the text of the Manysh, thanks to the koten, and orally. This text of the Manysh, however, was not necessarily in twenty-volume form, but could have been a selection of poems, possibly transcribed in hiragana for ease of reading. Concrete inuence of Manysh poetry on that of the Kokinsh seems particularly pronounced in seasonal and love poetry,59 and may provide clues as to which parts of the Manysh were best known at the time (by either route of transmission). Rather than the Kokinsh, a more signicant textual medium for the dissemination of Manysh poetry and poetics into Heian literature is the Kokin waka rokuj (Six Books of Old and New Japanese Poetry) of the late tenth century. Its compiler unknown, the Kokin rokuj was designed to serve as a poetic reference manual, with 4,370 poems carefully arranged under 517 poetic topics. The Manysh is represented by approximately 1,260 poems, a signicant proportion of the total; poems from the Kokinsh and Gosensh also feature prominently. A similar
56 Suzuki, Many ka no densh, 359. The text was not completely supplied with reading marks until 1246, when Sengaku (1203c. 1272) completed a denitive edition. 57 Suzuki, Many ka no densh, 359. 58 Suzuki, Many ka no densh, 361. 59 Suzuki, Many ka no densh, 361.
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pattern to that mentioned earlier is seen in that the Manysh poems show a bias toward anonymous love and seasonal poems.60 Despite the signicance of the inclusion of Manysh poems in such an inuential reference work, where they are invested with some authority by virtue of being held up as legitimate poetic models, their reception in this context is complicated by the fact that they were not all taken directly from the text of the Manysh itself but also seem to include orallytransmitted poems and variants. The varied means of its transmission at this time makes the Manysh a problematic concept, since it is impossible to know precisely what form the text may have taken in a given instance. The one meaningful sense in which the entire Manysh could be spoken of was as an idea, as a symbol of the accumulated poetic greatness of the era preceding that of the Kokinsh. Indeed, the Manysh is canonized in the Kokinsh Kana Preface as just such a symbol, a prestigious anthology located in a golden poetic past, with no specic reference being made to its poems. This is very similar to the treatment given Hitomaro (and Akahito): Hitomaro is lauded as an uta no hijiri and his poetic skills extolled, yet his poems themselves do not appear in the Kana Preface or anywhere else in the Kokinsh. Thus one can argue that in the Heian and medieval periods parallels can be drawn between the canonization processes applied to the Manysh and to Hitomaro. In both cases we see two processes at work: on the one hand, the canonization of an idea, a symbol of the Japanese poetic heritage, rather than a text or person, and on the other, the reception of the actual texts involved. According to this model, Manysh reception can be said to be taking place on two levels: the Manysh is canonized in the Kokinsh Kana Preface as an ancestral imperial anthology, while the actual poems of the Manysh make their way into Heian literary discourse via mediating texts such as the Kokin rokuj. The importance of the Manysh as an ancestral text, specically as an alternative to the Kokinsh, became particularly important in the medieval period as the various poetic schools competed in laying claim to the cultural capital represented by earlier poetic anthologies. The Manysh was taken up, for example, in the critical writing of Kygoku Tamekane (12541332), compiler of the fourteenth imperial anthology, the Gyokuysh (Collection of Jewelled Leaves) of 1312. In
60
Suzuki, Many ka no densh, 362.
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his Tamekaneky wakash (Lord Tamekanes Notes on Poetry) of circa 12851287 he praises the Manysh style as elevated, profound and expressive.61 Subsequent interpretations of Tamekanes comments have led to perceptions of his Kygoku style as a kind of neo-Many approach, but examinations of his poetry itself have revealed only a very limited amount of concrete Many inuence.62 Tamekanes intent in writing Tamekaneky wakash seems to have been largely to defend his style of poetry against criticism from the rival Nij poetic school,63 and the many references in the text to great poets and works of the past may be seen as an attempt to add some poetic authority to the Kygoku style and consolidate its position as a legitimate alternative to the conservative Nij faction, rather than as an indication of specic inuence of these earlier texts. Tamekane is invoking the idea rather than the substance of the Manysh as an alternative to the Kokinsh; the irony is that that very idea, in terms of its formation, persuasive potency and poetic authority, derives in large part from the Kokinsh itself, from the treatment given the Manysh in Tsurayukis Kana Preface. The twenty-one imperial waka anthologies tend to have derivative titles that stress their place in a series and foreground their status as descendants of valorized texts such as the sandaish (two of which, Gosensh and Shish, themselves have titles suggesting their positions following the Kokinsh). The rst such derivative title was that of the Goshish (Later Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poetry) of 1096, which, although announcing by its title its status as a sequel to the Shish of 1007, was actually a pivotal text in the turn towards a medieval poetics in terms of its representation of women poets and preference for landscape poetry. As the competition between the poetic houses intensied in the medieval period, the titles of the Nij-school anthologies grew increasingly derivative: the only imperial anthologies between the Shinkokinsh (1205) and Shinshokukokinsh (1439) not to have titles beginning shin, new, or shoku, continued, are those of the Kygoku school, Gyokuysh (mentioned above) and Fgash (Elegant collection, 1346). Titles alluding to the Manysh show a similar pattern to that evident in the Tamekaneky wakash: just as the titles of the Nij-school anthologies
Robert Huey and Susan Matisoff tr. Lord Tamekanes Notes on Poetry: Tamekaneky Wakash, Monumenta Nipponica 40:2 (1985): 138. 62 Huey and Matisoff, 129. 63 Huey and Matisoff, 129.
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constantly reafrm their descent from the heavily canonized Heian anthologies, so there are anthologies outside the Nij line of descent which invoke the Manysh in their titles as an alternative source of poetic authority. This is accomplished through the use of the element y, leaf in the anthology titles. While the word y, or ha, can refer to words, (for instance, in the form koto no ha, leaves of words, as seen in the Kokinsh Kana Preface), its use in an anthology title echoes that of the Manysh to an extent unlikely to be missed by anyone sufciently well-versed in waka to be compiling or naming a imperial anthology. An obvious example of this is the title of Tamekanes own anthology, Gyokuysh, which seems to be deliberately alluding to that of the Manysh, particularly when considered in conjunction with his remarks in Tamekaneky wakash quoted earlier. Another y-titled anthology positioned in opposition to the orthodoxy of its day is the Shinywakash (Collection of New Leaves, 1381), which was commissioned by Emperor Chkei (r. 13681383) and compiled by Prince Munenaga (b. 1311) at the southern court established by Emperor GoDaigo in Yoshino in 1336. As such it was in competition not just with the opposing poetic school (in this case, the Reizei school) but with the opposing court and emperor in the north. The alignment of poetic with political factions at court had become increasingly pronounced since the mid-thirteenth century, following the reign of GoSaga (r. 12201272), and the succession disputes between those factions came to a head with GoDaigos attempt to wrest power from the Hj through the Kemmu Restoration of 13331336. During the Northern and Southern Courts period (13361392), what history has recorded as the ofcial line of successionthe northern courtstayed in Kyoto, producing the Shingoshish (New Collection of Later Gleanings), in 1383. The fact that the southern court felt compelled to compile a collection of its own shows the importance of the imperial anthology as an institution through which a regime could claim the high cultural ground; the use of the y element in the title, invoking the Manysh, can be seen as indicative of the compilers need to seek alternative poetic ancestry from that of his rivals to the north.64
One can also move backward in time and apply this logic to the title of the fth imperial anthology, Kinysh (Collection of Golden Leaves), compiled by Minamoto no Shunrai in 1127. It broke sharply with the titles of its predecessors, and was also innovative in terms of its content, including many contemporary poets and such novel
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Thus we can see that Hitomaros reception in the early Heian period was largely dependent on his treatment in the prestigious Kokinsh, and furthermore seems to have been mainly based on poems of unknown provenance which came to be associated with him rather than on the poems which bear his name in the Manysh. Like the Manysh itself, Hitomaro comes to be seen as a symbol of the great poetic past, and seems to be picked up as such without any particular consideration of the poems he is actually thought to have composed. In addition to Hitomaros newfound identity as a sage of poetry, another element of his legend develops at this time (and is canonized in a imperial anthology itself ): the story of his supposed visit to China, which is hinted at in two poems in the Shish but can be seen as drawing on a number of previous texts, including the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409) and travel poems in the Manysh. Hitomaro Travels to China The treatment of Hitomaro in the third imperial anthology, Shish, where over a hundred poems are presented as his works, constitutes a signicant stage in his reception. In contrast to the cautious editorial policy pursued by the Kokinsh compilers, where the legendary quality and dubious origins of the Hitomaro-related poems are recognized and the association with him is made only in the footnote and not as the formal attribution itself, the Shish includes a large number of Hitomaro-related poems of similarly uncertain authenticity which it (for the rst time) attributes directly to him. The Shish includes 104 poems rmly attributed to Hitomaro, more than any other poet except Tsurayuki (who has 107). These Hitomaro poems can be classied according to their origins: among those included in the Manysh, the most numerous are anonymous poems (41/104), followed by poems attributed to the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kash (27/104) and poems attributed to Hitomaro (13/104); there are also a few poems from the Kokinsh, the Hitomaro sh, and elsewhere.65
poetic forms as tanrenga, short linked verse. It was also the rst imperial anthology to consist of ten volumes rather than twenty. 65 For a complete listing of types of Hitomaro poem in the Shish, see Komachiya Teruhiko, Shish no Hitomaro uta, in ch waka to shiteki hatten, ed. Higuchi Yoshimaro (Kasama shoin, 1997), 14951.
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The suggestion has been made that the reappearance of poems in the Shish reects the intent of the compilers to correct the mistakes of previous imperial anthologies.66 Thus we see cases such as that of Kokinsh V:284, mentioned above, on autumn leaves on the Tatsuta River, which is anonymous in the Kokinsh but formally attributed to Hitomaro in the Shish. A similar effect is seen in the many anonymous Manysh poems that reappear in the Shish as Hitomaro poems, and, in extreme cases, in poems that are attributed to other poets in the Kokinsh and Manysh but are nonetheless presented as Hitomaro poems in Shish. The attribution to Hitomaro of Manysh poems that were originally anonymous or even by other people which we see in the Shish set the tone for his treatment in subsequent Heian texts. Although poetic preferences changed, and Hitomaro poems disappeared from chokusensh until the neo-classical Shinkokinsh two hundred years later (1205), a similar pattern can be seen there, as 13 of the 23 Hitomaro poems included in the Shinkokinsh rst appeared as anonymous poems in the Manysh.67 The strange and complicated state of Hitomaro poems in the Shish68 produces an image of Hitomaro different from that known from the Manysh69 or the Kokinsh. One of the legends associated with Hitomaro at this time is the one according to which he traveled to China. This legend appears for the rst time in the Shish and is a prime example of how the reception of the Manysh and of the Kokinsh could combine to contribute to the construction of Hitomaros image in the Heian period. The traveling-to-China legend is depicted in the following poems, which appear in the Shish attributed to Hitomaro:
Shish VI:353 (Parting) Kakinomoto no Hitomaro In China amatobu ya kari no tsukai ni itsushika mo Nara no miyako ni kotozute yaramu Taking as my messengers The sky-ying geese, soon would I send word to the Nara capital70
66 67 68 69 70
Katagiri Yichi, Kokinwakash igo (Kasama shoin, 2000), 413. kuma, 171. Komachiya, Shish no Hitomaro uta, 155. Katagiri, Kokinsh igo, 422. Komachiya, Shiwakash, 101.

Shish VIII:478 (Miscellaneous) Hitomaro Composed when he was sent to China as an envoy y sareba koromode samushi wagimoko ga tokiarai koromo yukite haya kimu As evening comes, my sleeves are cold how I long to quickly go and wear the robes my girl has washed.71
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Like so many of the poems attributed to Hitomaro in the Shish, these are variant texts of Manysh poems, included in the Shish with new authorship and new headnotes, in other words, with a new narrative context. The role here of the Manysh as the original (even if not immediate) source of the poem texts themselves is clear, and there also seems to be clear inuence from the Travel volume (IX) of the Kokinsh, both in terms of the arrangement of the poems, and inasmuch as that it reinforces the association between Hitomaro and the motif of travel. The association of Hitomaro and travel which appears here in the Shish begins in the Manysh, although it was later made famous by the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409). There are a number of Hitomaro poems involving travel in the Manysh, including the Iwami smonka and Iwami banka examined in the previous chapter, and also a group of poems in volume III entitled Eight travel poems by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro (Manysh III:249256), which describe a number of places on the Inland Sea. The group includes the following two poems which specically mention Akashi:
Manysh III:254 tomoshibi no Akashi no ooto iramu hi ya kogiwakare namu ie no atari mizu Manysh III:255 amazakaru hina no nagachi yu koikureba When we come, longing, up the long road from the distant wilds, Entering the straits of lamp-bright Akashi with the setting sun, will we row on and away, unable to see our homes?72
71 72
Komachiya, Shiwakash, 134. Nishimiya Kazutami, Manysh zench, v. 3, Yhikaku, 1983, 5859.
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Akashi no to yori Yamato shima miyu
chapter two
from the straits of Akashi we can see the land of Yamato.
In one text, [the last line] says, we can see our homes.73
These two poems seem to be composed from the perspectives of a traveler heading west through the straits of Akashi (III:254) and one returning to the capital region (III:255) (the alternative rendering for the last line of the second poem, as presented in the footnote, would make the parallel even more explicit, and this is in fact the version that appears in Manysh volume XV). A little further on in volume III are a pair of poems whose headnote makes the supposed circumstances of their composition quite clear:
Poems composed by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro when at sea on the way down to Tsukushi Manysh III:303 naguwashiki Inami no umi no okitsunami chie ni kakurinu Yamato shimane wa Manysh III:304 ookimi no too no mikado to ari kayou shimato o mireba kamiyo shi oboyu When I look upon the straits where people come and go to the sovereigns distant court, I think of the age of the gods.75 Hidden by a thousand layers of the waves of the ofng of the sea of Inami, so splendidly named the land of Yamato.74
The Inami no umi referred to here is the area of the Inland Sea directly to the west of the straits of Akashi, known today as the Harima no nada; in other words, it was the rst body of water one entered after passing Akashi when heading west, away from the capital. Likewise, the straits (shimato) referred to in the second poem can be understood as those of Akashi, through which boats would pass bound for the distant government outpost of Dazaifu in Tsukushi (modern Fukuoka Prefecture).76
73 74 75 76
Nishimiya, Nishimiya, Nishimiya, Nishimiya,
60. 140. 142. 140143.
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It seems likely that these Akashi-related Manysh travel poems played some role in helping to establish the connection with Akashi that the Kokinshs Akashi Bay poem draws on, and, despite the fact that the headnotes draw no explicit connection between the two groups of poems, a connection can still be easily imagined between the rst group of travel poems and the poems en route to Tsukushi, due to the similarity of their setting (on the Inland Sea) and their similar references to seeing or losing sight of Yamato, the homeland.77 It should be remembered at this point that Yamato, roughly corresponding to modern Nara Prefecture, was a land-locked province separated from the sea by the provinces of Settsu, Kchi and Izumi (modern Osaka Prefecture and part of Hygo Prefecture). In understanding the signicance of these poems, the issue of whether the travelers could actually make out the mountains of Yamato from aboard ship in the straits of Akashi is less important than that of Akashis status as the westernmost boundary of kinai, the home provinces around the capital.78 Kinai, comprised of the provinces of Yamato, Yamashiro, Settsu, Kchi, and Izumi, was the area under the direct control of the emperor; beyond its borders lay the outer land of kigai, seen as dangerous and uncontrolled. The boundaries of kinai were more than simply geographical; they symbolized the reach of the political power and spiritual authority of the emperor. For a high-ranking courtier, making an unauthorized crossing of the border into kigai could be seen as a serious transgression, tantamount to treason in its departure from and implicit rejection of the sphere of imperial power; laws prohibiting holders of the Fifth Rank and above from crossing into kigai are mentioned in an entry from the Twelfth Month of 998 in the Gonki, the diary of Fujiwara no Yukinari (9721027).79 Kigai was the realm of gory, angry ghosts, and ekijin, deities of pestilence, and lustration ceremonies were held at
77 Nishimiya Kazutami suggests that the group of eight travel poems (III:249256) and the pair of poems set on the way to Tsukushi (III:303304) were composed on the same trip. He points out that the poems by Prince Nagata which precede the group of eight poems in the Manysh (III:245248) bear a headnote indicating that they were composed when he was sent to Tsukushi, and suggests that the Hitomaro poems were also to be understood as having been composed en route to Tsukushi (Nishimiya, 53). 78 Sakurai Mitsuru, Akashi to: Hitomaro no tabi to densh, Kokugakuin zasshi 94:1 (1/1993): 84. 79 Hydo, 111112.
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court to banish such spirits from kinai to kigai. Thus Akashi was a place imbued with great signicance for travelers, marking their point of nal departure from familiar territory into the dangerous wilds beyond, and, were they fortunate enough to survive the trip, marking their arrival home again. Like other liminal points on ones journey, such as passes through the mountains, the border of kinai and kigai was a potentially dangerous point, where particular care had to be taken to placate angry ghosts and the deities of the road (including the sea-routes).80 It became customary to make offerings at such points, rstly of clothing and later of paper strips and poems. These offerings and the poems recited at such points became known as tamuke and tamuke uta, and many travel poems fall into this category.81 The Manysh poems III:254, III:255 and III:303, all quoted earlier, can be regarded as tamuke uta, required at Akashi to ensure the safety of the travellers moving in either direction across the boundary.82 In volume XV of the Manysh we do nd a connection, however tenuous, between Hitomaro and diplomatic missions to the continent: a number of Hitomaros travel poems are recited by kenshiragishi, envoys sent on a diplomatic mission to Silla ( J. Shiragi, a kingdom on the Korean peninsula), in 736. The Manysh includes 146 poems by the kenshiragishi (XV:35783722), among which is a group of ten poems with the heading, old poems recited at a certain place (XV:36023611). One possible inference from this is that the place in question was one where prayers for safe passage were required, particularly if one accepts the tamuke function of the Hitomaro travel poems. Four of these old poems are included in the group of eight travel poems by Hitomaro that appears in volume III of the Manysh.83
Manysh XV:3606 [III:250] Tamamo karu otome o sugite Passing by the maidens cutting jewel-weed,
Sakurai, Kroshinin no uta, 45. Sakurai, Kroshinin no uta, 45. 82 Yokoyama Satoshi, Hitomaro no denshteki sekai to utamakura: Akashi to iu kkan o chshin toshite, in Koten to minzokugaku ronsh: Sakurai Mitsuru sensei tsuit, ed. Koten to minzokugaku no kai. f, 1997, 185. 83 Texts of Manysh XV:36063609 are from Yoshii Iwao, Manysh zench, v. 15, Yhikaku, 1988, 7277.
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natsukusa no Noshima ga saki ni iori su ware wa on the cape of Noshima of the summer grasses I build myself a hut.
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In the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro poem, it says, Passing Minume, and also, the boat drew nearer. Manysh XV:3607 [III:252] shirotae no Fujie no ura ni izari suru ama to ya miramu tabiyuku ware o Manysh XV:3608 [III:255] amazakaru hina no nagachi yu koikureba Akashi no to yori Ie no atari miyu When we come, longing, up the long road from the distant wilds, from the straits of Akashi we can see our homes. In Fujie Bay of the white hempen cloth, will they see me, setting out on my journey, as a sherman, shing?
In the poem by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, [the last line] says, We can see the land of Yamato. Manysh XV:3609 [III:256] Muko no umi no niwa yoku arashi izari suru ama no tsuribune nami no ue yu miyu The sea of Muko seems a good place: the shing boats of the sherfolk can be seen above the waves.
In the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro poem, it says, The sea of Kei, and also says, like cut rushes scattered I see them come, the shing boats.
However, most of the poems recorded in this section of volume XV were composed by the kenshiragishi themselves, and among them we nd the following anonymous poems:
Manysh XV:3676, Anonymous amatobu ya kari no tsukai ni eteshika mo Nara no miyako ni kotozute yaramu Taking as my messengers the sky-ying geese, soon would I send word to the Nara capital
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Manysh XV:3666, Anonymous y sareba koromode samushi wagimoko ga tokiarai koromo yukite haya kimu As evening comes, my sleeves are cold how I long to quickly go and wear the robes my girl has washed.
These are the original versions of the poems that reappear in the Shish as Hitomaros China poems. There is very little variation of the waka texts themselves between the Manysh and the Shish; the main change made in the course of these poems reception in the Shish is their new attribution to Hitomaro, a pattern seen in numerous other Hitomaro Shish poems. Thus it appears that a triangular relationshipbetween these poems and travel to the continent, and these poems and Hitomaro, and Hitomaro and travel to the continentwas already established by the time of the Shishs compilation. Although the Hitomaro travel poems appearing in volume XV are identied therein as old poems, presumably suggesting that they had been in circulation for some time, and were the work of a poet from a generation preceding that of the kenshiragishi, one can nevertheless imagine a connection being made between the appearance of Hitomaros poems in the context of a diplomatic voyage in volume XV and the two sets of travel poems from volume III, particularly those apparently composed on the way to Tsukushi (III:3034), a place where the envoys stopped en route to Silla. The combined effect of these texts seems to have been inuential in transforming the legendary Hitomaro from the poet merely quoted by envoys at sea to an envoy himself. This does not explain, of course, why those two particular poems were chosen for inclusion in the Shish as Hitomaros works. Following the suggestion that, in an attempt to correct the mistakes of previous texts, the compilers of the Shish included poems from earlier anthologies in new settings, one may at least speculate that the process here is similar to that seen in the case of anonymous Kokinsh poems which reappear in the Shish correctly attributed to Hitomaro: the mistaken anonymous attribution in the Manysh is corrected in the Shish to reect the poems true authorship. The association of Hitomaro with envoys to the continent is made again, albeit less directly, in Kokinsh volume IX. Let us examine the Akashi Bay poem, so effectively highlighted in the old interpolated notes to the Kana Preface, in the context of its position in the body of the
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Kokinsh. It is placed very early, as the fourth poem, in volume IX, kiryo, Travel. The travel volume begins with Kokinsh IX:406.84
Kokinsh IX:406, Abe no Nakamaro Composed while looking at the moon in China ama no hara furisake mireba kasuga naru mikasa no yama no ideshi tsuki kamo When I look from afar at the plain of heaven, there is the moon which rose over Mount Mikasa in Kasuga!
About this poem, it has been passed down that long ago Nakamaro was sent to China to study, but [even] when many years had passed, he was unable to return home, and when another envoy arrived from this country, they left [China] to return together; at that time, on the coast at a place called Mingzhou, the people of that province held a banquet to see them off. When night fell, and [Nakamaro] saw the moon, which had risen and was most moving, he composed this poem. Kokinsh IX:407, Ono no Takamura Sent to someone in the capital as he was about to board the boat to depart when exiled to the Oki islands. wata no hara yaso shima kakete kogiidenu to hito ni wa tsugeyo ama no tsuribune Kokinsh IX:408, Anonymous Topic unknown miyako idete ky mika no hara izumikawa kawakaze samushi koromo kaseyama Kokinsh IX:409, Anonymous Topic unknown honobono to akashi no ura no asagiri ni Dimly, dimly in the morning mist of Akashi Bay, Leaving the capital, today I saw the Mika Moor. As I wondered when Id reach it, the river wind was cold; lend me a robe, Lending Mountain. Tell them, o shing boat, that I have rowed out on the wide sea plain set with countless islands.
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Texts of Kokinsh IX:40610 are from Arai and Kojima, 133135.
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shimagakure yuku fune o shi zo omou
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I think of a boat going island-hidden.
Someone said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Kokinsh IX:410, Ariwara no Narihira [ He] headed east with one or two friends he had invited. When they arrived at a place called Eight Bridges in the province of Mikawa, the irises were blooming splendidly by the river; seeing this, they dismounted in the shade of the trees, and with the words, I shall compose on the sentiment of travel, setting the ve characters of irises [kakitsubata] at the beginning of each phrase, [he] composed this poem. karakoromo kitsutsu nareshi ni tsuma shi areba harubaru kinuru tabi o shi zo omou Since I have a wife familiar as my well-worn Chinese robe, how I think of this journey on which I have come so far.
These ve poems, appearing at the head of volume IX, have been characterized by modern scholars as poems describing the beginning of the journey,85 and are followed by poems that describe the middle stages of the journey and then the return home. In this the arrangement of the travel volume can be seen to follow the same careful rules of sequencing as other Kokinsh volumes such as those on the seasons or love. For the purposes of comparison with Hitomaros China poems in the Shish, we must note that Abe no Nakamaro (698770), author of the rst poem in Kokinsh volume IX (IX:406), was a Nara-period scholar who actually went to Tang China. The ofcial account of his trip appears in the Shoku nihongi: Nakamaro was sent to the Tang as a student in 717 at the age of 19 and attempted to return to Japan in 753, but was shipwrecked and barely made it back to the continent. He died in Changan at the age of 73, after spending 54 years in China. The authorship of this poem is not entirely clear, but it is thought to have been passed down from around the time of Nakamaro himself.86 It was customary for envoys to the Tang to pray at the Kasuga shrine at the foot of Mount Mikasa before departing; thus the poem can be taken as Nakamaros recollection of one of his last evenings in Japan
85 86
Takeoka, 936. Katagiri, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, I:138139.
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(and was presumably alluding to the fact that he expected his evening in Mingzhou to be the last one spent in China). Continuing the theme of travel to China, Ono no Takamuras (802852) poem (IX:407) was composed on the occasion of his banishment for refusing to undertake the journey to the continent despite having been nominated as vice-consul for such a voyage in 834.87 Poem IX:408 is from the oldest stratum of Kokinsh poems, and is similar in tone to many Manysh poems. Anonymous and lacking any topic to give it context, it adds a suitably archaic avor to a sequence beginning with Nakamaros Nara-period poem in its use of famous place names (utamakura) in Yamato. Bearing in mind the careful arrangement of the Kokinsh Travel volume, and the fairly close proximity of the Nakamaro poem and the Akashi Bay poem, let us look again at the rst of the Hitomaro China poems in the Shish, this time with the poem that precedes it in that text:
Shish VI:352 (Parting), Kasa no Kanaoka The reply to a long poem composed by his wife when Kasa no Kanaoka crossed over to China nami no ue ni mieshi kojima no shimagakure yuku sora mo nashi kimi ni wakarete As the islet glimpsed above the waves is hidden behind the island, I am loath to leave and be apart from you.88
Shish VI:353 (Parting), Kakinomoto no Hitomaro In China amatobu ya kari no tsukai ni itsushika mo Nara no miyako ni kotozute yaramu Taking as my messengers the sky-ying geese, soon would I send word to the Nara capital.
There seems to be an clear parallel between the structure of this sequence and that appearing in the ninth volume of the Kokinsh: a poem by a real Nara-period envoy to Tang China is placed (in this case directly) ahead of a poem associated with Hitomaro. There is a link at the level of diction also, as the rst poem echoes a phrase from the
87 88
Katagiri, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, I:141. Komachiya, Shiwakash, 101.
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Akashi Bay poem, shimagakure, island-hidden. In this case Hitomaro is explicitly identied as the author of the latter poem, and the other poet is identied in the Shish as one Kasa no Kanaoka. This seems to be a misattribution (or at least an error in the transmission of the poets name), as the poem itself originally appears in the Manysh as the envoy poem to a chka by Kasa no Kanamura (dates unclear; active 724749), who was sent to the Tang in Tempy 5 (733) and composed the poem for his wife on his departure.
Manysh VIII:1454, Kasa no Kanamura [Following the chka with the headnote reading] A poem sent by the envoy to the Tang Kasa no Ason Kanamura in the intercalary Third Month, Spring, Tempy 5 (younger-brother-of-water-bird) nami no ue yu miyuru kojima no kumogakuri ana ikizukashi ai wakarenaba As the islet glimpsed from above the waves is hidden in the clouds, how I sigh in sorrow because we are apart.
There are a few differences in the poems diction between the Manysh and Shish versions: the most signicant in terms of its connection to Hitomaro is the changing of the Manysh poems kumogakuri, cloudhidden, to the Shishs shimagakure, island-hidden, a phrase which famously appears inand specically evokesthe Akashi Bay poem. The arrangement of the Kanaoka and Hitomaro poems in the Shish can be understood as emulating that in the Travel volume of the Kokinsh, where a travel poem associated with Hitomaro (there in the footnote, here as an explicit attribution) is preceded, closely if not directly, by a poem by or attributed to an historical gure who did actually make the journey to Tang China. There is no Travel volume in the Shish; Partingin which the Kasa no Kanaoka poem appearsis the nearest equivalent. The placement of the other Hitomaro China poem (Shish VIII:478) as one of a series of Hitomaro poems in a volume of miscellaneous poems is a little harder to account for, although its headnote does state quite explicitly that Hitomaro was sent to China. The legend of Hitomaro going to China, rst seen in the Shish, appears in a number of subsequent texts as an element of Hitomaros biography. The earliest reference to Hitomaro in China seems to be that in the entry devoted to him in the Kokinwakash mokuroku (Index to the Kokinsh), attributed to Fujiwara no Nakazane (10571118) and thought to have been compiled in 1113.
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Did Hitomaro go to China? In Volume Three of the Manysh, it says, Two poems by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro at Awaji, when he was going down to Tsukushi [Manysh III:303304] nani takaki tsunai no umi no okitsunami chie ni kakurenu Yamato shimane wa sumeragi no ttsu mikado to ari kayou shimato o mireba kamiyo shi zo omou How high hidden by a thousand layers of the waves of the ofng of the sea of Tsunai the land of Yamato. When I look upon the straits where people come and go to the sovereigns distant court, I think of the age of the gods.
As [it says] in these two poems, [Hitomaro] went down to Tsukushi. In Volume Six of the Shish, it says, A poem by Hitomaro [Shish VI:353; the Shish headnote actually reads, In Tang China] ama tobu ya kari no tsukai ni itsu shika mo Nara no miyako ni kotozute yaramu Taking as my messenger the sky-ying geese soon would I send word to the Nara capital.
This poem follows that by Kasa Kanaoka when he went to Tang China. So perhaps Hitomaro accompanied Kanaoka to China? However, it is said that they were not contemporaries. In Volume Eight of the same collection, it says, A poem by Hitomaro [Shish VIII:478; the Shish headnote actually reads, Composed when he was sent to Tang China.] Y sareba Koromode samushi Wagimoko ga Toki arai koromo Yukite haya mimu As evening comes, my sleeves are cold how I long to quickly go and see the robes my girl has washed.
As for this poem, it says that it was [composed] when he was sent to China. [Hitomaro] certainly went to China.89
Here the signicance of the arrangement of the poems in the Shish is clear, as the Mokuroku author speculates that Hitomaro and Kanaoka
89
Gunsho ruij v. 285: 137139.
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were envoys together on the basis of the consecutive placement of the poems (no commentator seems to have made similar claims for Hitomaro and Nakamaro on the basis of the Kokinsh poems, however). Fujiwara no Kiyosukes Fukurozshi introduces the topic of Hitomaro going to China as part of its discussion of when Hitomaro might have lived:
These are also like Hitomaro poems in the Shish. The headnote reads, Composed when he went to China as an envoy. The above are poems from when they had arrived in Tsukushi. Thinking on this, it is hard to indicate that Hitomaro died before Wad.90 Later thoughts: in the diary of the envoy to China tomo no Sukune Sademaro,91 it says that [there were] the Japanese envoy and scribe of Yamashiro, Jd no Hitomaro and the deputy envoy and deputy governor of Michinoku of the Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, Tamade no Hitomaro. It also says that the envoys in question departed on the fourth day of the Fourth Month of Tempy shh 1 [749], and arrived back in Ki Province on the twentieth day of the Ninth Month of Tempy shh 2 [750]. Also, there are in the Hitomaro sh poems on the matter of his going to China.92 Perhaps [the poem is by] this Hitomaro? But they have different clan names. Also, in the poems by each of them [in the Sademaro ki ] there are no poems by Hitomaro. Perhaps they have the same name as [Kakinomoto no Hitomaro].
Similar confusion over the four Hitomaros is seen in other texts, such as Gyokuden jinpi. The main issue here in Kiyosukes Fukurozshi seems to be whether Kakinomoto no Hitomaro went on the mission of 736, the mission described in the Manysh, or the mission of 749, as described in the now-lost Sademaro ki. Kiyosuke seems to accept that Hitomaro was on the mission in 736, and that other individuals named Hitomaro went to China in 749. The following and nal example, from an Edo-period poetic compendium, neatly shows how later readers inferred a connection between the
90 This conclusion seems to be reached through the conation of the mission to Silla of 736 and the mission to the Tang which Hitomaro is described as being on in the headnote to the Shish poem. The logic employed here seems to be that just as Hitomaros travel poems from volume III of Manysh were included anonymously amongst the poems in volume XV, so the anonymous XV:3666 ( y sareba) was actually a Hitomaro poem, its true authorship concealed in the Manysh but revealed in the Shish. Hence Hitomaro is seen as having actually been present on the mission of 736, and thus could not have died in Wad [708.1.11715.9.2] or before. 91 The Sademaro ki (Record of Sademaro), also mentioned in Kenshs Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kanmon and the Kokinwakash mokuroku but no longer extant. 92 Such poems do not appear in the current Hitomaro sh.
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travel sections of the Kokinsh and Shish, whether the Shish section with the rst of the China poems (VI:353) was consciously modeled on the Travel section in the Kokinsh (with the Akashi Bay poem), or not. It describes Hitomaro composing the Akashi Bay poem when passing through Akashi on his way to China.
Kasen kingyoku sh (Golden and Jewelled Notes on Poetic Immortals, 1683) It is also said that when Hitomaro went to Tang China he composed [this poem] on the scenery of the bay when he passed through Akashi in Harima province. It is included in the Travel volume of the Kokinsh, its topic unknown . . . There are also poems from the time when Hitomaro went to Tang China in the Shish. 93
The usual visitors dispatched to the continent were priests and scholars of Chinese, who would benet the most from Chinese and Buddhist scholarship; these included another Manysh poet, Yamanoue no Okura (660c. 733), and the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan, Kkai (774835). Although it seems from internal textual evidence in the Manysh that Hitomaro was familiar with works of Chinese poetry such as Wen xuan, this would hardly count as sufcient expertise in Chinese learning to qualify him for the long and dangerous trip to the continent. In historical terms it seems unlikely that someone known as primarily as a waka poet, indeed, someone regarded (even at that stage) as a representative waka poet, would have gone to China. The legends, of course, did not require an historical basis, but the incongruity of the situation may be one reason why a number of the later texts featuring the story of Hitomaro visiting China express doubt that he ever actually went. At rst glance, one may wonder whether there was some inuence on Hitomaros story from the so-called Tenjin visits Tang China (tot tenjin) legends, which after all involve another poet (albeit one best known for his works in Chinese) who became a deity, Sugawara no Michizane. However, the tot tenjin legends do not begin to appear until the mid-Muromachi period,94 some four hundred years
93 Kyto daigaku text, typeset in Kyto daigaku z daisbon kisho shsei, volume 10, ed. Kyto daigaku bungakubu kokugogaku kokubungaku kenkyshitsu. Kyto: Rinsen shoten, 1995: 215289. 94 Imaizumi Yoshio, Tenjin shink to tot tenjin densetsu no seiritsu, in Imaizumi Yoshio and Shimao Arata ed., Zen to tenjin, 11. Yoshikawa kbunkan, 2000.
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after the rst material describing Hitomaro going to China appears in the Shish, ruling out a direct causal relationship. Closely related to the trope of Hitomaro as envoy to the continent is another travel-related trope, Hitomaro as exile. This is an image of Hitomaro that combines elements of the narrative involving his travel, as depicted in the Akashi-related poems in the Manysh and Kokinsh, and the China-related poems in the Shish, with elements of the story of his misery and death in a strange place, as portrayed in the Iwami banka in the Manysh. In that sense the trope of Hitomaro as exile can be seen as a synthesis of these other travel-related Hitomaro narratives, drawing on various elements of his legend but also tting within the larger context of the phenomenon of exile. A classical plot archetype relating to exile, as dened by Origuchi Shinobu, is that of the exile of the young noble, kishu ryritan, in which a young hero is forced into isolation from society, suffers various trials and ordeals, and either returns triumphant or dies in exile.95 This plotline features in a number of well-known works, the earliest examples of which are found in the Kojiki, in the stories of kuninushi and Yamato Takeru. Heian-period examples include Ise monogatari, in which the protagonist is forced to travel down to the eastern provinces; we may note that the best-known poem from this Descent to the East (azuma kudari ) section directly follows the Akashi Bay poem in the Travel volume of the Kokinsh as IX:410. The most prominent Heian example, however, is probably that of Genji, who is exiled to Suma, the westernmost part of kinai, adjacent to the liminal site of Akashi. The overtones of exile which spread to the Akashi Bay poem from the poems with which it is grouped in Kokinsh IX are made explicit in the following story from the setsuwa (anecdote) collection Konjaku monogatari sh (Collection of Tales of Times Now Past, c. 1120), which combines two of the poems from the initial sequence of Kokinsh travel poems and takes as its protagonist the poet and scholar Ono no Takamura at the time of his banishment to the Oki islands in 838.
Akiyama Ken, Kishu ryritan, Nihon koten bungaku daijiten (Iwanami, 1983), II:128.
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Konjaku Monogatari sh XXIV:45 When Ono no Takamura was Sent to the Province of Oki and Composed a Poem Once upon a time, there was a man called Ono no Takamura. When, as the result of a certain incident, he was sent to the province of Oki; being about to board the boat and depart, he composed this poem and sent it to someone he knew in the capital: wata no hara yaso shima kakete kogiidenu to hito ni wa tsugeyo ama no tsuribune Tell them, o shing boat, that I have rowed out on the wide sea plain set with countless islands.
Going to a place called Akashi, he stopped for the night. Since it was about the Ninth Month, at dawn he was unable to sleep, and sat lost in thought, when he saw that a passing boat was hidden by the islands; moved, he composed the following poem, and wept: honobono to Akashi no ura no asagiri ni shimagakure yuku fune o shi zo omou Dimly, dimly, in the morning mist of Akashi Bay, I think of a boat going island-hidden.
This has been passed down as the tale told by Takamura on his return.96
The principle governing the arrangement of the stories in the Konjaku monogatari sh has been identied as niwa ichirui, two stories [of ] one type, and, in a further echo of the poems in the Kokinsh Travel volume, the story which is paired in the Konjaku monogatari with the Takamura story above concerns Abe no Nakamaro, the Nara-period envoy to the Tang whose poem on the moon over Mount Mikasa opens the Travel volume in Kokinsh (IX:406). Nakamaro was of course not ofcially exiled, yet he was, like an exile, unable to return home, and the poem attributed to him in Kokinsh IX involves similar sentiments of nostalgia and longing for an unreachable home. Thus Hitomaros possible status as an exile is hinted at in poems which appear with the Akashi Bay poem in the Kokinsh: Takamura, exiled to Oki; Ariwara no Narihira (825880), the implied protagonist of Ise monogatari, banished to the eastern provinces; and Nakamaro, forever
Komine Kazuaki ed. Konjaku Monogatari sh 4. SNKBT 36. Iwanami Shoten, 1994, 4656.
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unable to make the journey back to Japan from China. However, the poem itself provides a further link with the trope of exile through its setting. Akashi was an important transit point for trafc between the capital and the Inland Sea, and is mentioned in the kagami (Great Mirror, late eleventh century) as the point of departure by sea for Tsukushi of the most famous literary exile, Sugawara no Michizane, in 901.97 This is a similar situation to that in the Konjaku monogatari sh story above, where Takamura stays overnight in Akashi en route to his place of exile. Anecdotes referring to Hitomaros exile appear in a number of medieval and later texts. One of the earliest examples is the Iwami no kuni fudoki (Record of the province of Iwami) included in the Manysh commentary Shirin saiy sh (Notes on Leaves Taken from the Forest of Words, 1366) of Ya (1291?), which describes Hitomaro as being exiled or demoted twice:
It is said in the Iwami no kuni fudoki that in the Eighth Month of the third year of Temmu [675] Hitomaro was appointed Governor of Iwami, and that on the third day of the Ninth Month of the same year he was promoted to Administrator of the Left Capital [Saky no daibu] of the Senior Fourth Rank, Upper Grade, and that on the ninth day of the Third Month of the following year he was promoted to the Third Rank and made governor of Harima. Etcetera. Subsequently, he may have served seven generations of sovereigns, in the reigns of Jit [r. 69097], Mommu [r. 697707], Gemmei [r. 707715], Gensh [r. 71524], Shmu [r. 724749], and Kken [r. 74958].98 In the reign of Jit, he was exiled to Shikoku, and in the reign of Mommu, he was demoted to Tkai no hotori. His son Mitsura was exiled to the Oki islands and died there. Etcetera.99
There is also an account of Hitomaros exile in the Bch fudo chshinan (Report on the Record of the Provinces of Su and Nagato, n.d.) of the Hachiman Hitomaro shrine in Yuya-ch, Nagato Province (modern Yamaguchi Prefecture), in which Akashi itself is identied as the site of exile:
97 Helen McCullough tr., kagami, The Great Mirror. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980, 97. 98 The seven referred to are presumably this six plus Temmu [r. 67386], putting Hitomaro in court service for a minimum total of 74 years (675749). 99 Akimoto Kichir ed., Fudoki, Nihon koten bungaku taikei 2 (Iwanami, 1958), 481482.
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This ofcial [tay, i.e. Hitomaro] was unsurpassed at waka old and new, but he met with defamation and was exiled to Akashi in Harima; then in the fourth year of Keiun [707] a monster came over from a foreign country (it was 8 j [24m] long and 1 j 2 shaku [3.6m] wide, with one head and three faces), and, there being an imperial decree for him to defend [ Japan] with the power of waka, Hitomaro was released from his exile, left Akashi and arrived at Tatara (no) miya, and with a single poem he turned his enemy into litter on the sea oor. After this, nding it hard to forget his old home, he departed from Tatarahama and drifted on the western sea before making landfall at Okuirie in the tsu district in Nagato province, and, loving the scenery, spent the springs and autumns of three years there, gazing on the view morning and evening: Mukaitsu no oku no irie no sasanami ni nori kaku ama no sode wa nuretsutsu In the little waves of the inner inlet of Mukaitsu, how soaked the sleeves of sher-girls gathering seaweed.
Then, grown old, he met his end at Takatsuno in the province of Iwami. He is said to have died on the middle eighth day of the Third Month of the rst year of Jinki, Elder-brother-of-wood-rat [724], in the reign of Emperor Shmu.100
The date of this text is uncertain. We may note that Tatarahama, currently a coastal area in the north-eastern part of Fukuoka city, was the site of battles during the Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281. Broadly speaking, the account seems to accept the version of Hitomaros death presented in the Iwami banka in the second volume of the Manysh. The seventeenth-century Hitomaro himitsush (Secret Notes on Hitomaro) has a fairly detailed account of his exile, including the reason for his banishment and return:
However, [Hitomaro] had an illicit liaison with the daughter of Suguri no Yatsuo, consort of Emperor Mommu, and was banished to Yamabe district, Kazusa Province. The wise sovereign Shmu had no judges [of poetry] for the Many [sh], and so appointed as editors the Minister of the Right Tachibana no Moroe and the Middle Councillor tomo no Yakamochi. [Moroe] reported [to the emperor], saying, Lord Hitomaro was the imperial tutor in the reign of a former emperor, and was marvellously gifted and a deity of waka, but he was exiled and is in the Eastern country. You could summon this man and make him a judge [of poetry]. At this point Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Eihei spoke up, saying, Someone who has been banished to the Eastern Country
100
Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 180181.
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cannot be summoned again to the palace. Why would Hitomaro have been imperial tutor? That cannot be right. Lord Moroe spoke up, saying, In Great Tang, Hakurakutens real name was Lord Xinyi [ J. Shingi]; because of a liaison with the empress he was banished to a distant state. In that country too exiles are not summoned again to the palace. In spite of this, he was later summoned and became imperial tutor, changing his name to Taiyuan Bo Juyi. That is how things seem to have turned out in his case [and should proceed likewise in the case of Hitomaro]. The lords agreed and summoned [ Hitomaro] to return, changing his name [granting him] rank and position such that he was styled Imperial Advisor of the Senior Third Rank Yamabe no Akahito; thus one person had two names.
This passage reiterates the theme of Hitomaro and Akahito being the same person, and also features one of the two possible outcomes of the kishu ryritan plot: the triumphant return of the hero to society. The other possible outcome, the hero dying in his place of exile (or at least in an isolated place, unable to return to the capital) occurs in the Bch fudo chshinan, and in the Iwami banka in the Manysh. This explanation of the reason for Hitomaros exile, the illicit affair with Mommus consort, introduces another recurring plot element into Hitomaros legend, that of the affair with the consort. This is seen in the cases of the protagonists of Ise monogatari and Genji monogatari, and had an historical forerunner in the case of Soga no Himuka, who in 644 abducted the daughter of his elder brother Soga no Ishikawamaro.101 The protagonists in all these cases were exiled: the mukashi no otoko (implicitly, Narihira) of the Ise monogatari to the east, Genji to Suma, Himuka to Tsukushi. The legend of Hitomaros exile following a transgressive relationship with a consort also ts into this pattern.102 The selection according to topic of poems attributed to Hitomaro in the Shish has also been identied as an inuence on his image in the Heian period: it has been suggested that a very large proportion (75 percent) of the Hitomaro poems in the Shish are love poems, or have strong love overtones, their selection based on the fact that great poets were believed to have also been great lovers.103 The preponderance
Nihon shi kjiten. Nakanishi Susumu, Botsugo no Hitomaro, 242243. 103 Bentley, John R. The Creation of Hitomaro, a Poetic Sage. In The Language of Life, The Life of Language: Selected Papers from the First College-wide Conference for Students in Languages, Linguistics and Literature, ed. Dina Rudolph Yoshimi and Marilyn K. Plumlee, 154. University of Hawaii-Manoa: National Foreign Language Resource Center, 1998.
101 102
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of love poetry amongst the Hitomaro poems in the Shish may have been inuenced by the Manyshs Iwami smonka. It can be interpreted as an attempt to mold Hitomaro into the form of an archetypal Heian courtly hero in general terms; however, it seems possible that the more specic model here may have been Ariwara no Narihira, the implicit protagonist of Ise monogatari. As noted earlier, a poem from the ninth section of the Ise monogatari (IX:410) is placed directly after the Akashi Bay poem attributed to Hitomaro (IX:409) in the Travel volume of the Kokinsh, suggesting a parallel between the two authors. The extent to which Hitomaro and Narihira came to be associated in the minds of some later readers is suggested by the connection established between them in medieval poetic commentaries that identied both poets as manifestations of the Sumiyoshi deity.104 Hitomaro in the Sanjrokuninsen While the imperial anthologies bore the seal of imperial approval and were the most powerful canonizing medium for poets and poems, Hitomaros establishment as a gurehead for and embodiment of the court-poetic heritage was also taking place in unofcial or privatelycompiled waka texts, particularly the compilations of Fujiwara no Kint. It should be pointed out that the relationship between imperial and non-imperial waka texts is more complex than the terminology may make it seem: imperial anthologies typically draw on the personal collections of their compilers and other poets, and in the case of the Shish, the collection as a whole is thought to be based on Kints Shish (Notes on Gleanings, pre-1007). In any event, Kint is a pivotal gure in Hitomaros Heian-period reception. Hitomaros eventual elevation to the position of tutelary deity of the Way of waka owes more to his canonization by Tsurayuki as a sage of Japanese poetry than to any other single factor, but Kints role is also very signicant, in terms of both his admiration for the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409) and his attribution to Hitomaro of many poems in the Shish (of which he is thought to be a compiler). It was in large part through Kint that the
104 For instance, [ The term mitari no okina] also means that the [Sumiyoshi] deity, Hitomaro, and Narihira are three people in one body (Gyokuden jinpi ) (Katagiri, Chsei Kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 528.)
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body of work associated with Hitomaro in the minds of Heian readers was both expanded and given the seal of imperial approval. Kint admired Tsurayuki and was in turn venerated by later poets: together these two form a kind of chain of inuence which greatly advanced Hitomaros canonization in the Heian period. The next link in the chain, as it were, someone who greatly admired Kint and through him, Hitomaro, was Fujiwara (Rokuj) no Akisue (10551123), host and originator of the rst Hitomaro eigu, the worship ceremony for Hitomaro held in 1118. The numerous Kint-compiled poetry collections that include the Akashi Bay poem were noted earlier. The signicance of these collections lies not only in the prominent position of their compiler amongst poets of his time but in the fact that many of them, including Waka kuhon, may be classied as shkasen, collections of outstanding poems, collected and canonized by Kint specically as supreme examples of the art of Japanese poetry. In terms of Hitomaros reception, Kints most important shkasen is his Sanjrokuninsen, in which he gathered poems attributed to a group of thirty-six outstanding poets known to posterity as the Sanjrokkasen (Thirty-six Poetic Immortals). The canonization of a group of poets had already been seen in Tsurayukis critiques in the Kana Preface of the Kokinsh of six well-known poets of recent times, later known collectively (although not referred to as such in the Kokinsh itself ) as the Rokkasen (Six Poetic Immortals). In addition, there were extant at this time some examples of privately-compiled shkasen, such as Tsurayukis Shinsen waka sh, compiled while he was governor of Tosa from 930935, and Kints own Kingyokush, compiled c. 1007. Kint brings these two ideas together in his Sanjrokuninsen, butsignicantly for the poets includedhe places the emphasis squarely on the poets rather than the poems by arranging the poems in Sanjrokuninsen by author rather than by topic. This was a radical departure from the format of existing exemplary collections such as Shinsen waka, which were arranged by category (seasons, love, miscellaneous, etc.), resembling those of chokusensh. The Sanjrokuninsen, however, was in an innovative new format devised by Kint, taking the form of a poetry competition, a kasen utaawase, between outstanding poets from the time of the Manysh to the midHeian period. Tsurayukis Rokkasen are among the thirty-six poets for whom Kint selected representative poems in his Sanjrokuninsen, as are Hitomaro, Akahito and Yakamochi (the only Manysh poets included in the thirty-six). Hitomaro is given a prominent position: he is one of
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the rst four poets listed, for each of whom ten poems are given, while Akahito and Yakamochi each have only three poems included. As noted earlier, however, the Sanjrokuninsen can be included within the broader trend of texts which spuriously present poems as Hitomaros but more rmly-attributed poems as those of Akahito. Thus, as one might expect, Hitomaros ten poems are largely later attributions, and include only one poem attributed to him in the Manysh, III:264:
Manysh III:264 A poem composed by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro on reaching the banks of the Uji River when coming up from the province of mi. mononofu no yaso ujigawa no ajiroki ni tadayou nami no yukue shirazu mo The waves that swirl in the shing weirs on the Uji river of the eighty clans of warriors, know not where to go.105
The sources for poems given for Hitomaro in the Sanjrokuninsen can be summarized as follows:
Table 2: Hitomaro poems in the Sanjrokuninsen, by source text and attribution Source Manysh Manysh Manysh via Shish Manysh via Shish Author in Source Poem No. in Sanjrokuninsen and source details Hitomaro Anonymous Akahito (Shish); anonymous (Manysh) Anonymous 10 [Manysh III:264] 5 [Manysh X:2210] 1 [Shish I:3 (Spring; Yamabe no Akahito); variant of Manysh X:1843 (anonymous)] 4 [Shish II:125 (Summer; Anonymous); variant of Manysh X:1981 (anonymous)] 8 [Shish XIII:778 (Love; Hitomaro); Manysh variant of XI:2802 (anonymous)] 6 [Kokinsh IX:409 (Travel; Anonymous, tentatively attributed to Hitomaro)] 3 [Kokinsh VI:334 (Winter; Anonymous, tentatively attributed to Hitomaro); Shish I:12 (Hitomaro)]
Kokinsh Kokinsh via Shish
Anonymous Anonymous
105
Katagiri, Kokinsh zenhyshaku, 218219.
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Author in Source Poem No. in Sanjrokuninsen and source details Hitomaro 2 [Shish I:18] 7 [Shish XIII:848] 9 [Shish XX:1289; Yamato monogatari section 150]106
Five poems are originally from the Manysh, although the Shish is the immediate source for three of them. One poem is attributed to Hitomaro in the Manysh; the others are all anonymous in the Manysh. The anonymous Manysh poems which appear in the Shish are rmly attributed to Hitomaro in the Shish (except for one, which is attributed to Akahito but still included as an exemplary poem for Hitomaro here). One poem is straight out of the Kokinsh; one is from the Kokinsh via the Shish; and four are from the Shish with no other known sources. In other words, the image of Hitomaro and his work presented in the inuential Sanjrokuninsen is consistent with other early and mid-Heian treatments of Hitomaro in that relatively little attention is paid to his attributed poems in the Manysh while more weight is given to Heian-period attributions. By comparison (and in a parallel to the poems selected for the interpolated notes to the Kokinshs Kana Preface), the Sanjrokuninsen poems given for Yamabe no Akahito are all attributed to him in the Manysh.106 The authenticity of the poems aside, Kints Sanjrokuninsen had a considerable impact on the canonization of the thirty-six poets involved in part because of other texts involving those same poets which arose after the compilation of the Sanjrokuninsen. The most signicant is the Sanjrokuninsh (Collections of the Thirty-Six People), the Nishihonganjibon text of which dates from the early twelfth century. In this text, an unknown later compiler took Kints thirty-six poets and assembled what were presentedand receivedas their personal poetry collections. The Sanjrokuninsh is a valuable indication of the poets and poetry most favored in the mid-Heian period; however, as we might expect from a Heian text, Hitomaros collection, the Hitomaro sh, includes a large
106 Shinpen kokka taikan hensh iinkai ed., Shinpen kokka taikan (Kadokawa shoten, 1988), V:911.
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number of spurious attributions, including a number of old anonymous poems. This Hitomaro Collection, the largest version of which has 301 poems,107 shares many poems with the Shish, and is thought to have been extant in some form at the time of the latters compilation.108 The collections of Akahito and Yakamochi in the Sanjrokuninsh are similarly aficted with dubious attributions: to take but one example, Manysh X:1812 appears in the Hitomaro sh, the Akahito sh, and the Yakamochi sh.109 Another text to reect the inuence of Kints selection of poets was the Sanjrokunin kasenden, mentioned earlier. As well as the collections and biographies provided for Kints poetic immortals, this grouping of thirty-six was also representedfrom the late twelfth century110in the genre of portraiture known as kasen-e (pictures of poetic immortals), which enabled the canonization of this group of poetic immortals, including Hitomaro, to take place in a new, visual medium. From the examples above we can see that several different images of Hitomaro emerged in the early- to mid-Heian period. The rst (and most important), marking a signicant advance in the process of his canonization, was Hitomaro as a sage of poetry (uta no hijiri ) in the Kokinsh Kana Preface. This can be seen as a continuation of Hitomaros role as an ancestral poetic gure evident in the Gate of the mountain persimmon passage in the Manysh, but his ancestral role is invested with new meaning in the context of the promotion of Japanese poetry pursued by Tsurayuki in his compilation of the Kokinsh and his Kana Preface. Hitomaro is also canonized in the context of the Heian cultural paradigm of the traveler and exile, a trope strongly suggested by the contextthrough placement or headnotesgiven to poems associated with him in inuential texts such as the Kokinsh and Shish. The more explicit treatment of his exile in later texts seems to indicate the effectiveness of this placement of Hitomaro poems, and the exile tropeinasmuch as it involves separation and longing for homecan also be seen in one sense as a continuation of the Hitomaros treatment in the Manysh, namely, the legend of his death in the wilds of Iwami as recounted in the Iwami banka (Manysh II:223227). At the same
Kokka taikan. The smaller version has 64 poems. Yamazaki Setsuko, Hitomaro kash no seiritsu to Shish, Chko bungaku 24 (9/1979): 1. 109 Hayashiya Tatsusabur ed. Korai Fteish. Kodai chsei geijutsuron, Nihon shis taikei 23 (Iwanami Shoten, 1973), 286. 110 Maribeth Graybill, Kasen-e: An Investigation into the Origins of the Tradition of Poet Pictures in Japan (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1983), 2.
107 108
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time, however, the extensive attribution in texts such as the Shish or Sanjrokuninsen to Hitomaro of poems which are of unknown origin or appear anonymously elsewhere served to distance the poet from his works, and contributed to a Heian image of Hitomaro which had at best an uncertain textual basis.
CHAPTER THREE
WORSHIPPING HITOMARO: FROM TEXT TO IMAGE On the sixteenth day of the Sixth Month of Genei (1118), Fujiwara (Rokuj) no Akisue, Head of the Bureau of Palace Repairs (Shuri no daibu), gathered a small group of men, consisting mainly of family members but also including the prominent poet Minamoto no Shunrai (Toshiyori) (1055?1129?), at his mansion in the Sixth Ward. The gathering had been convened for a poetic event unlike any other to date: the presentation of offerings to a portrait of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, who was to be celebrated as a great poetic sage whose talent for poetry was a gift divinely bestowed. Known as Hitomaro eigu (Hitomaro portrait-offerings), this ceremony was an epochal development in Hitomaros reception and a crucial turning point in the process of his deication. Largely based on Chinese models like the Confucian shidian ( Japanese sekiten) ceremony and also inuenced by the ancestral worship ceremonies of esoteric Buddhism (mikky), the Hitomaro eigu implicitly casts Hitomaro in the role of ancestral teacher, his school in this case being the Rokuj house, the rst of the medieval poetry houses to be established amidst the larger trends toward professionalism and exclusivity which have been termed the medievalization of waka.1 Honji-Suijaku Thought and the Waka Mandala A key element in the development of Japanese Buddhism was its synthesis with existing Japanese religious beliefs in what came to be known as honji-suijaku, original ground-manifest trace thought, which held that the native deities (kami ) of Japan were manifest traces (suijaku) of the original ground (honji ), consisting of buddhas and bodhisattvas. This assimilation of kami into the Buddhist pantheon began at the highest level, with the identication of Amaterasu, the sun deity (and
1 Robert Huey, The Medievalization of Poetic Practice, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 50:2 (12/1990): 651668.
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divine ancestress of the imperial line) with the buddha Mahavairocana (Dainichi), the embodiment of the Ultimate Reality (dharmakaya) in esoteric Buddhist thought. Soon other associations between Buddhist gures and kami were suggested, and by the early Heian period, honjisuijaku thought had become more systematic and basically hierarchical in nature, with the buddhas and bodhisattvas perceived as superior to the kami.2 However, there continued to be considerable variation among the buddhas or bodhisattvas identied as honji of particular kami.3 The assimilative tendencies of Buddhism seen here were not unique to its development in Japan; a similar process had occurred much earlier in India, where Hindu deities were absorbed into the Buddhist pantheon, mostly in the form of guardian deities. The Taimitsu priest Sensai (d. 1127) postulated a honji-suijaku relationship with profound implications for waka and its practitioners when he identied the Sumiyoshi deity (Sumiyoshi daimyjin), regarded as a deity of waka, as a manifest trace (suijaku) of Kkitoku, a bodhisattva who appears in the Nirvana sutra and who is also a form of Kannon.4 This identication was made in a preface composed by the prominent poet Fujiwara no Mototoshi (d. 1142) and attached to poems which Sensai presented at the Sumiyoshi Shrine during a pilgrimage in the Ninth Month of 1106, in which he sought to expiate the sin engendered by his composition of waka and turn it rather into a means for his enlightenment. The preface reads in part:
If one inquires into Sumiyoshis origins, one nds out that the deity is none other than the Kkitoku bodhisattva, who, to identify him, gathered the sutras when the Buddha died in the Sala forest and later explained them. The language of the sutras is simple and easy but it is the highest order of excellence . . . I draw a portrait of the bodhisattva and write a sutra on it and, facing the picture, I expound the meaning of the sutras and pay homage to it in order to repent of my sins. I beg that the sins I committed in life by composing poems will have the contrary effect of bringing me to enlightenment. That is all.5
In its appeal for the reversal of the karmic effects of poetic composition, Sensais preface clearly echoes the prayer by Bo Juyi (772846)
Herbert Plutschow, Chaos and Cosmos, Leiden: Brill, 1990, 14850. Alicia Matsunaga, The Buddhist Philosophy of Assimilation: The Historical Development of the Honji-Suijaku Theory, Tokyo: Sophia University, 1969, 232. 4 Yamada Shzen, Mikky to waka bungaku, Mikkygaku kenky 1 (3/1969): 153. 5 Translated in Plutschow, 161: the text, entitled Ungji shnin zan kygen-kigo waka jo, may be found in volume 55 of Honch bunsh.
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worshipping hitomaro: from text to image
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which accompanied a selection of his poems presented to a monastery in 841 and which subsequently became the basis for many Japanese interpretations of the validity of literature as religious practice. The passage in questionwhich also appears in the Wakan reish anthology of 1012reads:
I wish that the karma of my vulgar writings in this life and the errors of my wild words and ornate phrases would be reversed and become a means by which I may praise Buddhist teachings and expound the Law in lives to come.6
This is at once an admission of the transgressive nature of poetic composition and an expression of hope for its potential as a way to salvation. The term here translated as wild words and ornate phrases, kygen-kigo, was both a pejorative term applied to secular literatureas opposed to sutras and religious commentariesand also, in the context of the Bo Juyi prayer, a term which indicated the potential for such literature to serve as a means to praise the Buddha and his works. The term appears to have been an original coinage by Bo Juyi, combining kygen with kigo, which appears in the Amida sutra in connection with mgo, deluded words, one of the ten major Buddhist sins.7 The scriptural source for this concept of double meaning is a passage in the Nirvana sutra:
The Buddhas always [use] gentle words . . . [but] in order to save the people, they teach [with] crude explanations. Crude words and gentle words are all, nally, the source of the ultimate truth.8
The sanctity of secular writings was allowed for by this non-dualistic approach, which denied perceived distinctions such as those between good and evil, or secular and profane;9 this non-dualism was also applied in the process of providing for the sacred nature of waka according to honji-suijaku thought. Sensais identication of the Sumiyoshi deity with the Kkitoku bodhisattva implied a similar relationshipdifferent forms springing from the same rootbetween waka and sutra texts, all of which could be considered part of the crude words and
Wakan reish 588. Misumi Yichi, Iwayuru kygen-kigo kan ni tsuite, in Higi toshite no waka: ki to ba, ed. Watanabe Yasuaki, Yseid, 1995, 201. 8 Margaret Childs, Kygen-kigo: Love Stories as Buddhist Sermons. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 12:1 (March 1985): 99. 9 Childs, 99100.
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gentle words which have equal validity as expressions of the ultimate truth.10 It is also signicant that Sensais preface was presented in conjunction with a portrait of the Kkitoku bodhisattva, a move which foreshadows both the use of a portrait in the Hitomaro eigu and also the later use of portraits of the Sumiyoshi deity as the central image in waka initiation (kanj, Skt. abhiseka) ceremonies, in which he was regarded as the originating ground or honji of the line of transmission of secret commentaries on classic texts such as the Ise monogatari.11 As noted in the previous chapter, an earlier phase of Hitomaros literary reception was his inclusion in the Sanjrokuninsen selected by Fujiwara no Kint. This poetic canonization was transformed into religious elevation by Sensai, who, on the same pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi during which the confessional preface was presented, also drew up a so-called waka mandala. A description of this mandala (and its subsequent fate), is found in the setsuwa collection Kokon chomonj (Things Old and New Noted and Heard), compiled by Tachibana Narisue in 1254:
Kokon chomonj V:164 The matter of the completion of the Ungoji by the Priest Sensai, and also the matter of the waka mandala Head of the Bureau of Ise Shrine and Head of the Ofce of Shrines Chikasada built a hall at a place called Iwade in the province of Ise, and invited Priest Sensai to complete the commemorative service. It was through the donations [Sensai received] that the Ungoji was built. Priest Sensai was fond of poetry, and so was always meeting with the poets of the time at poetry meetings. He drew a mandala of waka, drawing the seven buddhas of the past and then writing in the names of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. Lord Yoshifusa was good enough to write a clean copy on a screen. This mandala should then have been a valued treasure of this temple [the Ungoji], but for some reason, at the time of the reconstruction of the Ise Shrine by the Deputy Head of the Ofce of Shrines Chikanaka, [someone] came to sell it to his son the Supernumerary Governor of Tosa Chikatsune, who bought it for 20 kan of cash. It was passed on successively and is now with the novice Chikamori.12 In the Ninth Month of the rst year of Kench [1249], at the time of the
Yamada, Mikky to waka bungaku, 154. Susan Blakeley Klein, Allegories of Desire: Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 171. 12 Grandson of Chikatsune.
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movement of the Outer Shrine, when I visited [Chikamori] I requested this mandala be brought out, and revering it I record this.13
The layout of the waka mandala is not clear from the description above, but the rst gures to be included in it, presumably either at the centre or the top, were the seven buddhas of the past, consisting of kyamuni and the six buddhas who had preceded him into the world. From the original text it is not clear whether the buddhas were represented by portraits or just their names, or by portraits with name captions. The buddhas were surrounded or followed in turn by the names of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals (Sanjrokkasen), of which Hitomaro was one.14 The waka mandala can be seen as a type of suijaku mandala, a graphically-organized depiction of the honji-suijaku relationship between certain Buddhist and Shint entities.15 The waka mandala is no longer extant, but we have in the Kokon chomonj setsuwa what appears to be an eyewitness account, as Narisue records his own viewing of the mandala. The signicance of Sensais waka mandala in literary terms is that it indicated by its inclusion of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals that not only Shint deities but also great poets (poetic immortals, kasen) could be considered avatars of Buddhas or bodhisattvas.16 In presenting the seven buddhas of the past as the honji of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, the waka mandala implicitly situates the origins of waka in the distant past, pre-dating even kyamunis appearance on earth. In its longing for the distant past within the context of waka composition, the waka mandala pregures the Hitomaro eigu, in which a poet from the past was raised to the status of an icon. The subsequent development of the waka mandala as a genre is unclear; the dearth of, materials suggests that the practice died out long before that of Hitomaro eigu.17 Nonetheless, in its depiction of poets
This text appears in Nagazumi Yasuaki and Shimada Isao, ed., Kokon chomonj. NKBT 84. Iwanami shoten, 1966, 152153. 14 Nishiki Hitoshi. Waka no hatten. Jichi, jni seiki no bungaku. Iwanami kza Nihon bungakushi 3. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1996: 104. 15 Matsunaga, 261. 16 Plutschow, 1623. 17 Yamada Shzen, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai: bukky to bungaku to no sesshoku ni shiten o oite, Taish daigaku kenky kiy 51 (1966): 100101. Yamada does note, however, a reference in the Shokushikash (Continued Collection of Flowers of Words) of 1165 to Fujiwara no Akisuke (10901155), Akisues son, drawing a waka mandala in emulation of Sensai (Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 102).
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as divine beings, and as idols revered in graphic form (their presence here symbolized by their names), the waka mandala can be seen to have points in common with the Hitomaro eigu,18 and the fact that is was composed by a poet as actively involved in utaawase as Sensai can only have contributed to its inuence as an immediate precursor to Hitomaro eigu. The Hitomaro Eigu of 1118 The proceedings of the rst Hitomaro eigu, the ceremony in which offerings were made to a portrait of Hitomaro, are recorded in the Kakinomoto eigu ki by Fujiwara no Atsumitsu (10631144), a prominent Confucian scholar and head of the University (Daigaku no kami).19 It consists of three parts. The rst is a diary-like recounting of the ceremony. The second consists of the praise inscription (san) on the upper part of the portrait of Hitomaro.20 As a formal genre, the praise inscription consists of rhymed, parallel units of four characters, with language that is emotive but clear and attractive. A characteristic of the genre is its connection to pictures, and many Japanese Heian-period examples of praise inscriptions also have a connection to Buddhism.21 This last characteristic is signicant when considered in light of the inuence of esoteric Buddhist sect-founder-worshipping ceremonies on the formation of the Hitomaro eigu. The third part of the Eigu ki consists of the waka composed at the poetry meeting which followed the worship ritual; these poems are accompanied by a preface in Chinese, also by Atsumitsu. The initial, diary-like account of the proceedings is as follows:
Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 101. Another account of the rst Hitomaro eigu, based on the Eigu ki, also appears in Kokon chomonj (V:178). The Kakinomoto eigu ki is also known as the Hitomaro eigu ki, the Kakinomoto Hitomaro eigu ki, and the Hitomaro ku. Many handwritten texts of the Eigu ki exist, but there are no signicant textual variants, and most of the differences between the texts can be ascribed to copyists errors. (Sasaki Takahiro, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, Kokubungaku kenky shirykan kiy 21 [1995]: 78.) 20 The san, a passage in praise of a person or thing, is dened in the literary treatise Wenxin diaolong, a systematic treatise on literature compiled in the early sixth century by Liu Xie (ca. 465522) (Owen, Readings in Chinese Literary Thought, 183). 21 Got Akio, Buntai kaisetsu, in Honch monzui, ed. Got Akio et al., Shin nihon koten bungaku taikei 27 (Iwanami shoten, 1992), 419.
18 19
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Kakinomoto eigu ki22 On the third day of the Fourth Month, the sixth year of Eiky was made the rst year of Genei [1118]. On the sixteenth day of the Sixth Month, it rained. At the hour of the monkey [1600] I went to the house of the Head of the Ofce of Palace Maintenance [Akisue], the Rokuj Higashi Tin [mansion]. Today was the day for offerings to Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. The portrait of Hitomaro to be used was one that had been newly drawn. It was a scroll about three shaku [c. 91 cm] long, showing [Hitomaro] wearing an eboshi and a robe. In his left hand he held paper, and in his right hand he gripped a brush. He was over sixty years of age. Above this [portrait] a praise inscription was written. I had composed the inscription earlier, and it was written out by Former Assistant Captain of the Middle Palace Guards Akinaka. A desk was placed before [the portrait] and owers were stood on it. [On the desk] were placed a bowl of rice, delicacies, and various sh and birds. However, they were made of other things, and were not the real thing. The bowls were like Chinese lidded bowls; [they were] vegetable dishes made of water buffalo horn. Those meeting at that time were the Governor of Iyo Nagazane, the Governor of mi Tsunetada, Former Head of the Bureau of Carpentry Shunrai, the governor of Kaga Akisuke, the former Assistant Captain of the Middle Palace Guards Akinaka, myself, the Minor Councillor Munekane, the former Governor of Izumi Michitsune, the Governor of Aki Tametada, and others. Next a banquet was set out. Then was the rst libation to Kakinomoto. The attendants, holding nautilus-shell winecups and small asks, waited on the veranda. The host [Akisue] deliberated, saying, The rst libation should be performed by a master of poetry. All present said, It should be done by the Former Head of the Bureau of Carpentry [Shunrai]. The Former Head of the Bureau of Carpentry could not refuse, and, rising from his seat, advanced to in front of the portrait. Kaga [Akisuke], due to his admiration [for Hitomaro], took a nautilus-shell cup and advanced somewhat toward Hitomaro. The Former Governor of Izumi, due to his deep fondness for this Way [of poetry], took a small ask, poured wine into a nautilus-shell cup, and placed it on the desk. Each returned to his seat. The ceremony at this time was most awe-inspiring. Next there was a libation by everyone, then juice was set out. Then there was a second libation. Then Junior Assistant Minister of Ceremonial Yukimori came and joined the company. Then there was a third libation, then delicacies were set out, then hot soup. Then Middle Captain of the Right Inner
22 The annotated text followed here is from Suzuki Tokuo and Kitayama Marumasa, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro eigu chshaku, in Sai joshi tanki daigaku kenky ronsh v. 46 (1999/3): 237. Section divisions follow this edition. Suzuki and Kitayama take as their base text the Hsa bunko version of the Hitomaro ku. Another version of the Kakinomoto eigu ki appears in Gunsho ruij, v. 283 (waka-bu 138:3): 5860.
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Palace Guards Masasada came and joined the company. Next there was another exchange of cups, and then the meal was cleared away. Next the Captain of the Right Middle Palace Guards [ Fujiwara no Saneyuki] was good enough to visit. Next the host deliberated, saying, The praise inscription to Hitomaro should be read aloud. Those present could not agree as whether this should come before or after the waka. The host said, Still, the praise inscription should be read rst. [ He] placed a desk before the portrait, and spread out a round mat. The inscription in question was written on two sheets of Chinese paper. Tadat had written out the clean copy. He had the Junior Assistant Minister of Ceremonial read it out. The Royal Advisor and Captain of the Right Middle Palace Guards opened the inscription and placed it on the stand. [He] removed it after the praise inscription had been read aloud. Next the poems were read out. Their topic was the wind over the water at evening [suif banrai ]. I wrote the preface. The Royal Advisor and Captain of the Right Middle Palace Guards acted as both reader and assistant. [His] splendid words were a treat for the eye and the ear. When the reading was nished, some went and some stayed in their places for a while. Since the nautilus-shell cups were highly prized, people discussed them. I recited poetry, saying, The color of the wine of Xinfeng.23 The host recited the same line, and then also recited, Dimly, dimly, in the morning mist of Akashi Bay.24 Then I recited, The nights youve promised but do not come grow many.25 Everyone was entertained by this and stayed a little while longer, then, each promising [to attend] later meetings, went home [and the proceedings were] over.
The Sekiten Ceremony and the Worship of Confucius The main model for the form of the Hitomaro eigu is the Confucian shidian ( J. sekiten) ceremony, in which offerings were made to Confucius and which is recorded in China at least as far back as the third century
23 From a fu attributed to the Tang poet Gong Sheng Yi, excerpted in Wakan reish (number 479): The colour of the wine of Xinfeng/clear and cold in the nautilusshell cups. 24 Kokinsh IX:409 (Travel). 25 Shish XIII:848 (Love), where it is attributed to Hitomaro: tanometsutsu The nights youve promised konu yo amata ni but do not come narinureba grow many; and so I think mataji to omou zo that not to wait matsu ni masareru is better than waiting still.
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C.E.26 During the Tang dynasty (618907) the sekiten became a grand state ritual, enjoying strong imperial interest and support as a means by which the Tang emperors could win the support of the Confucian scholarly community in ruling China.27 The version of the sekiten in China thought to have been most inuential on its form in Japan is that seen in the ritual compendium Da tang kaiyuan li (Rituals of the Kaiyuan era) of 732.28 The most ornate version of the sekiten described in this text had the crown prince as a participant in making offerings to Confucius and debating the Confucian classics and involved, among other things, a preparatory period of abstinence and blood sacrices. Less complex versions of the sekiten were held at the University twice yearly, and still more simplied versions were held in the provinces. The crown princes sekiten, in broad outline, was held at the University and consisted of a religious service involving offerings before spirit thrones for Confucius, his disciple Yan Hui and 71 other gures from the tradition, held in the Kongzi miao, the shrine to Confucius. This was followed by reading, exegesis and debate on the Confucian classics in the lecture hall.29 The rst reference to the sekiten in a Japanese context appears in the Shoku nihongi, and is dated 701. The sekiten was initially held twice a year (in the Second and Eighth Months) at the University, as mandated by the relevant section of the Taih Code. Although imperial interest in the sekiten lapsed in the eighth century, it made a resurgence in the ninth, during a period of great enthusiasm for Chinese culture in general.30 The Japanese sekiten at this time was, as it had been in China (and would be again when revived by the Tokugawa bakufu), a large-scale, formal, ofcial event. However, it subsequently came to be held on a smaller scale in private homes, hosted by individuals rather than the state.31 These private sekiten can be seen as bridging the gap between the sekiten as large public ritual and the private, small-scale Hitomaro eigu. A likely immediate model for Akisues Hitomaro eigu,
26 I. J. McMullen, The Worship of Confucius in Ancient Japan. In Peter F. Kornicki and Ian James McMullen, eds. Religion in Japan: Arrows to Heaven and Earth. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications 50. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996: 48. 27 McMullen, 42. 28 McMullen, 43. 29 McMullen, 4446. 30 McMullen, 57. 31 Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 81.
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in terms of size and setting, was a private sekiten held at the residence of a member of the e clan (a scholarly family) in the Twelfth Month of 1114, only four years earlier.32 The procedures for the sekiten and the eigu were similar, in that both ceremonies involved the display of an image of the object of worship (in the case of the eigu, just Hitomaro; at the sekiten, Confucius and his disciples), and in both cases offerings were set before the image or images. In the sekiten there were poems in Chinese composed on set topics, and in the eigu there were poems in Japanese composed on a set topic.33 However, while the poems composed at the sekiten took lines from the Confucian classics as their topics, those composed for the Hitomaro eigu were not on Hitomaro himself or on subjects particularly associated with him, and no particular attempts were made to use Many (i.e. archaic or pre-Heian) diction in the poems. Although the Hitomaro eigu came to be seen as symbolic of the Rokuj schools veneration of the Manysh, this rst Hitomaro eigu had no direct relationship to the Manysh as a whole in terms of poetic subject or diction, but concentrated on Hitomaro himself,34 specically the Heian-period image of Hitomaro transmitted through the Kana Preface of the Kokinsh and the writings of Fujiwara no Kint. The sekiten, however, was not the only model for the form of the Hitomaro eigu. It has also been suggested that elements of the Hitomaro eigu were inuenced by esoteric Buddhist ceremonies memorializing sect founders, the Shingon mieku (offerings to portraits) and the Tendai daishiku (offerings to the Great Teacher). Similarities to the Hitomaro eigu are suggested by the similarity of the term mieku. Both the mieku and the daishiku make use of the element ku (offerings), the appearance of which in the name of the Hitomaro eigu serves to formally distinguish the eigu from the sekiten35 as well as to suggest a link (in terms of form) to the esoteric Buddhist ceremonies. The mieku was rst held at Tji in 911 for Kkai (774835), on the anniversary of his death, and had as its aim his memorialization (tsuizen); a portrait of Kkai served as the honzon or primary image during the service.36 In the mieku, offerings were made to the image, the invocation (saimon) was read, the image
32 33 34 35 36
Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 82. Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 89. Sasaki, Hitomaro no shink to eigu, 142. Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 83. Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 83.
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was worshipped, and libations were offered.37 The rst daishiku was held earlier, in 798, as a memorial service (kuy) for Tendai daishi,38 and was presided over by Saich (767822). The daishiku was also held on the death anniversary of the person to whom it was dedicated, and also involved a portrait of that person, to which offerings were made.39 Unlike the esoteric Buddhist ceremonies (or the sekiten, which was held on specic dates in the Second and Eighth Months), the rst Hitomaro eigu does not appear to have been linked to any particular day; there is no mention in the Kakinomoto eigu ki of the 16th of the Sixth Month being thought of as Hitomaros death anniversary or having any other signicance. Nonetheless, one important parallel between Hitomaro eigu and these esoteric Buddhist ancestor-worship ceremonies is that the portrait used in the daishiku, according to the account in the Sanbekotoba (Tales of the Three Treasures),40 had a praise inscription, something also found in the case of the Hitomaro portrait used in the eigu, but not mentioned in accounts of the sekiten. It may be surmised that the reading of the praise inscription seen in the Hitomaro eigu was a feature of the ceremony borrowed from Buddhist memorial services involving ancestor portraits rather than from the sekiten.41 This implicit parallel between Hitomaro and the sect founders ties the development of Hitomaro portraiture to that of esoteric Buddhist sect ancestors, whose portraits were transmitted from master to disciple as proof of transmission of the teachings.42 In addition, Buddhist inuence may be reected in the very presence of the portrait itself at Hitomaro eigu, and possibly the Japanese sekiten. The sekiten account in the Da tang kaiyuan li does not mention images of Confucius and his disciples as the objects of worship;43 rather, the
Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 8384. The posthumous name of Chi-yi ( J. Chigi, 538597), third patriarch of the Tiantai (Tendai) sect, and generally regarded as its founder in China. 39 Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 83. 40 A collection of Buddhist setsuwa compiled by Minamoto no Tamenori in 984. For an English translation, see Edward Kamens, The Three Jewels, Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1988. The account of the daishiku appears on pp. 360362 of this translation. 41 Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 85. 42 Katano Tatsur, Hitomaro eigu no hensen to sono wakashiteki igi. Nihon bungei to kaiga no skansei no kenky. Kasama ssho 56. Tokyo: Kasama shoin, 1975: 156. 43 Although the shrine to Confucius seems to have housed images of the Sage himself and other major gures in the tradition (McMullen, 44).
37 38
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offerings are described as being presented to spirit thrones.44 In the case of the Hitomaro eigu, however, even though it is largely based on the sekiten we see great importance attached to the portrait of Hitomaro, as is the case in the mieku and daishiku. This is indicated by the ei element in the word eigu (portrait-offerings), a word that indicates explicitly, like mieku, that this is a ceremony involving a portrait or image to which offerings are made. Hitomaros Portrait The description in the passage cited earlier from the Kakinomoto eigu ki of the Hitomaro portrait used in the 1118 ceremonyan older man wearing court dress and holding a paper and brushcan be regarded as the mainstream of Hitomaro portraiture. The origins of this archetype are described in a tale appearing in the Jikkinsh (Notes on Ten Lessons), a setsuwa collection dating from 1252.
Jikkinsh IV:245 There was a man called the Awata Governor of Sanuki Kanefusa. For many years he had been an enthusiast of waka, but being unable to produce good poetry, he prayed constantly in his heart to Hitomaro. In a dream one night, [ he seemed to be] in a place which he thought was Western Sakamoto;46 there were no trees, only plum blossoms falling like snow, which were extremely fragrant. As he was thinking in his heart how wonderful it was, [he noticed] a man of advanced years beside him. He was wearing a robe and pale-colored gathered hakama with crimson hakama underneath, and an unstarched eboshi with a very high tail. He did not look like an ordinary person. In his left hand he held paper, and with his right hand he [held] an ink-dipped brush, and appeared to be deep in thought. As [Kanefusa] was thinking, How strange. Who is this person? the man spoke: You have been good enough to keep Hitomaro in your heart for many years; due to the depth of your wish, I am showing myself to you. Saying only this, he vanished completely. After waking from his dream, when morning came [Kanefusa] called an artist, described [Hitomaros] appearance, and had him draw [a portrait]. However, [the portrait] did not resemble [Hitomaro], so he had
44 McMullen, 46. Spirit throne refers to a lingjiao ( J. reiky), which provided support for a memorial tablet. 45 Text from: Asami Kazuhiko ed., Jikkinsh, Shinpen nihon koten bungaku zensh 51 (Shgakukan, 1997), 150153; annotations also taken from Kawamura Zenji ed. Jikkinsh zenshaku, Shintensha chshaku sosho 6 (Shintensha, 1994), 2058. 46 At the foot of Mount Hiei, near Ichijji and Shgakuin in Saky-ku, Kyoto.
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[the artist] repeatedly redraw it [until] it did resemble [Hitomaro]; making it his treasure, he always made obeisance to it, and so, possibly due to a miracle, he was able to write better poetry than previously. Many years later, when he seemed about to die, he presented [the portrait] to Retired Emperor Shirakawa, who was greatly delighted and, adding it to his treasures, kept it in his Toba treasury. The Rokuj Head of the Bureau of Palace Repairs, Lord Akisue, asked repeatedly and was nally allowed to borrow [the portrait]. He spoke to Nobushige, who copied [the portrait] for him, [after which Akisue] kept [the copy]. He had Atsumitsu write the praise inscription, had Head of the Department of Shint Akinaka make a clean copy, made it his main object of veneration, and held the rst eigu with it. At the time, [Akisue] had many sons-in-law, but it was Toshiyori, as a person of the Way of poetry, who made the offerings [to the portrait]. [ Hitomaro] eigu were held in this way for many years without fail. Among [Akisues] descendants were Nagazane and Ieyasu; it was his third son, Akisuke, who was skilful in this Way [of Poetry], and so [the portrait of Hitomaro] was passed on to him. When it was passed on to the Retired Emperor [Shirakawa], he was greatly pleased. Nagazane was in attendance on His Majesty; he must have had a jealous heart, for he muttered, That portrait of Hitomaro is worthless. Even if it were a rare piece of writing, it would be inferior to a single page of poetry. At this the Retired Emperors complexion changed for the worse, and Nagazane rose to leave; the Retired Emperor called him back, saying Why do you say such a thing in front of me? [The portrait] had its origins in a dream, admittedly an uncertain thing, but Kanefusa was an honorable man, so I hardly think this was an invention on his part. I already count [the portrait] amongst my treasures, and have done so for years. Your father earnestly carried out [Hitomaro eigu] for years. With all this, how can you belittle it? Its really unreasonable of you! Thus saying, he was greatly displeased; so [Nagazane] ed, and shut himself up in his house for half a year, not making a sound. This too added to the glory of that portrait.
A number of features in this story hint at its apocryphal nature: the rst is the description of the plum blossoms falling like snow, a description strongly reminiscent of the following Kokinsh poem, which appears along with the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409) as an exemplary poem for Hitomaro in the interpolated notes to the Kokinsh Kana Preface:
Kokinsh VI:334: Winter (anonymous) ume no hana sore to mo miezu hisakata no amagiru yuki no nabete furereba The plum blossoms I cannot see which they are, as the distant sky is so misty with snow falling everywhere.
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We may also note the narrators instinctive recognition of Hitomaros special qualities: before any identication is made or any clues given as to his identity, it is remarked that he did not look like an ordinary person (tsune no hito ni mo nizarikeri ). This seems to be a precursor to similar foreshadowing in later commentaries that feature remarks on Hitomaros divine aura like ge ni mo tadabito ni arazu, truly he was no ordinary person.47 Fujiwara no Kanefusa (10011069) was the great-grandson of the regent (sessh) Fujiwara no Kaneie (929990). Despite being born to such a high social station, his court career consisted mainly of appointments as a provincial governor. While not the prestigious positions someone of his birth might have been expected to hold, his tours of duty in the provinces allowed him to accumulate sufcient wealth to host his own poetry competitions and meetings.48 Although Kanefusa has a total of 15 poems included in imperial anthologies from Goshish to Shinshokukokinsh, it is his dream of Hitomaro and subsequent commissioning of the portrait for which he has been best remembered. The latter part of the story deals with the portrait after the rst Hitomaro eigu, when it is said to have passed into the possession of Retired Emperor Shirakawa. The explicit identication of skill in poetry (on the part of Akisuke) as a prerequisite for ownership of the portrait indicates its value as a symbol of poetic authority, its possession the mark of the leading poet of the Rokuj house. The portraits importance as a symbol of poetic authority to be passed on can be seen again in another Kokon chomonj setsuwa which deals with its origins and later transmission.
Kokon chomonj V:204 The matter of the Hitomaro portrait passed down by Kiyosuke Regarding the portrait of Hitomaro passed down by Lord Kiyosuke, the governor of Sanuki, Lord Kanefusa, deeply loved the Way of waka, and was saddened by the fact that he didnt know what Hitomaro had looked like. Hitomaro came to him in a dream and told [Kanefusa] that since [Kanefusa] was so fond of him, he would show himself. Being unable to draw pictures, Kanefusa summoned an artist the following morning and had him draw as instructed, and as the portrait was identical to what he had seen in the dream, he was overjoyed and revered it. However, Retired
See, for instance, Gyokuden jinpi (Katagiri, Chsei Kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 554555). 48 Yoshihara Yoshinori, Kanefusa no uta katsud to Hitomaro ei ni tsuite, Sonoda joshidai ronbun sh 13 (10/1978): 20.
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Emperor Shirakawa, who was fond of this Way [of waka], requested the portrait and kept it in the treasury at the Toba Palace. The Head of the Bureau of Palace Maintenance, Lord Akisue, was a close retainer [of Shirakawa] and wished [to borrow the portrait], but was not permitted to; yet he asked persistently and nally made a copy of it. Lord Akisues eldest son, Middle Councillor Lord Nagazane and his second son, Consultant Lord Ieyasu were not talented at this Way [of waka], and so [he] passed the portrait on to his third son, Administrator of the Left Capital Akisuke. The original portrait which had belonged to Lord Kanefusa was burnt when the Ono Empress49 had asked for it and was viewing it. The Kokinsh in Tsurayukis hand was also burnt on the same occasion. This was a most unfortunate matter. Therefore Lord Akisues portrait [of Hitomaro] became the original portrait. Even if they were his own children, he should not pass on [the portrait] to those who were not skilled at this Way [of waka], nor should they [be allowed to] copy [the portrait]. It seems that there are pledges [kishmon] [to this effect]. The portrait in question was passed down to Lord Yasusue, and he gave it to Lord Narizane. [The portrait] is now in the possession of the Retired Emperor, and since the Kench era [12491256] there have been eigu ceremonies. The offertory vessels were passed on in turn to Lord Iehira,50 but they were then received by Lord Iekiyo,51 and when they were in his sons possession after his death, they were ordered and kept by the same Retired Emperor. The desk made out of a pillar of the Nagara Bridge was originally passed down by Priest Shune52 and during the reign of Emperor GoToba was brought out at such events as imperial poetry meetings. At the imperial poetry meeting of the senior Retired Emperor, poems were read at that desk before that portrait, a most wonderful event.
This repeats the information in the earlier story regarding Akisues repeated requests to borrow and copy the portrait, and furthermore invests Akisues copy with new authority as the new original, the oldest version of the portrait left after the re at the Toba treasury. Once again, skill at waka is portrayed as the essential quality required by the various recipients of the Hitomaro portrait, and placed above even blood ties as the crucial determining factor in its inheritance. It is quite possible that Akisues Hitomaro portrait was in fact the true original: it has been argued that the Jikkinsh account is a later Rokujhouse fabrication intended to supply a pedigree for the Hitomaro
The consort of GoReizei (r. 10451068). Son of Tsuneie and nephew of Yasusue; great-nephew of Kiyosuke. 51 Iehiras son. 52 1113-?. Son of Minamoto Shunrai, priest of the Tdaiji, poetry teacher of Kamo no Chmei, and convener of the monthly poetry meetings of the Karinen salon.
49 50
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portrait used at Akisues Hitomaro eigu.53 In any event, the earliest documented Hitomaro portrait is the one belonging to Akisue used in the rst Hitomaro eigu in 1118. One important difference between Kanefusas portrait and Akisues copy was the addition of the praise inscription, composed by Atsumitsu and inscribed by Akinaka. The text of the praise inscriptionas included in the Eigu kiconsists of a preface and poem in Chinese, as follows:
Praise inscription on picture of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro: one poem with preface The ofcial, clan name Kakinomoto, given name Hitomaro, was truly a poet of ages past. He served at the holy courts of Jit and Mommu, and entertained Princes Niita and Takechi. In the spring wind of Mount Yoshino, he followed the imperial palanquin and offered congratulations; in the autumn mist of Akashi Bay, he thought of a small boat and let ow his words. Is this not truly the pinnacle of the six styles [rikugi ], and a splendid tale for a myriad generations? Now, due to our respect for his old poems of unfathomable beauty, we would like to pass on a newer-looking picture. Having such feelings, we thus composed this praise inscription. It says: Sage of Japanese poetry, Receiving your nature from Heaven Excelling in that genius, Your style of poetry is powerful.54 In thirty-one characters, Your owers of words are fresh as the dew; For over four hundred years, They have come down to later ages. A teacher of this Way, You were a sage of our land in ancient times. Although [touched by] the black earth, [your poems] are undeled;55 If one [tries to] cut them, they grow ever harder.56
53 Kitahara Motohide, Ume no hana no Hitomaro ei ni tsuite, in Bunkashigaku no chsen, ed. Kasai Masaaki (Kyoto: Shibunkaku shuppan, 2005), 201. 54 Sono hokosaki shinzen tari, the point of the spear [of your poetry] is sharp. This seems to have been a set phrase, and occurs in other texts. 55 This line also appears in the Wen xuan, and is thought to come originally from the Analects (Suzuki and Kitayama, 220). 56 Kore o kireba, iyoiyo katashi. A phrase describing the excellence of Hitomaros poetry. The passage in question from the Analects reads, Yan Yuan, heaving a sigh, said, The more I look up at it the higher it appears. The more I bore into it the harder it becomes (Suzuki and Kitayama, 220; D. C. Lau tr., The Analects, London: Penguin, 1979, 97).

Splendid as phoenix feathers, their like are few, Rare as the kirins horn, none may follow them. Your peerless excellence is already stated; Who could stand as your equal? Genei 1, Sixth Month, [ ] day By Head of the University T no Atsumitsu
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The praise inscription reects a number of inuences in its treatment of Hitomaro. The opening line of the poem, here translated as Sage of Japanese poetry, reads yamato uta no hijiri in the original, clearly echoing the Kokinsh Kana Prefaces reference to Hitomaro as an uta no hijiri, sage of Japanese poetry and the Mana Prefaces waka no hijiri,57 sage of Japanese poetry (particularly in its use of the character sen). The important thing to note here, when considering the Hitomaro eigu in the context of Hitomaros deication, is that, although a number of scholars regard the eigu as the dening moment of Hitomaros apotheosis,58 he is here still termed an uta no hijiri, sage of Japanese poetry, rather than a deity of Japanese poetry (waka no kami). Although Hitomaro is here made the object of not merely admiration (as in the Kokinsh) but actual worship, he is not yet the full-edged divinity he would become in later texts. This brings the Hitomaro eigu into line with its models, the sekiten and the mieku or daishiku, which were services to the memory of great but still mortal gures. Further inuence from the Kokinsh can be seen in the reference to the six styles of poetry (rikugi ), which derive originally from the Great Preface to the Shijing and are applied to Japanese poetry in both Kokinsh prefaces, and also in the reference to the Akashi Bay poem, which had come to be regarded as Hitomaros representative poem due to its association with Hitomaro in the Kokinsh. However, although Hitomaros Heian and medieval reception was heavily dependent on his treatment in the prestigious Kokinsh and owed rather less to his actual poems collected in the Manysh, the Manysh is also referred to in the praise inscription and some of Hitomaros works therein acknowledged. Thus it can be seen that despite the overwhelming role of the Kokinsh in Hitomaros Heian-period canonization, the Manysh could continue to have some inuence.
57 58
Arai and Kojima, 342. Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 84.
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At the most basic formal level the praise inscription reects the inuence of Chinese literature. The formal denition of the praise inscriptionoriginally a Chinese genrewas given earlier, and there is also some Chinese inuence in terms of content: various phrases have precedents in Chinese texts, including the following two lines, both of which are based on lines from the Analects (Lun yu, J. Rongo), the rst coming by way of a praise inscription preserved in the Wen xuan.
Although [touched by] the black earth, [your poems] are undeled; If one [tries to] cut them, they grow ever harder.
Although the echo of the Analects here may suggest a link back to the Confucian sekiten, the immediate effect of these and similar lines is to elevate the tone of the praise inscription by invoking prestigious Chinese-language texts. The iconography of the Hitomaro portrait used in the ceremony is a further aspect of the Hitomaro eigu for which a Chinese precedent can be identied. The origins of the rst Hitomaro portrait recounted in the Jikkinsh setsuwa notwithstanding, modern scholarship has identied an earlier model for the archetypal Hitomaro portrait in which he is posed with brush in one hand and paper in another. In this form, Hitomaro appears to have been modeled on a portrait of an old man on one panel of a six-fold landscape screen (sansui bybu) held by the Kyoto National Museum. The identity of the old man on the screen is not clear, but he has been tentatively identied as the Tang poet Bo Juyi, based in part on the fact that Bo Juyi was featured on screens (known as Hakurakuten shshikai bybu) in the Heian period and that his veneration by poets composing in Chinese was at a peak in the mid-Heian period, when the archetypal Hitomaro portrait rst took form. Also, although there is nothing in the Manysh to suggest that Hitomaro lived to a particularly old age, the portrait depicts him as an older man, aged about sixty. Portraits of Bo Juyi regularly depicted him as an old man (he lived to be 74) and may thus be likely models for the archetypal Hitomaro portrait.59 Later Hitomaro portraiture split into two lines, the Nobuzane type and the Iwaya type, the former being named for the Kamakura-period
Information in this paragraph is from Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 9192; he is referring to the work of gushi Sumio (see his Hitomaro z no seiritsu to Tji sansui bybu. Bijutsu kenky 164 (1952): 126). A discussion of this topic in English appears in Graybill, Kasen-e, 4152.
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poet and artist Fujiwara no Nobuzane (11761265) and the latter for the rock cave (iwaya) in which the Tendai priest and poet Gyson (1057 1135), who is said to have had a dream involving Hitomaro, carried out ascetic practices. The Nobuzane-type portraits depict Hitomaro as he is described in the Jikkinsh account of Kanefusas dream, while the Iwaya-type portraits show Hitomaro in a Chinese style60 (a particularly noteworthy development when one considers the early Heian traditions according to which Hitomaro was dispatched to China as an envoy). It is also thought that the Muromachi-period portraits of Tenjin going to Tang China (tot tenjin zu) may have had some inuence on the development of the Chinese-style Hitomaro portraits.61 It should be noted that not all Hitomaro portraits bear the praise inscription recorded in the Kakinomoto eigu ki. Some bear the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409) in the upper part, while others have Kokinsh VI:334, on plum blossoms and snow (the second exemplary poem given for Hitomaro in the interpolated notes to the Kokinsh Kana Preface). Attention has also been drawn to a Muromachi-period Hitomaro portrait which has an illustration of white plum blossoms in its upper part in lieu of any inscription.62 It has been suggested that the production of Hitomaro portraits with plum blossoms rather than praise inscriptions can be related to the changing circumstances of the eigu. The rst Hitomaro eigu, closely modelled on Chinese precedents, can be interpreted as a show of power by Akisue and his poetry circle. Akisues descendants, however, lacking his standing at court, did not hold Hitomaro eigu again until 1177 (under Akisues grandson, Kiyosuke), and when they did so, opted for a more aestheticised, de-politicized version of the portrait, bearing plum blossoms (reminiscent of Kokinsh VI:334) rather than the Chinese praise inscription.63 These portraits of Hitomaro, while descended themselvesat least initiallyfrom Chinese precedents, can be seen as ancestors of the genre of kasen-e, which were often executed in sets of thirtysix corresponding to Kints Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals (from his Sanjrokuninsen), of which Hitomaro was one. Indeed, the oldest extant Hitomaro portrait is that included in the thirteenth-century Satakebon sanjrokkasen (Satake Text of Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals), a scroll with
60 61 62 63
Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 92. Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 92. Kitahara, Ume no hana no Hitomaro ei , 199. Kitahara, Ume no hana no Hitomaro ei , 207208.
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portraits, poems, and information on the so-called Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals arrangedlike the Sanjrokuninsenin the form of a poetry contest.64 The Satakebon Hitomaro is clad in similar garb to that described in the Jikkinsh account, and holds a brush and paper; this may be the closest extant portrait to that used in the rst Hitomaro eigu in 1118.65 Chinese Models of Poetic Practice As is clear from the preceding sections, a number of elements of the worship of Hitomaro, from the form of the eigu ceremony to the iconography of his portraits, are based on or adapted from Chinese precedents. The ceremony by which Hitomaro was worshipped was based largely on a Chinese model, the sekiten/shidian, and the literary form through which his praises were extolled at the eigu was also Chinese in origin and language. At rst glance, the use of Chinese ritualistic and literary apparatus to celebrate Hitomaro as Japanese poetrys greatest exponent may seem counterintuitive; however, it is an entirely logical development when one considers that the practice of Japanese poetry as a genre suitable for composition or recitation in a formal or ofcial context was patterned to a large extent on Chinese models in an attempt to accrue some of the prestige given writings in Chinese (kanshibun).66 Waka-related phenomena that came about in emulation of Chinese-language equivalents include anthologies compiled by imperial command, and kakai, Japanese poetry meetings. Poems in Chinese were an element of the ceremonies established under the ritsury system, and as such their composition was part of a public ofcials duty.67 The mastery of both political and literary skills was the mark of the ideal government ofcial. Although overshadowed by poems in Chinese in the early Heian Period, waka made their way back into the public sphere during the reign of Emperor Murakami (946967) as a secondary form of poetry (behind kanshi) at formal banquets. Subsequently it was only natural that waka meetings should
Graybill, 34. Kitahara, Ume no hana no Hitomaro ei , 209. 66 Takigawa Kji, Gishiki to waka: ken shikai to no kakawari ni oite, Chko bungaku 59 (5/1997): 1. 67 Takigawa, 1.
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incorporate elements of kanshi meetings to legitimize Japanese poetry as a genre equally worthy of attention. This incorporation of kanshimeeting features is evident in the earliest extant record of a court poetry meeting, that of the Tka no en kakai (Wisteria-blossom poetry meeting) of 949.68 As Japanese poetry grew in prestige the adherence of kakai protocol to that of kanshi meetings grew somewhat less rigorous, but the concept and basic outline of the kakai was still indebted to its kanshi predecessor. Thus it can be seen that the poetry meeting which was held as part of the Hitomaro eigu, while not dealing directly with Hitomaro or his poems, was still part of this larger pattern of Japanese adaptations for waka of prestigious Chinese literary precedents and in that respect quite in accord with other elements of the days proceedings. Insei-period Poetry Circles and the Establishment of the Rokuj House Hitomaro eigu represented a signicant milestone in the process of Hitomaros deication in that it identied him not merely as a semidivine gure but as one fullling an important ancestral role. The Confucian and Buddhist rituals on which the Hitomaro eigu was based were concerned specically with the ancestral gure of a school or discipline, and in honoring Hitomaro with the eigu ceremony Akisue seems to have been seeking to establish him as the ancestral deity of the Rokuj school.69 It seems likely that in establishing some measure of poetic authority, the Rokuj house hoped to improve their standing at court in political terms also. The late eleventh century was a period of considerable political upheaval, reected in the establishment of the insei ( government by Retired Emperors) system in 1086 as the power of the Fujiwara regency faded. It was also the time when competing poetic houses began to emerge. The poetry circles (kadan) of the insei period occupy a pivotal position at the turning point between archaic (kodai ) and medieval (chsei) poetry, as Japanese poetry moved from being a form of entertainment
The record of the Tka no en wakakai procedure appears in the Seikyki of Minamoto no Takaakira (914982) (Takigawa, 2). 69 Susan Blakeley Klein, Allegories of Desire: Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan, 86.
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to a more seriously contested literary form.70 While waka in the earlier part of the Heian period had largely been relegated to the role of elegant entertainment for imperial consorts, the poetry circles of the insei period were formed by young, capable, politically mobile courtiers.71 From the early twelfth century onward, poetic production at court revolved around two main poetry circles, each afliated with one of the major political power blocs: the circle centred on Fujiwara no Tadamichi, who served as both regent (sessh kanpaku) and prime minister (daij daijin), and the one surrounding Fujiwara (Rokuj) Akisue, who was one of Shirakawas closest retainers and a great source of economic support for the Retired Emperor. He was also the son of Shirakawas wet nurse.72 The medieval nature of these poetry circles can be seen in their relative exclusivity, there being little interchange of members between the two apart from recognized poets like Shunrai and Mototoshi. Both the exclusivity of these poetry circles and the respect accorded the poetic talents of Shunrai and Mototoshi that allowed them to transcend the division between the two circles are indicative of the fundamental changes taking place in the conception of court poetry at that time.73 These epochal changes in the nature of waka praxis are reected in the imperial anthologies compiled around this time: the Goshish of 1096, while showing to some extent a break from the three preceding imperial anthologies (the sandaish) in poetic terms, is politically signicant as the rst imperial anthology of the insei period, and can be read as a celebration and afrmation of the recovery of sovereignty by the imperial line, in the person of Retired Emperor Shirakawa.74 The next imperially commissioned anthology was Shunrais Kinysh (Collection of Golden Leaves) of 1127, and it is in the compilation processes for these two collections that we see the beginning of the imperial anthologys role as contested ground between rival poetic
70 Hashimoto Fumio, Inseiki no kadan, in his ch waka: shiry to ronk, Kasama ssho 253, Kasama shoin, 1992, 245. 71 Hashimoto, Inseiki no kadan, 249. 72 Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 96. 73 Huey denes the two salient features of the medievalization of poetic practice as 1) the movement of waka to an art form, in which context creative differences may be debated, and 2) the move toward exclusivity, in the form of waka schools, and the growing strength of waka-school-based bonds compared to those from other social settings (Huey, The Medievalization of Poetic Practice, 651652). 74 Nishiki, p. 94.
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factions. The Goshish was commissioned by Shirakawa (who was still emperor at the time) in 1075, and the poet to whom the signal honor of compilation was given was Fujiwara no Michitoshi (10471099). The senior poet in court circles at the time was Minamoto no Tsunenobu (10161097, Shunrais father), who was close to the rival regency faction rather than to Shirakawa.75 Tsunenobus compilation of a pointed critique of the Goshish, the Nan Goshish of 1086, is evidence of both the bitterness of the poetic and political rivalry between the two factions and the emergence of Japanese poetry as a literary arena in which such critical debate could take place. As noted earlier, the rise of Japanese poetry as a professional literary form involved the emulation in a waka context of kanshi events such as poetry meetings. However, as Japanese poetry moved into the territory previously occupied exclusively by poetry in Chinese, it took over more than the outward trappings of formal poetic praxis; it came to be seen as taking on some of the qualities of kanshi. One such quality, which was uppermost in the minds of Shirakawa and his circle, was the potential usefulness of poetry as a political tool or aid to government. This Confucian idea of politicized poetry was not new to waka discourse, appearing in the Kokinsh Mana Preface,76 but was able to be explored in practice only when the prestige of waka had risen sufciently for it to be used in ofcial contexts previously the preserve of kanshi. It has been argued that Shirakawas enthusiasm for waka, as evident in his commissioning of the Goshish, reects a belief that waka was emblematic of ideal government.77 Likewise, it can be suggested that the combination of skill in kanshi and in political affairs, another Confucian ideal, was being supplanted by that of skill in waka and political affairs. This too was visible back in the Kokinsh, in Tsurayukis comments on Hitomaro as being in perfect union with his sovereign, (and, as noted earlier, the combination of poetic and political talents ascribed to Hitomaro was instrumental in determining his selection by the Rokuj poets for their eigu).78 Thus one could argue that this emergence of Japanese poetry into the public arena was a necessary precondition for Hitomaro eigu, that it was only once the political potential of waka was starting to be realized that a poetic and political ceremony for a Japanese poet (who composed
75 76 77 78
Huey, 653. Kitahara, Hitomaro eigu to inseiki kadan, 31. Hashimoto, Inseiki no kadan, 225. Kitahara, Hitomaro eigu to inseiki kadan, 35.
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in Japanese) could be held. However, as host of the rst Hitomaro eigu, Akisue was doing more than just holding up Hitomaro as an example of this ideal combination; he was presenting himself in a similar light, as one skilled in poetry and close to his lord (Shirakawa). This is suggested by the preface to the poetry meeting at the rst Hitomaro eigu, also included in the Eigu ki, which consists of a headnote and poem in Chinese largely devoted to praising the host, Akisue:
On a summers day at the waterside tower of the Third-ranked Head of the Bureau of Palace Repairs, composed together on the topic of the wind over the water at evening, one poem with preface. [By] Head of the University Atsumitsu Waka is the main custom79 of our land. Arising in feelings, it takes form in words; It is written on each thing, and recited on each thing, And is truly the origin of allegory;80 Long may it depict the beautiful relationship of lord and ministers. Thus, whenever the Head of the Bureau of Palace Repairs Has time to spare from his imperial duties, He settles the dew of his words on the six styles [of waka]. What matches his perceptive mind Is the splendid interest of the owers and birds and grasses and insects; Those who responded to his invitation Are ne men with perfumed robes and good horses. Todays meeting [is a result of ] the convergence of these circumstances.81 At present, The garden stream is cold, although it is summer; The cool breeze comes with the evening. How cool it seems as the reed leaves sway; The shoreline haze gradually darkens. The cedar twigs rustle as they move; The moonlight on the sand begins to brighten. Our feelings greatly inspired, we compose a few poems. Those words are: [Head of the University Atsumitsu]
Fzoku, a common description for waka in poetic works of the time. Fy, allegory, referring in a poetic context particularly to the Chinese use of shi for remonstrating with ones lord through an allegorical or metaphorical poem. 81 The circumstances are the combination of Akisues poetic interests/accomplishments and the attendance of his splendid guests.
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References to waka as the origin of allegory and as a medium for depicting the beautiful relationship of lord and ministers make it clear that the Hitomaro eigu was held with both political and poetic goals in mind, in an environment where the two could be combined in connection with Japanese rather than Chinese poetry. It may be noted that the Tang sekiten, on which Hitomaro eigu was largely modeled, was, in its large, public form, more than just the celebration of a philosophical school: it was a ritual integration of the two main elements of the state, namely the imperial household and the academy. In its inclusion of the crown prince and various academic ofcials, the sekiten can be interpreted to symbolize the normative structure of the Chinese imperial bureaucratic state and the partnership between the Confucian tradition and imperial power.82 The Hitomaro eigu was on a much smaller scale, but it retained a political dimension as a means to promote the political aspirations of members of the Rokuj house. However, Akisues main purpose in appropriating Hitomaro for his ceremony of worship is generally thought to be the establishment of the Rokuj house as a poetic schoolthe rst such poetic house to be incorporatedwith Akisue as its head and Hitomaro as its poetic ancestor. Under these conditions the portrait of Hitomaro took on great signicance as a symbol of the Way of waka, and its transmission from generation to generation became a dening feature of the Rokuj house.83 The signicance of the portrait and the symbolic value of its ownership is evident from the attention paid to the process of its transmission in the Kokon chomonj setsuwa quoted earlier. Akisues portrait of Hitomaro gets retroactively endowed with even more authority in Kokon chomonj V:204 when its predecessor, the portrait commissioned by Kanefusa himself, is destroyed by re, making Akisues copy the oldest extant Hitomaro portrait and thus the new original. Doubts have been raised, however, as to whether the interpretation of the Hitomaro eigu as the founding event of the Rokuj house is accurate. Sasaki Takahiro has pointed out that although many of the attendees at the rst Hitomaro eigu were Rokuj family members, they often tended to participate in poetry meetings together and their attendance as a group was therefore nothing unusual. Likewise, Shunrai was
82 83
McMullen, 48. Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 94.
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a regular participant at Akisues poetry meetings, so his presence too was unexceptional.84 Possibly the most telling aspect of the argument against the Hitomaro eigu as an exercise in school-founding, however, is the fact that there is no record that Akisue ever held Hitomaro eigu again,85 which seems a strange omission if it truly was the event through which his house was dened as a discrete artistic entity. This is of course not to say that the Rokuj house did not exist as such an entity, or that later members did not take an interest in its incorporation (or in the Hitomaro eigu). Rather, it may be the case that the signicance of the rst Hitomaro eigu was only recognized after the fact and prestige added to it retroactively.86 The fact that it did come to be highly regarded is evident from the Jikkinsh setsuwa (IV:2), in which Hitomaro eigu is said to have been held in this way for many years without fail, and the glory of the Hitomaro portrait is enhanced through its defense by Shirakawa. In fact, it seems possible that a lack of recognition of the value for posterity of the Hitomaro eigu at the time of its rst enactment may have contributed to its rapid dissemination to other poetic groups at court. While there is no record of Akisue ever holding a repeat performance of Hitomaro eigu, other instances of Hitomaro eigu at court in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries are well documented. If Hitomaro eigu had been recognized at the time as a denitive founding event for the Rokuj house, it seems quite likely that it would have been kept secret to enhance its value as specialized, in-house knowledge. This was the approach taken by later poets to the proprietary waka commentaries of the kokin denju, which feature numerous injunctions to the reader not to disclose what they have learned therein. The cultural capital represented by a medieval poetic houses stock of poetic tradition and lore derived much of its value from the very fact of its exclusivity, and its secrets were jealously guarded. The practice of Hitomaro eigu, by contrast, seems to have spread with surprising speed to poetic bodies other than the Rokuj house. Another possible contributing factor to the spread of the Hitomaro eigu is the loss of strength of the Rokuj house. Although it was the rst poetic house to be founded, the Rokuj house ultimately lost out to the
84 85 86
Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 95. Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 96. Sasaki, Rokuj Akisue tei shodo Hitomaro eigu kakai k, 96.
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Mikohidari house of Fujiwara Shunzei and Teika in the quest for poetic and political superiority. The waning of Rokuj power and inuence is evident in the subsequent evolution of the Hitomaro eigu, which came to celebrate Hitomaro as an ancestral gure of the Way of Japanese poetry as a whole rather than as an ancestor of one house exclusively. Although members of the Rokuj house continued to hold Hitomaro eigu sporadically (for instance, Kiyosuke in 1177, as noted earlier) and held, for a time, a important asset in the form of the Hitomaro portrait used in the original eigu, they were unable to retain exclusive possession and control of their most signicant innovation, namely the concept and performance of the Hitomaro eigu ritual itself. As we speculate as to the reasons why the Rokuj house did not maintain control over the Hitomaro eigu, we must also examine this issue from the other side. Specically, the question arises as to why such a ritual would have appealed to other poets. Clues to this lie in the fact that Japanese poetry itself was evolving as a discipline and coming to be conceptualized as a Way of practice (michi). This new view of waka necessitated the retroactive construction of a pastin the form of history, traditions and ancestorsto which current practitioners could look for some kind of legitimizing authority. The seminal text for all waka poets (and their emerging schools) was the Kokinsh, the Kana Preface of which outlined the history of waka from its divine origins onward, and identied representative poets from that history, most prominently Hitomaro. The Kana Preface took on new signicance for poets in the late Heian period as the culture of waka was transformed into a Way and a literary eld started to emerge. In this increasingly competitive literary environment, poetic production soared, and [p]oets themselves came to speak of the way of poetry (uta no michi) as the steering course of their artistic lives.87 In other words, the same broad developments that prompted Akisue to promote Hitomaro as an ancestor of his own school proved equally compelling to other, non-Rokuj, poets seeking an ancestral gure to legitimize their own poetic activities. Within the changing tone of poetic discourse in the twelfth century, worship of a poetic ancestor was a concept that proved itself applicable to a wider range of contexts than
87 See Ivo Smits, Places of Meditation: Poets and Salons in Medieval Japan. In Reading East Asian Writing: The Limits of Literary Theory, ed. Michel Hockx and Ivo Smits (London: Routledge, 2003), 209.
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simply that of a particular poetic house. This was true whether the ancestral gure in question was Hitomaro (whose appearance in the seminal Kokinsh made him a suitable ancestor for all poets, not only the Rokujs) or another gure more specic to a particular family or school (such as the Reizei houses later kmon eigu, venerating Teika). The Hitomaro eigu was, in short, an idea whose time had come. The main form in which elements of the Hitomaro eigu spread beyond the Rokuj school to other poetic groups was that of the eigu utaawase (poetry contest with portrait-offerings), in which the Hitomaro eigu ceremony (in its original or a truncated form) was performed as a prelude to a poetry contest. The term eigu utaawase is one that suggests a greater emphasis on the practice and composition of the poems themselves than the worship of Hitomaro, and in its inclusion of these two elementscompetitive poetic composition and a supernatural poetic ancestorit encapsulates at once both the practical and writerly nature of poetic praxis at the time and the increasing religiosity of poetry as a discipline. The eigu utaawase ourished between 1199 and 1203, when it was held seventeen times.88 Minamoto no Michichika (11491202), a powerful political backer of the Rokuj house, took up the practice of eigu utaawase and by 1200 was holding them monthly at his mansion, where they were attended by prominent non-Rokuj poets such as Teika.89 The account in Teikas diary Meigetsuki (Record of the Bright Moon) of the eigu utaawase held on the 26th day of the Twelfth Month of Shji 2 (1200) indicates that it was a monthly event with regular attendees, including the now-elderly Shunzei and Retired Emperor GoToba. A Hitomaro portrait was hung amid blinds (sudare), libations were offered to it, and the utaawase was held. The ritual proceedings were somewhat abbreviated compared to Akisues Hitomaro eigu90 In 1201 these eigu utaawase began to be held under the patronage of GoToba rather than Michichika, and soon became a regular event at the recently-revived Wakadokoro, the ofce responsible for the compilation of imperially commissioned waka anthologies. The reasons for GoTobas interest in eigu utaawase become clear when we consider that
88 Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 105. For a listing of Kamakuraperiod Hitomaro eigu, see Sasaki Takahiro, Hitomaro eigu nenpu k: Kamakura jidai hen, Mita bungaku 12 (12/1989): 1524. 89 Robert N. Huey, The Making of Shinkokinsh. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002: 83. 90 Yamada, Hitomaro eigu no seiritsu to tenkai, 106.
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the commission for compilation of the Shinkokinsh was issued later in 1201; poetry contests such as eigu utaawase played an extremely important role as productive sites for the outstanding poetry GoToba sought for inclusion in his imperial anthology. In the wake of these public, high-prole eigu utaawase Hitomaros status as a poetic ancestor was signicantly raised, and the hanging of his portrait became a dening feature of medieval and early modern utaawase.91 Some later variations of the Hitomaro eigu involved more overtly Buddhist elements, in keeping with the pervasive inuence of Buddhist philosophy on so many aspects of medieval thought.92 This trend is reected in the fact that the Hitomaro eigu held at the monthly meetings of the Karinen, the poetic salon hosted by Shunrais son Shune (b.1113), was noticeably more Buddhist in tone than the original. This was a development that foreshadowed the increasing interaction between Buddhism and the Hitomaro eigu in the medieval period, an interaction that would produce texts such as the late-twelfth-century Kakinomoto kshiki (Praise service for Kakinomoto). The Hitomaro eigu at the Karinen in 1166 is the next recorded instance of Hitomaro worship following the rst Hitomaro eigu in 1118. As the son of Shunrai, guest of honor at the rst Hitomaro eigu, one could suppose that Shune may have had some sort of familial interest in continuing Hitomaro eigu. The conditions at the Karinen and the form of the ceremony, however, were signicantly different from those at Akisues Hitomaro eigu. The Karinen was a salon of lower-ranked aristocracy, whose prominent members included Fujiwara Norinaga and Minamoto no Toshimasa. Its monthly meetings (with Hitomaro eigu) provided a forum in which poets from a variety of backgrounds and afliations could interact.93 The Karinen appears to have had its own Hitomaro portrait and to have been quite independent in holding its Hitomaro eigu. Just how different the tone of the Hitomaro worship here was from the original Hitomaro eigu can be seen in the Wakamandokoro ipponky kuy hybyaku (Ofce of Poetic Affairs Offering with Sutra Chapters Invocation) of 1166, one of the few texts giving details of the Karinen Hitomaro eigu. This text is from an Offering with Sutra Chapters (ipponky kuy) service held before a portrait of Hitomaro in the
91
158.
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Sasaki Takahiro, Kakai ni Hitomaro ei o kakeru koto, Bungaku 6:4 (78/2005): Katano, 177. Sasaki Takahiro, Karinen no Hitomaro eigu (1), Ginnan chka 3 (12/1989): 4.
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Seventh Month of 1166 with over thirty poets in attendance. Excerpts are translated below:94
Now, what reason can there be for this meeting of this group of so many excellent fellows? They are not brothers, joined like branches or like esh and bone, and they are not fellow practitioners of austerities in the mountains and forests. It is through poetry that this has come to pass, as in the forest of words they meet, making their wills as one. This ceremony is largely devoted to making the ofcial Kakinomoto the supremely revered gure of this Way. Thus we draw a true portrait of him, and every month worship him with offerings. Sometimes we gather in this place, and each speaks of our intent. Men and women let y their poetic compositions, priestly and profane alike murmuring [poems] to themselves. This we call the Ofce of Poetic Affairs, and with good reason. [. . .] Here, one of those gathered debated, saying, We are all equal in [our devotion to] this Way. Is this just the banquet we see before our eyes? Regarding the distant past, we should pray for the release from suffering and attainment of enlightenment of our ancestors; as for ourselves, we should await good karma in a future existence. The human world is not eternal; the world to come is fearsome indeed. Why would we vainly expend our feelings on the Way of Akahito and Hitomaro, and completely estrange our aspirations from the abandonment of illusion and attainment of enlightenment? [. . .] What we wish is that: rstly Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and Yamabe no Akahito be allowed to pluck the owers of the Buddha tree and be allowed to scale the peak of the mountain of awakening; next, that Sotoorihime95 and Ono no Komachi be able to step on the dust of the wife of pure virtue96 and be able to inherit the correct enlightenment of the Nga Kings daughter;97 next, that the Kazan Archbishop98 and Kisen of
94 The text of the Wakamandokoro ipponky hybyaku appears in Chken sakumonsh in Akiyama Ken ed., Chsei bungaku no kenky (Tky daigaku shuppankai, 1972). 95 Sotoorihimes name refers to a beauty so great that it shone out through her clothing. Mentioned in the Nihon shoki as the younger sister of the consort of Ingy (traditionally thought to have reigned 412453), she is famously compared to the ninthcentury poet Ono no Komachi in Tsurayukis Kokinsh Kana Preface and counted as one of the three deities of waka. 96 The wife of the king Fine Adornment (Subhavyha), who guides her husband into the Way of the Buddha in volume eight of the Lotus sutra (Leon Hurvitz tr., Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, 325). 97 J. Rynyo, the daughter of the Nga King Sgara (Shakara-ry), whose attainment of enlightenment at the age of eight is described in volume ve of the Lotus sutra. 98 Sj [Archbishop] Henj (816890), like Komachi one of Tsurayukis Six Poetic Immortals, as is Kisen.
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the Uji mountains be allowed to stand on equal terms with the virtue of Sriputra the wise and Maudgalyayana the supernaturally-endowed.99
The Karinen Hitomaro eigu represents an early and important stage in the spread of both Hitomaro eigu and Hitomaro portraiture. It marks the independence of the ritual from the Rokuj house and can be seen as a forerunner both of eigu utaawase and the increasing interaction of Buddhism and Hitomaro eigu in the medieval period.100 Its text (as excerpted above) also includes explicit acknowledgement of the humanity of Hitomaro the poetic sage in its prayers for his enlightenment: while clearly superior to other poets in both poetic and political terms, he is still human and not yet a poetic deity as such. Similar sentiments can be found in the Kakinomoto kshiki.101 The development of the Kakinomoto kshiki can be seen as another instance of the larger trend of the appropriation by waka of Buddhist paradigms. This was combined with the precedent for Hitomaro worship set by the Hitomaro eigu, although the kshiki was not an epochal event in the course of Hitomaros deication in the way that the eigu had been. Originally instructions for the procedure of a sermon expounding a sutra, kshiki developed into services devoted to the praise of a particular deity (a buddha, bodhisattva, deva, or kami ) or ancestral gure. In particular, kshiki seek to generate a karmic link (kechien) between the ritual participants and the object of devotion.102 An object of worship (honzon), often a portrait of the gure to whom the kshiki was devoted, would be set up, and the kshiki text recited aloud to it. Kshiki consist of prose passages in kanbunoften three or ve sectionspraising the object of worship, interspersed with gth ( ge), Buddhist hymns. The earliest example is Genshins (9421017) Nijgo zanmai shiki (Reading on the Twenty-ve Samdhi) of 986, but most extant examples date from the late Heian and early Kamakura periods.103 The assimilation of Buddhist elements into waka praxis provided an environment for poetry-related kshiki to develop: there are two waka kshiki, the earlier one, in one section, dating from 1287 and the later
99 Sriputra ( J. Sharihotsu) and Maudgalyayana ( J. Mokuren) were two of the Buddhas ten great disciples. 100 Sasaki Takahiro, Karinen no Hitomaro eigu (3), Ginnan chka 5 (12/1990): 5. 101 Sasaki Takahiro, Kakai ni Hitomaro ei o kakeru koto, 149150. 102 James L. Ford, Competing With Amida: A Study and Translation of Jkeis Miroku kshiki, Monumenta Nipponica 60:1 (Spring 2005): 43. 103 Ford, 44.
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one, in ve sections, from 1305.104 A precedent for Hitomaros worship had already been set with the Hitomaro eigu, so the composition of the Kakinomoto kshiki can be seen as a natural development, a product of the conuence of the existing tradition of Hitomaro worship and the adaptation of the kshiki form to waka discourse. There are several texts of the Kakinomoto kshiki, including one appearing in Gunsho ruij and one (traditionally attributed to Shune) in the Gesshji jiden (Origins of Gesshji temple).105 The Gesshji text starts with three poems associated with Hitomaro and then consists of three main sections: a section in praise of waka, one in praise of Hitomaro, and one describing original thoughts. Each section is followed by three waka and a prayer for the rebirth of all poetic ancestors in the Pure Land paradise. Acknowledgement of Hitomaros humanity (also apparent in the memorial-like nature of the Hitomaro eigu) forms a continuing strand of his canonization as a divine poetic gure. Hitomaro is still widely referred to as a poetic sage (kasei ) even after some texts start describing him as a deity (kami ) of waka (and even after shrines dedicated to him are established).106 Thus the boundary between the essentially human kasei and the explicitly divine kami remains indistinct. This blurring of categories is facilitated by a philosophy such as honji-suijaku, in which a single entity may simultaneously exist in multiple forms (for instance, as both a kami and a bodhisattva). Eigu for Other Poets As we have seen, the veneration of Hitomaro as a poetic ancestor spread beyond the Rokuj house to other poetic groups, and took on slightly different forms. A particularly signicant development in this process was the adaptation of the Hitomaro eigu ceremony itself as a means for the veneration of other poetic gures. The evolution of eigu ceremonies for other poets is still another facet of the reception of Hitomaro (or, more precisely, the reception of Hitomaro eigu). The
104
Kakinomoto kshiki (den Shune hshi saku), in Mase Sekizen ed., Gesshji jiden, Akashi: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro hsankai, 1972, 89127 (text 89101; notes 102127). 106 See, for instance, Ueda Akinaris Kaseiden (Biography of the poetic sage, 1785).
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2, 8.
Yamada Shzen, Waka kshiki nidai, Taish daigaku kenky kiy 55 (3/1970):
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earliest known such example is that of Shunrai, for whom GoToba held eigu ceremonies while in exile in the Oki islands; the earliest example of this Shunrai eigu seems to be from 1236.107 The latter half of the thirteenth century saw the development of eigu ceremonies for GoToba himself, held mostly annually during the Bunei era (12641275) and generally on GoTobas death anniversary, and attended by members of his family. These eigu seem to have involved portraits of GoToba with what was regarded as his representative waka inscribed at the top. The religious topics on which some of the poems were composed hint at the function of the event as a memorial service (tsuizen) for the recently dead. But inuence could ow in the other direction also: as noted earlier, Hitomaro eigu was not originally held on Hitomaros death anniversary, but in the Edo period it came to be sometimes held on his supposed death-day (the eighteenth day of the Third Month), partly as a result of the inuence of the GoToba eigu.108 Another instance of eigu for a poet other than Hitomaro seems to be a poetry-inspired one (i.e., involving no familial relationships such as those seen in the GoToba eigu above) held by Retired Emperor Juntoku for Teika in 1242, the year after Teikas death.109 Family-based worship of Teika would subsequently be developed into the kmon eigu ceremony by his descendants.110 The ceremony is so named on the basis of Teikas court post of chnagon, Middle Councillor, the Chinese name for which is kmon. Eigu for poets other than Hitomaro was also held by Fujiwara no Akisues descendants: Fujiwara no Arifusa (12511319), an eighth-generation descendant of Akisue, held eigu for his grandfather, Koga no Michiteru (11871248) in 1305.111 Arifusas cousin Lady Nij (the author of Towazugatari) held Hitomaro eigu the same
107 Sasaki Takahiro, GoToba-in Ietaka Shunrai eigu shk (1), Ginnan chka 9 (12/1992): 56. 108 Sasaki Takahiro, Tsuizen kakai toshite no eigu: GoToba-in eigu ni tsuite no ikksatsu, Nihon bungaku 43:7 (7/94): 27. 109 Katano, 178. 110 See Reizei Fumiko, Uta no ie ni umarete kmon eigu, Taiy 35:12 (1997): 121125. For a photograph of arrangements for a contemporary kmon eigu in the Reizei house, see Reizeike shigure-tei bunko and NHK ed. Ky no miyabi, waka no kokoro: Reizeike no shihten (NHK Promotion, 1997), 156. 111 Sasaki Takahiro, Towazugatari no Hitomaro eigu, Kokugo to kokubungaku 70:7 (1993/7): 21.
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year, an act which may be taken as an illustration of her awareness of her personal poetic heritage.112 It seems likely that the original Hitomaro eigu, based quite closely on the sekiten and held in the context of a Rokuj family gathering, was intended to dene Hitomaro as a poetic ancestor of the Rokuj school, but this would have been a subtly different objective from those of later Hitomaro eigu (such as the Karinen Hitomaro eigu) or eigu utaawase, in which the concern seems to have been less with Hitomaro as the ancestor of a particular school of waka and more with Hitomaro as an ancestral gure for the Way of Japanese poetry in general. The original signicance of the Hitomaro eigu as a ritual specically for the founder of a school was thus reduced, and became diluted even further with the advent of eigu for other, more recent poets. The role of eigu in those cases seemed to be more to honor great earlier poets, without there necessarily being issues of ancestry involved. The eigu to Shunrai and GoToba (and possibly Teika) are also striking because they took as their subject poets who had been active extremely recently (particularly in comparison to Hitomaro), and about whom much was known. Hitomaro eigu, on the other hand, co-opted a gure largely hidden by the mists of time, who hailed from the distant past even as far as the Kokinsh compilers were concerned and presumably even more so by the time of the rst Hitomaro eigu in the early twelfth century. Through the performance of Hitomaro eigu in sites such as the Karinen and the holding of eigu utaawase, Hitomaro had been repositioned as the ancestral gure of the Way of Japanese poetry as a whole rather than of the Rokuj school exclusively. There seem to have been parallel developments in other literary and artistic Ways (michi). A postscript to the Kokon chomonj describes the banquet held in the Tenth Month of 1254 to celebrate that texts completion, at which portraits of Bo Juyi, Hitomaro and Lian Cheng Wu ( J. Renshbu) were hung, as representative gures of the three Ways of Chinese poetry, Japanese poetry, and music.113 That this postdates the rst Hitomaro eigu from 1118 may suggest that the transfer of ritual elements from a philosophical or religious context into a literary one took place rst with Hitomaro, and then spread from waka to other literary or artistic
112 Sasaki, Towazugatari no Hitomaro eigu, 19; see Karen Brazell tr., The Confessions of Lady Nij (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973), 251252. 113 Katano, 1589.
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Ways in Japan. In other words, inasmuch as waka in particular came to be viewed as a not merely literary but also a religious vocation, it was waka that provided the point of entry for non-literary rites into a literary environment; once assimilated into that environment, these extratextual elements of waka praxis could be more easily appropriated by practitioners in other artistic or literary genres. The Hitomaro eigu was an event of pivotal importance in the process of Hitomaros canonization. Its signicance in setting a precedent for making Hitomaro an object of worship is clearly apparent in both its appropriation for the worship of other literary gures and its elevation of Hitomaro to the status of poetic ancestor of the Way of Japanese poetry. This elevation of Hitomaro was a critical precursor to the revelations of his divine nature which would take place in poetic discourse in the medieval period.
CHAPTER FOUR
MEDIEVAL RECEPTION: POETIC DEITIES IN THE SECRET COMMENTARIES The most signicant development in Hitomaros reception during the medieval period was his canonization as a deity of Japanese poetry, a waka no kami. Although the eigu ceremony cemented Hitomaros position as a poetic gurehead, a symbol of the glorious past of Japanese poetry, he was worshipped in the eigu as a kasei, a poetic sage, possessing a heaven-sent gift, perhaps, but still mortal. In a number of medieval texts, however, Hitomaro is presented as a supernatural being, no longer a mere mortal but a divinity in his own right. This chapter will examine Hitomaros canonization as a deity of Japanese poetry, particularly as it occurred in medieval commentaries on the Kokinsh. Broadly speaking, Hitomaros deication in the commentaries (like his worship in the eigu ceremony) is situated at the intersection of two large socio-historical trends. The rst is the rise in prestige of waka as a genre and the changes this brought to its practice. As noted in the previous chapter, the development of waka as a professional literary exercise and the formation of competing poetic houses are characteristic of waka praxis in the medieval period, and these are the driving forces behind the establishment of the Hitomaro eigu and the kokin denju, the practice of the transmission of secret teachings on the Kokinsh. The second broad trend is that waka discourse in the medieval period took on an increasingly religious tone, as elements of Buddhist thought and practice were absorbed by waka. This appropriation by waka of paradigms of Buddhist discourse, the dominant and authoritative discourse of the age, can be seen as part of wakas quest for legitimacy: just as Heian-period waka consolidated its position by assimilating elements of the practice of poetry in Chinese (including poetry meetings and imperially commissioned poetry anthologies), so medieval waka turned to Buddhism to increase its prestige. Within these sweeping trends, developments such as the twelfth-century recanonization of the Kokinsh, the spread of the doctrine of honji-suijaku, and the development of waka-dhran theory, according to which Japanese poems were equated with Buddhist invocations, also played decisive roles in Hitomaros canonization.
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chapter four Hitomaros Grave
Visits by later poets to Hitomaros grave form a recurrent motif in Hitomaro-related narratives, and one through which his canonization as a deity can be traced. In fact, a grave visit gures in the earliest text in which Hitomaro is identied as a deity, the headnote to the following poem by the poet-priest Jakuren.1 Jakuren was Shunzeis nephew and was selected as a compiler of the Shinkokinsh, but died in 1202, before the compilation was completed. This grave visit is thought to have taken place in the period 11731180.2
On visiting Hitomaros grave and paying homage to the Kakinomoto no myjin furuki ato o koke no shita made tazunezu wa nokoreru kaki no moto o mimashiya Had I not sought the ancient traces even beneath the moss, would I have seen the remaining base of the persimmon tree?3
A slightly different text of this poem appears in the imperial anthology Gyokuysh (Collection of Jeweled Leaves) of 1312, but the poem is also included in the smaller of the two extant versions of Jakurens personal poetry collection. Hitomaro is referred to in the headnote as the Kakinomoto no myjin, the Bright Deity Kakinomoto. The term myjin, although of Chinese origin, is used in Japan as a respect term for kami, deity. The fact that Hitomaro is thus identied less than a century after he was worshipped in the rst Hitomaro eigu (1118) underscores the pivotal role of the eigu ceremony as a catalyst for the process of his deication. We may also note that the poem was composed on the occasion of a visit to Hitomaros grave. There are a number of references to Hitomaros grave as a site sought out and visited by poets from the twelfth century onward; indeed, the Jakuren poem quoted above appears in the Gyokuysh directly after a poem by Fujiwara no Kiyosuke composed on his own visit to Hitomaros grave. Kiyosuke was the grandson of
1 Aso Mizue. Hitomaro shink: sono keisei to tenkai, Kokubungaku kaishaku to kansh 182 (9/1973): 23. 2 Sasaki Takahiro, Hitomaro tenbo no dent: Hitomaro shink no ittenkai, Kokubungaku kenky shirykan kiy 18 (3/1992): 6. 3 Number 77, Jakuren I, in Wakashi kenkykai ed., Shikash taisei: chsei I, Meiji shoin, 1974, 184.
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Akisue, holder of the rst Hitomaro eigu, and the most detailed account of his visit to Hitomaros grave appears in the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kanmon (Investigative Report on Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, 1184) of Kensh (c. 1130c. 1210), Kiyosukes adopted brother and one of the most prolic of the Rokuj scholars.
Kiyosuke said, When I went down to the province of Yamato, an old man of that province said, There is a forest beside Isonokami Temple in Snokami district. It is called the Harumichi forest. In the middle of that forest there is a temple, called the Shihonji,4 and it is a temple [dedicated] to Hitomaro. In front of the temple there is a small mound in the elds. It is said to be Hitomaros grave, and is a holy place which always resounds. Hearing this, I went with worshipful intent to that place; in the Harumichi forest is a torii, and of the Shihonji only the foundation stones remain. Hitomaros grave was a small mound of about four shaku [c. 1.2m]. There were no trees, and pampas grass was growing. I then and there erected a stupa for the sake of later generations, and as the inscription wrote, Grave of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro. On the reverse I wrote the name of a buddha and an important passage from a sutra. I also wrote my full name, and below that inscribed the poem: yo o hete mo aubekarikeru chigiri koso koke no shita ni mo kuchisezarikere Though ages pass, the promise made that we should meet has not decayed even beneath the moss.
After I returned home to the capital, all the people of that village had a dream in which three men in proper court dress came and worshipped this stupa and left. This dream was heard of faintly in the southern capital, and it [ became] known that this place was determined to be Hitomaros grave, [he said].5
Kiyosuke does not refer to Hitomaro as a deity, but rather inscribes his full (human) name on the stupa. Nonetheless, Hitomaros supernatural powers are evident in the fact that the gravemound resounded, and his divine authority is suggested by the visitors to his grave in the dream subsequently seen by the local population. There is something very conventional and setsuwa-like about the dream appearance itself, and about the way in which Kiyosuke recounts this development as
4 5
Also pronounced Kakinomotodera. The temple is no longer extant. Nihon kagaku taikei, supplementary volume 4 (Kazama shob, 1958), 93.
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if from an omniscient perspective, as something that happened to the villagers at a time when he was no longer present. A quite different account of visiting Hitomaros grave appears in a slightly later text, the Mumysh (Nameless Notes) of Kamo no Chmei (c. 11551216):
Hitomaros grave is in the province of Yamato, on the road leading to Hatsuse. When I asked about Hitomaros grave, there was no-one who knew. They said that there was a poem-mound at that place.6
Here Hitomaros grave is unknown to the locals; those who revere him and seek out his nal resting place are the poets in the capital.7 In fact, Hitomaros assimilation into local belief structures for an assortment of non-poetic purposes is a feature of his later deication, but at this stage he seems to be of interest only to the poets, and only as a poetic deity. Both these accounts were produced by members of poetic institutions noted for their admiration for Hitomaro: Kiyosuke and Kensh of the Rokuj house, and Chmei, a member of the Karinen, at whose monthly meetings Hitomaro eigu came to be held regularly. Hitomaro grave visits were quite popular among Karinen attendees, although they declined somewhat after the end of the Karinen.8 Knowledge of Hitomaros gravesite in Yamato, however, was still being passed down even as the number of pilgrimages there by poets decreased, as seen in the diary Towazugatari, which records the visit of its author Nij to Hitomaros grave in the autumn of 1304.9 A slightly later narrative involving Hitomaros grave, by which stage the process of his deication and canonization as a symbol of the court-poetic tradition was more advanced, is that appearing in the fteenth-century setsuwa collection Sangoku denki (Biographies of Three Countries). This tale describes the poet-priest Saigy (11181190) traveling in Harima Province (modern Hygo Prefecture) en route to Akashi. Saigy spends the night in the hut of an old man, with whom he discusses poetry; in the morning the old man and the hut are gone, and all that remains at the site is Hitomaros gravemound. What sets this Hitomaro grave-visit account apart from those which preceded
6 Hisamatsu Senichi and Nishio Minoru eds., Karonsh, ngakuronsh, Nihon koten bungaku taikei 65 (Iwanami shoten, 1961), 53. 7 Aso, Hitomaro shink, 22. 8 Sasaki Takahiro. Towazugatari no Hitomaro eigu, 15. 9 Sasaki, Towazugatari no Hitomaro eigu, 15; see Brazell, 252.
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it is the signicance attached by Saigy and the narrator of the tale to Hitomaros appearance at the gravesite. While bound for Akashi, Saigy declares that he seeks a meeting with Hitomaro to prove that the Way of Poetry, to which he had dedicated himself, was a Way by which salvation could be attained. After Hitomaros disappearance, the story concludes with an account of Saigys death and achievement of rebirth in the Pure Land, by way of proof that, as Saigy had declared, salvation was indeed possible through the Way of Poetry.10 Parts of the story dealing with Saigys travels appear in Saigy monogatari (The Tale of Saigy, late Kamakura period), but not the section in which he encounters Hitomaros ghost.11 The Sangoku denki story formed the basis of two Edo-period n plays about Hitomaro, which will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter. In the context of the present discussion, we may note that this gravemound is in a different place (Harima) from that visited by Kiyosuke (Yamato). As Hitomaro came to be increasingly revered as a poetic deity, more gravesites came to be associated with him, often through poems by or attributed to him. These include sites in Akashi, through the Akashi Bay poem from the Kokinsh and travel poems mentioning Akashi in the Manysh, sites in Yamato, from poems in the Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro sh in the Manysh which are set in the southern part of Yamato, and sites in Iwami, based on Hitomaros putative death poem in the Manysh. The number and location of these sites varies from text to text. As with many of the other items of proprietary knowledge passed down in the esoteric commentaries of the kokin denju, the authors of the commentaries tend to be concerned with evaluating the various possibilities in order to identify the most truthful, in other words, to identify the secret that would make this piece of knowledge a valuable piece of poetic property. Thus we nd the following discussion of Hitomaros grave in the fourteenth-century Tamesuke Kokinsh ch:
As for Hitomaros grave, there are numerous theories. One is said to be in the province of Iwami. One is said to be in Sumiyoshi Bay in the province of Settsu. One is said to be in the province of Awa. One is said to be in the forest of Harumichi in Isonokami in the province of Yamato. One is at Takatsu Pine Plain in the province of mi. Takatsu Pine Plain is said
Sasaki Takahiro, Hitomaro tenbo no dent, 20. For the text of the setsuwa itself, see Ikegami Junichi ed., Sangoku denki (Miyai shoten, 19761982): 338340. 11 Kinoshita Motoichi, Sangoki setsuwa no ikksatsu: Hitomaro Saigy setsuwa o megutte, Toyama daigaku kyiku gakubu kiy A (Bunkakei) 30 (3/1982): 185186.
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to be in the province of Iwami. Also, it is said that there is a Hitomaro grave in Inazu village in the province of Nagato. In this school, we say that it is at Takatsu Pine Plain in the province of Iwami.12
This account gives seven legendary grave sites, including not only sites associated with Hitomaro through poetry, but also the traditional grounds of the Wani/Kakinomoto clan in Yamato, and Sumiyoshi in Settsu (modern-day Osaka), where the Sumiyoshi daimyjinregarded as a deity of poetry and associated with Hitomaro in some commentariesis enshrined. The text also instructs its readers as to which gravesite should be regarded as the correct one. However, the fourteenth-century Gyokuden jinpi effectively trumps all such arguments over the true location of Hitomaros grave with the revelation that none of Hitomaros several gravesites actually contain his body, as he ascended to heaven without leaving any earthly remains behind:
The three sites of Hitomaro mounds: 1) in the forest of Harumichi in Soe district, Yamato Province; 2) in the village of Murashima in the province of Nagato; 3) in the village of yama in the province of Iwami. However, his bones are not in any of these places. He is said to have ascended to heaven.13
As well as including the earliest references to Hitomaro as a deity, these texts related to his grave also encapsulate the evolution of his image and status, from a revered poetic ancestor (Kiyosuke) to a poetic deity ( Jakuren) and a symbol of poetic skill and Buddhist enlightenment (Sangoku denki ). To understand how and why this transformation took place, we need to look at the changes taking place in court-poetic circles in the early medieval period, and particularly the establishment and propagation of the kokin denju in the wake of the recanonization of the Kokinsh. The Recanonization of the Kokinsh and Establishment of the Kokin Denju Although the Kokinsh had been canonized as a poetic standard since its compilation by virtue of its imperial sponsorship, its position as the prime exemplar of normative court-poetic values was conrmed
Sasaki, Hitomaro tenbo no dent, 1718. Katagiri, Chsei Kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 540. Quoted in Sasaki, Hitomaro tenbo no dent, 17.
12 13
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once and for all by its treatment in the inuential treatises of Fujiwara Shunzei (11141204) and his son Teika (111621241), founders of the Mikohidari house of poetry. The Kokinshs recanonization was accomplished in large part through statements such as the following, from Shunzeis monumental poetic treatise Korai fteish (Notes on Poetic Styles from Ancient to Modern Times: 1197, revised 1201):14
Since the time of [Kokinsh], the good and bad points of waka have been selected and xed, so for the proper forms of poetry one should respect and believe Kokinsh alone.15
In other words, the good and bad points of waka are dened through their inclusion in or exclusion from the Kokinsh; thus it is to that anthology that one should look for the correct or ideal poetic style. This recanonization of the Kokinsh as the sole repository of desirable poetic forms has been described as the single most decisive factor in the formation of the kokin denju, the curriculum of the Way of Poetry,16 among the competing poetic houses in the medieval period. The rst generation of these poetic houses or schools consisted of the Rokuj house and the Mikohidari house. The Rokuj house was the rst to be established and the rst to die out, ceasing to be a major force after the death of Kensh in about 1210 and disappearing altogether in the Northern and Southern Courts period (13361392). The Mikohidari house ourished under Shunzei, Teika, and Teikas son Tameie (11981275), and its members were responsible for ve of the twenty-one imperial waka anthologies: Senzaish (Collection for a Thousand Years, 1187), Shinkokinsh, Shinchokusensh (New ImperiallyCommissioned Collection, 1235), Shokugosensh (New Later Collection, 1251), and Shokukokinsh (Continued Collection of Old and New Japanese Poetry, 1265). Two of these ve titles, Shinkokinsh and Shokukokinsh, are suggestive of the compilers desire to insert themselves into the lineage of poetic descent from Kokinsh, and some formal features of the Shinkokinsh in particular, such as its panel of ve compilers and its two prefaces, one in Chinese and one in Japanese, reect a deliberate attempt to emulate the Kokinsh as closely as possible.
14 Lewis Cook, The Discipline of Poetry: Authority and Invention in the Kokindenju (Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 2000), 18. 15 Ariyoshi Tamotsu ed., Korai fteish, in Ariyoshi et al. ed., Karonsh, Shinpen nihon koten bungaku zensh 87 (Shgakukan, 2002), 264265. 16 Cook, 18.
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After Tameies death in 1275, however, a dispute between his children resulted in the splintering of the Mikohidari house into three lines, the Nij, headed by his eldest son Tameuji (12221286); the Kygoku, under Tamenori (12271279); and the Reizei, under Tamesuke (12631328). The Nij house became the mainstream of waka, and their dominance of court-poetic circles is apparent in their near-monopoly on the compilation of imperial anthologies; all but two of the imperial anthologies from the Shokushish of 1278 onwards were compiled by poets from the Nij school.17 Each of these houses sought to establish itself as the true inheritor of the teachings of Shunzei and Teika, particularly those concerning the Kokinsh, the interpretation of which was the primary concern of poetic commentators from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries.18 The poetic houses sought to consolidate their positions by each laying claim to exclusive knowledge of the Kokinsh, knowledge contained in the particular interpretation recorded in house commentaries. These proprietary teachings, which are liberally sprinkled with injunctions not to reveal their content to outsiders, were passed on from generation to generation (and later, from master to disciple) in a strictly controlled line of transmission. The erceness of the competition between the poetic houses in the early medieval period may be inferred from the number of commentaries they produced: it has been estimated that about forty-four commentaries on the Kokinsh were produced between 1200 and 1400.19 The beginnings of the practice of the transmission of these commentaries and other teachings on the Kokinsh can be traced to the early thirteenth century, and the kokin denju system of transmission was rmly in place by the end of that century.20
17 The two exceptions were the Gyokuysh (Collection of Jewelled Leaves, 1312), compiled by Kygoku Tamekane, and the Fgash (Elegant Collection, 1346) compiled by Retired Emperor Kgon. 18 Cook, 21. 19 Yokoi Akio and Arai Eiz, eds., Kokinsh no sekai: denju to kyju, Sekai shissha, 1986, 197200. Lewis Cook notes that about 200 commentaries were produced on the Kokinsh from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries, compared with only four or ve on the Gosensh and Shish, less than a dozen on the Shinkokinsh, and approximately 30 on the Hyakunin isshu (Cook, 21). 20 Cook, 1921. Cook identies the symbolic origin of the kokin denju as Fujiwara no Mototoshis (d. 1142) admonition in Kensh and Teikas Kench mikkan (Kenshs Notes on Secret Interpretations, 1221) to the effect that the canon (i.e., the Kokinsh) cannot simply be read but must be received.
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The content of the commentaries can take various forms, including interpretations of problematic poems and anecdotes on the supernatural or divine nature of poetry and poets. The commentaries can be structured in various ways; they may take the form of entries for the poems in the order in which they appear in Kokinsh or they may be in the form of passages about a Kokinsh-related topic. These different formats do not necessarily imply great differences in content; similar anecdotes may appear in a topic-related section in one text or inserted into the note on a poem in another. The commentaries frequently stress the exclusivity of the teachings they expound, teachings which are described as belonging to our school (try). Recipients of the kokin denju were keenly concerned with their place within the genealogy of transmission, the model for which was an impeccable if ctional lineage or genealogy placing the recipient in a potentially endless line of succession leading back to the origin and forward indenitely;21 establishing the authenticity of the teachings was thus a crucial concern of the kokin denju as an institution. A number of commentaries or poetic treatises are spuriously attributed to giants of the court-poetic tradition, such as Teika (for instance, Sangoki, Thirty-ve Records, ca. 13121317) or Mototoshi (Waka mutei sh, Notes on the Innite Profundity of Japanese Poetry). Others turn to a still higher source of poetic authority: the Gyokuden jinpi includes a note to the effect that it was composed by the Sumiyoshi deity and transmitted to Ariwara no Narihira on the twenty-eighth day of the First Month of 857,22 while the opening of the Sanrysh (Notes on Three Streams)23 describes the receipt of the teachings contained therein by Minamoto no Tsunenobu from the Sumiyoshi deity.24 This concern with the antiquity and authority of waka and its texts is evident as far back as the Kokinsh Kana Preface, where Hitomaro was appropriated as a symbol of the long and proud heritage of Japanese poetry in an attempt to add to the genres authority by both situating its origins in the distant past and by emphasizing the enthusiasm of earlier sovereigns for its composition. The development of waka as a literary eld, contested by increasingly professional poetic schools, made the need for symbols of the poetic tradition, like Hitomaro, ever more pressing. Poetic lore,
21 22 23 24
223.
Cook, 52. Miwa Masatane, Kagaku hiden no kenky, Kazama shob, 1994, 100. Also known as the Kokinwakashjo kikigaki (Kamakura-Muromachi period). Katagiri Yichi, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 3, Kyoto: Akao shbund, 1973,
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tradition, and authority, embodied in texts, commentaries, and portraits of poetic deities, were the most valuable assets a school could have in the charismatic economy of early-medieval waka praxis. The formation of poetic houses and the professionalization of waka can be understood in the context of the establishment of waka as a Way (michi ) of artistic discipline and endeavor. The Way of Poetry (kad or uta no michi ) came to be formulated as a profession analogous to others through which the bureaucracy of the imperial court functioned, and the rewards for successful practitioners of this Way included appointments as judges at poetry contests or imperial commissions for the compilation of poetry anthologies.25 The opportunity to provide service to the court and to ones sovereign was the prize at stake for the members of the competing houses. The symbolic precedent for the poets (idealized) position in close service to his lord can be found in the Kana Preface to the Kokinsh, specically in the reference to Hitomaro being in perfect union with his sovereign.26 Thus, in the context of the Way of Poetry, Hitomaro could serve as a model for all poets, regardless of afliation (an idea borne out by the rapid spread of Hitomaro eigu into the poetic community at large). The term michi had another sense, however, in which it was employed in Buddhist contexts: that of a regime of ascetic practice, a spiritual exercise rather than merely a profession as dened by the ritsury state. The medieval period in Japan has been described as that epoch during which the basic intellectual problems, the most authoritative texts and resources, and the central symbols were all Buddhist.27 As waka appropriated elements of the dominant Buddhist discourse to enhance its own position, so too the Way of Poetry took on aspects of michi in the Buddhist sense, initially combining with and ultimately replacing the earlier meaning of michi as a profession.28 The inuence of the Buddhist paradigm of michi can be seen not only in the content of poetic commentaries and treatises (as will be discussed below), but in the practice of transmission itself, which could incorporate elements of
Cook, 63. Cook, 16. 27 William LaFleur, The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984, 9. 28 Cook, 63.
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esoteric Buddhism such as baptism (kanj, Skt. abhiseka),29 and licenses of transmission. Incorporation of Buddhist inuence was not necessarily uniform throughout the commentaries produced for the kokin denju. Several of the texts drawn on most extensively here for their presentation of Hitomaro as a poetic deity are from the commentarial line descended from Fujiwara Tameaki (c. 1230sc. 1290s), a son of Tameie who was outside the three main poetic houses. Tameaki seems to have been largely responsible for the introduction of the esoteric Buddhist baptismal initiation rite (kanj) as a model for poetic transmission rituals, a practice which subsequently spread to other poetic schools. The Hitomaro eigu ceremony was an important precursor of Tameakis waka initiation ritual, and Hitomaro seems to appear quite prominently in commentaries associated with Tameaki. Living in eastern Japan, away from the capital where the main poetic houses were based, Tameaki was an ordained Shingon priest whose commentaries on the Kokinsh and Ise monogatariand those descended from themshow particularly marked esoteric Buddhist inuence. Content from the Tameaki-line commentaries made its way into the writings of other poetic houses and beyond, into medieval prose literature and n plays.30 Although Tameaki may have been a marginal gure not afliated with the main poetic houses, his commentaries and those associated with him, such as the Gyokuden jinpi, exerted considerable inuence on the kokin denju in general and the deication of Hitomaro in particular. Tameakis waka praxis and theory play a crucial role in transforming Hitomaro into a poetic deity and shaping the image of Hitomaro which would be popularized in the later medieval and early modern periods, and in this regard they are of central importance to the process of his canonization. Hitomaros Origins, in the Commentaries One element of Hitomaros legend where his reception in the medieval period clearly differed from his reception in earlier times is his supposed connection with the western province of Iwami. As seen earlier, the
Cook, 64. Susan Blakeley Klein, Allegories of Desire: Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan, 13.
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arrangement of Hitomaros poems on parting from his wife in Iwami and his purported death poem on Kamoyama in the second volume of the Manysh gave rise to later legends concerning his life and (particularly) his death in Iwami. In the medieval Kokinsh commentaries, however, the Iwami-related narrative has evolved to include accounts of another pivotal or liminal moment in Hitomaros life, his birth, or, more accurately, his rst miraculous manifestation as a divinity in the human realm. While the earlier Iwami-related legend, concerned largely with Hitomaros death, made his mortality all too clear, these accounts stress Hitomaros mysterious origins and preternatural poetic gifts. A typical example of such an account is found in the Gyokuden jinpi:
Origins of Hitomaro On the third day of the Eighth Month of the third year of the reign of Emperor Temmu [675], [ Hitomaro] appeared at the base of a large persimmon tree at the house of someone called Katari-no-ie-no-mikoto in a place called Mountain Village in Toda District, Iwami Province. He was aged about twenty and of splendid appearance in both face and body. When the owner of the house was suspicious and questioned him, saying Who are you? I think you are not an ordinary person, he replied, saying, There is nowhere I have come from and nowhere I should go. Giving voice to the morning and the evening, the moon and the wind, all I do is recite poetry. Thinking this very strange, the owner of the house spoke of it to his master, an ofcial of the province of Tango, who sent a message to the capital. When the emperor heard of this, he thought it very strange and dispatched a messenger to summon [ Hitomaro]. Truly he was no ordinary person. When he was commanded to compose poetry, his skill was such that the words owed like water. Since it was the land of his birth, he was appointed governor of Iwami Province. Since he had appeared at the foot of a large persimmon tree, he was granted the clan name Kakinomoto. As for his real name, since he had appeared from the heavens, he was called Ama-kudaru-onoko, a man descended from heaven.31
A perfect physical and poetic specimen, Hitomaros supernatural qualities are recognized by those around him and conrmed by the narrator: truly he was no ordinary person ( ge ni mo tadabito ni arazu). Most importantly, they are recognized by the emperor, who summons Hitomaro to court and favors him with a bureaucratic appointment, the governorship of Iwami. The last sentence of the excerpt reiterates Hitomaros divine origins, revealing his real name to be Ama-kudaru31
Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 554555.
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onoko, A man descended from heaven. This occurs at the foot of a persimmon tree, allowing the text to incorporate a folk etymology for his clan name, Kakinomoto (at the foot of the persimmon [tree]). As noted in Chapter Two, the Gyokuden jinpi then goes on to describe Hitomaros court career:
He was a teacher of waka, and a selector of waka. He was an important person in the world. In the same year, on the third day of the Ninth Month, he was appointed Administrator of the Left Capital [Saky daibu] of the Third Rank, Lower Grade, and also Governor of Harima. On the rst day of the Third Month of the next year, he was appointed Head of the Crown Princes household and head of the Bureau of Carpentry, of the Senior Third Rank, Upper Grade. After his death, in the reign of Kken [749758], he was appointed to the Senior Second Rank and made Great Minister of the Center. According to one theory, in [the reign of ] Heizei tenn, on the eleventh day of the Eight Month in the second year of Daid [807], he was appointed to a posthumous bureaucratic position.32
Here we nd further details of Hitomaros court appointments, as his exalted status is dened and legitimized through the court bureaucracy. He receives the governorship of Harima, likely attributed to him because of his poems dealing with Akashi ( just as he was credited with the governorship of Iwami through his poems set there). Hitomaros putative appointment to the Senior Third Rank is also included here, reecting the inuence of the Kokinsh Kana Preface, where he is described as holding such a rank. While placing Hitomaros earthly existence more or less in the right century (the seventh), this account also includes a posthumous connection between Hitomaro and Emperor Heizei (r. 806809); possibly this was a way to reconcile Heian-period theories linking the two men which were derived from the Kokinsh Mana Preface. The earliest version of this accountwhich is very similar to if slightly less detailed than the Gyokuden jinpi versionappears in the Sanrysh of 1286,33 and similar accounts appear in a number of other texts.34 Other versions of the narrative, however, differ in substance from
Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 555. It Masayoshi, Kak no denki: chsei no Hitomaro, Kansai daigaku kokubungaku 48 (7/1973): 4. 34 These include the Kokinwakash kanj kuden (Oral Transmission on the Kokinsh Initiation, mid-Kamakura period-early Muromachi period), Waka mutei sh (c. early Muromachi period), and Hitomaro himitsush (Notes on Hitomaros Secrets, 1670) (which
32 33
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the Gyokuden jinpi account in one particular aspect, namely, Hitomaros age at the time of his appearance beneath the persimmon tree. In the Kokinwakash Tona jo ch (Tonas Prefatory Notes on the Kokinsh, midKamakura period-early Muromachi period), for instance, he appears as a youth of fourteen or fteen,35 and in shrine-related texts such as the Kakinomoto j sanmi Hitomaro ki (Record of Hitomaro of the Junior Third Rank) held by the Ayabe family in Toda, he is described as a boy of seven or eight years of age.36 The Akashi ryaku engi (Abbreviated Account of the Origins at Akashi, n.d.) held by the Gesshji in Akashi describes Hitomaro as a small boy (shd) who appears in the garden of a childless man.37 Broadly speaking, Hitomaro appears to be older at the time of his appearance in earlier texts and younger in later texts. His appearance as a boy or youth beneath a tree ts his origin story into a wider narrative archetype of divine beings appearing as children or old men. The very young and the very old were peripheral gures in medieval society, in a liminal space between the divine and the secular by virtue of their positions at the beginning and end of mortal life; in other words, they were seen as closer to the divine than individuals in the prime of life.38 In the context of his origin story, it may be that Hitomaros decreasing age in texts which are later and are more closely linked to his canonization through shrine worship serves to emphasize his divinity. In any event, a miraculous appearance as a boy or youth is by no means peculiar to Hitomaro, and may be compared to the treatment given other divinized gures. For instance, the traditional hagiography of Sugawara no Michizane, deied in the tenth century as Tenman Tenjin, includes a strikingly similar scene: stressing Michizanes supernatural origins, the narrative describes him appearing as a small boy in the garden of Sugawara Koreyoshi.39 The following is taken from the Gyokuden jinpi, and comes directly after the account of Hitomaros origins and bureaucratic career.
draws much of its material from Gyokuden jinpi ) (Kikuchi Hitoshi, Genja toshite no kajintachi: ryri to dgy to, Nihon bungaku 38:5 [5/1989]: 68). 35 Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 3, 332. 36 Kikuchi Yoshio, Hitomaro gens, Shintensha, 1995, 152. 37 Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, 154. 38 Kuroda Hideo, D to okina, in his Kykai no chsei, shch no chsei (Tokyo daigaku shuppankai, 1986), quoted in wa Iwao, Hitomaro densetsu (Hakusuisha, 1993), 80. 39 Kikuchi, Genja, 69. Michizanes appearance as a divine child can be found in the twelfth-century Kitano tenjin engi (Account of the Origins of Tenjin at Kitano); it also features in the fourteenth-century Taiheiki (Record of the Great Peace).
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There is a place in the province of Yamato called Jij no take. At the foot of this mountain is a mountain village called Yamabe. At the time of the Shuch-in,40 a divine being in human form appeared. He was neither layman nor priest, but was just a large child. His face and body were reddish in color. He looked to be over thirty years of age. He was sitting on a at rock by a small river in that village. The people of the village were suspicious and approached [him]. Who are you? What do you do? they asked, and questioned him repeatedly, but he did not say a thing. Is this a goblin, or an ogre, or a demon? they wondered, and trembled with fear. As many days passed in this manner, the people thought that in his present state he need not be feared, and approached him, and gave him food which he ate joyfully. Since his entire body was red, they called him Akahito. The village headman said, Matters should not be left as they are; this must be reported to the emperor. When this was reported to Emperor Temmu, he thought this very strange and summoned him.41
After a dispute with the imperial messenger, Akahito goes on to be presented to Temmu, who, as with Hitomaro, grants him ofcial appointments, including the governorship of the province of his birth, and eventually promotes him to the Third Rank (thus fullling the dictum in the Kokinsh Kana Preface that out of Hitomaro and Akahito, one cannot be placed above the other). As in the case of Kakinomoto, the narrative includes an etymology for the poets name: his clan name comes from the village in which the tale is set, and his given name, Akahitored manis derived from his strange appearance. Although over thirty years of age, Akahito is described as a large child (daid) who is neither layman nor priest, in other words, not an adult member of society. Despite his apparent age, Akahito is thus rmly relegated to the periphery of society, the twilight zone between this world and the world of the divine. In a similar vein, the Sanrysh includes the following account of an appearance by the Sumiyoshi deity as a child.
On the twenty-eighth day of the First Month of Tenan 1 [857], Emperor Montoku made an excursion to Sumiyoshi. Narihira accompanied him. When they knelt upon the jewelled dais and offered greetings to the shrine,
The Shuch era was 686.7.20686.9.?, the nal period of Temmus reign. Temmu is also described as a retired emperor in the Hitomaro kanmon in Fukurozshi, but in fact he died while in power, so was never thus styled. 41 Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 555556.
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their prayers reached to heaven and a blessed wind cooled their hearts. At that time [ Narihira] composed a poem and presented it to the deity. ware mite mo hisashiku narinu Sumiyoshi no kishi no himematsu ikuyo henuran Since rst I saw them, how long it has been how many ages have they passed, the princess pines on Sumiyoshis shore?
At the time, Narihira was twenty-ve years old. At this point, the deity pushed open the jewelled doors, appeared in the form of a child in a red robe, and composed a poem in response: mutsumashi to kimi wa shiranami mizugaki no hisashiki yo yori iwai someteki Do you not know of the bond between us? Since ages past, long as the jewelled fence, have I watched over you.42
This is a more detailed rendering of a poetic exchange which appears as the 117th section of Ise monogatari. The Ise monogatari version identies the human participant only as an emperor (mikado), and does not specify the form in which the Sumiyoshi deity manifested himself.43 There is also no mention made of the Ises protagonist, widely taken to be Ariwara no Narihira, in the Ise account of this exchange, yet he is not only present in the Sanrysh version but seems to be the author of the poem to which the deity responds. Thus the bond spoken of by the Sumiyoshi deity is not with the emperor, as in the Ise monogatari version, but between the deity and Narihira. A similar account to that in the Sanrysh appears in the Gyokudensh waka saich (Supreme Jewelled Transmission on Japanese Poetry, Kamakura-Muromachi period), where the Sumiyoshi deitys poem is followed by his presentation of scrolls, including the Gyokuden jinpi, to Narihira.
The deity said, I will leave my traces for a long time, to protect this Way, but I have not yet disclosed my true intent to people. You are a teacher of my Way, and a manifestation of myself. I should give to you what is in my heart, with which he brought out three scrolls. These were the Gyokuden [ Jeweled Transmission], Kush [ Nine Chapters] and Akone no ura
Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 3, 229. The version of this episode appearing in the Ise monogatari zuin mentions the manifestation of the Sumiyoshi deity, but then describes his poem as having been transmitted as an oracle through a head shrine ofcial named Tsumori (Susan Blakeley Klein, Ise monogatari zuin: An Annotated Translation, Monumenta Nipponica 53:1 (1998): 3334.
42 43
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no kuden [Oral Transmission of Akone Bay]. These were written in the deitys own hand, and are the essence of waka.44
Children were not the only liminal age group: as mentioned above, the elderly were also regarded as being in an intermediate area between this world and the next. In this connection we may note that in Hitomaros dream appearance to Kanefusa, as canonized through what became the conventional iconography of his portrait, he appears as an old man of at least sixty years of age. In the Sangoku denki story mentioned earlier he appears to Saigy as an old man, and is also represented as such in the n plays which deal with him. Similarly, and despite his appearance in the form of a child in the Sanrysh excerpt above, the Sumiyoshi deity is frequently represented as an old man, in both written and visual form.45 The story of Hitomaros appearance in the garden of the house at Toda is thus consistent with accounts of the origins of other poetic deities as divine boys, as seen in the case of Akahito and Michizane. More broadly speaking, Hitomaros appearance as both a boy and an old man may be understood in terms of the special signicance of very young or very old individuals as intermediaries between the mortal and divine realms. In this senseand within the broader context of poets as divinitiesthe origin story can be seen as having specically medieval characteristics. The crucial difference between the treatment of Hitomaro in the medieval commentaries and his treatment in earlier texts is perfectly demonstrated in his origin tale: he is revealed to be not just a great mortal poet, not just a sage of poetry, even, but a superhuman gure of divine origin, whose great poetic gifts are due to his otherworldly nature.
44 Katagiri Yichi, Waka kami toshite no Sumiyoshi no kami: sono naritachi to tenkai, in his Kokinwakash igo, 691692. 45 See, for instance, the gish (Notes on Inner Meanings) of Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (11071177), featuring an encounter between Narihira and the Sumiyoshi deity (Katagiri, Waka kami toshite no Sumiyoshi no kami, 686687); the Shasekish (Collection of Sand and Pebbles, c. 1283), in which the Sumiyoshi deity appears in a dream to the eleventh-century poet Akazome Emon; and the Sanrysh account of the Sumiyoshi deitys transmission of poetic teachings to Minamoto no Tsunenobu (Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 3, 223).
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chapter four Hitomaro, Sumiyoshi, and Honji-suijaku
In addition to the parallels drawn between Hitomaro and the other deied poets mentioned above, there are numerous references in the Gyokuden jinpi and elsewhere to the relationship between Hitomaro, Narihira, and the Sumiyoshi deity. Various connections between the three are described, mostly claiming that Hitomaro and Narihira are incarnations of the Sumiyoshi deity (whose identication of Narihira as a manifestation of himself appears in the Gyokudensh waka saich extract given earlier). In the Nara and early Heian periods the Sumiyoshi deity was regarded as a deity of marine safety, overseeing sea trafc on the Inland Sea. During the Heian period, however, the Sumiyoshi deity came to be increasingly associated with Japanese poetry and regarded as one of the major gods of waka. The identication of Hitomaro with the Sumiyoshi deity is clearly demonstrated in the following passage from the Gyokuden jinpi.
At the time of Emperor Temmus excursion to Sumiyoshi, the deity appeared in the form of an old man, and said, For the purposes of spreading waka through this world, I have manifested myself as Hitomaro. Thus Your Majesty should further the spread of this Way. When the emperor went to reply, [the old man] vanished into thin air. At this time it was clear that Hitomaro was a manifestation [of the Sumiyoshi deity].46
This passage serves as another example of the Sumiyoshi deity appearing in the form of an old man, as well as stressing Hitomaros divine nature. However, the signicant feature here in terms of the process of Hitomaros canonization is the concept of one deity being a manifestation of another. This can be seen as a development stemming from honji-suijaku thought. As discussed in the previous chapter, the basic form of the honji-suijaku paradigm posits a Buddhist deity, a buddha or bodhisattva, as the honji, or original ground, of a Japanese kami, who is the suijaku, or manifest trace, of that buddha or bodhisattva. The fourteenth-century Reizei-house commentary Kokinsh ch (Notes on the Kokinsh) gives the following instructions to aspiring poets, and a clear illustration of honji-suijaku thought applied to Hitomaro.
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According to the oral tradition, Hitomaro is an incarnation of the bodhisattva Fine Sound. [. . .] If you wish to grasp the Way of Poetry, hang his portrait beside your pillow, and every day at the hour of the Rabbit [57 am], scoop water in the direction of the Rabbit [east], make offerings, recite the Akashi Bay poem three times and Praise to the bodhisattva Fine Sound one hundred times; then, in anywhere from three months to three years at the most, you will see proof [of your success].47
The bodhisattva Fine Sound (Myon bosatsu, Sanskrit Gadgadasvara), who is a form of Kannon, appears in the Lotus Sutra and seems, by virtue of his name, a logical choice as the original form of a poetic deity like Hitomaro. This identication of Hitomaro as an incarnation of Myon bosatsu also appears in, for instance, the Sangoki.48 It should be pointed out here that within the broader concept of honji-suijaku there seem to have been various types of avatars or embodiments of divine beings. Hitomaro is here described as the keshin, or physical incarnation, of Myon bosatsu, while the suijaku, or manifest trace, of the same bodhisattva is identied elsewhere as the female deity Benzaiten, a Buddhist form of the Vedic water deity Sarasvat, who is worshipped for music, speech, and learning.49 Her alternative name Myonten (Deity of ne sound) echoes that of Myon bosatsu. The basic honji-suijaku paradigm was further developed in the poetic commentaries, where the principles of original ground and manifest trace, of one deity being a manifestation or incarnation of another, were applied to the relationships between various Japanese deities. The mutability of individual identity involved in honji-suijaku relationships, through which one individual is revealed to be in fact another (or indeed, several others), is also applied in the commentaries to relationships between poets. The application of honji-suijaku in this context creates a three-tiered hierarchy: buddhas and bodhisattvas as honji for kami; both kami and Buddhist deities as honji for human beings.50 The situation could be still more complicated: Hitomaro, although often represented as a poetic divinity on a par with the Sumiyoshi deity, could nonetheless be revealed to be an aspect of the Sumiyoshi deity himself, as seen in the passage above from Gyokuden jinpi.
wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 237. Sangoki, 352. 49 Matsunaga, 256. 50 Susan Blakeley Klein, Allegories of Desire: Poetry and Eroticism in Ise monogatari zuin, Monumenta Nipponica 52:4 (1997): 455.
47 48
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Narihira, canonized as a poetic immortal in the Kokinsh Kana Preface, was generally assumed to be the protagonist of Ise monogatari, although never named as such. Narihiras perceived connection to Hitomaro may be traceable back to the Kokinsh, where both are mentioned in the Kana Preface. It should also be noted that the poem most widely canonized as Hitomaros work, the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409), is directly followed in the Kokinsh by a poem by Narihira (Kokinsh IX:410). As discussed in Chapter Two, it seems at least possible that the juxtaposition of the Akashi Bay poemattributed in a footnote to Hitomaroand Narihiras poem could have led to some sort of link between the two poets in the minds of later readers, a link developed further in commentaries such as the Gyokuden jinpi. Narihiras role as the implicit protagonist of Ise monogatari forms the basis for his inclusion in the Sanrysh entry based on the exchange of poems with the Sumiyoshi deity recorded in Section 117 of the Ise. As noted earlier, this exchange also appears in the Gyokuden jinpi, in which text the second poem (mutsumashi to) is followed by commentary which makes clear Narihiras divine nature.
You are me. Why have you forgotten your originating ground [honji ]? I have spent many years manifesting myself [suijaku] in the shade of these princess pines. In that time, how much benet have I given sentient beings? To benet sentient beings, have I not for a short time made use of an ordinary human body? This is the content of the deitys poem.51
The ordinary human body (bonshin) referred to here is Narihiras. The passage explicitly identies him as an incarnation of the Sumiyoshi deity, but also illustrates the three-tiered honji-suijaku paradigm in action: the Sumiyoshi deity, in the middle tier, is at once Narihiras honji, or original form, and also a suijaku, or manifest trace, of his own honji (identied elsewhere in Gyokuden jinpi as the buddha Yakushi). Hitomaro, meanwhile, was not only identied as the Sumiyoshi deity, but also, in the Kokinsh kanj (Kokinsh initiation), as an incarnation (keshin) of the Kamo deity.52 Via the Sumiyoshi deity, both Hitomaro and Narihira are thus ultimately presented as incarnations of the medicine buddha, Yakushi. As seen in the Reizei-house Kokinsh ch, Hitomaro has also been identied as an incarnation of the bodhisattva Myon, who is in turn a form of Kannon. Also, the Kamakura-period
51 52
Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 546. Mitani Eiichi, Koten bungaku to minzoku, Iwasaki bijutsusha, 1969, 233.
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Teikin no sh (Exemplary Notes) describes Hitomaro as an incarnation of Thousand-Armed Kannon, and Narihira as an incarnation of the buddha Dainichi; since Thousand-Armed Kannon is also an incarnation of Dainichi, both Hitomaro and Narihira are effectively identied as incarnations of Dainichi.53 The multiplicity of honji ascribed to Hitomaro and Narihira is entirely in keeping with much of honji-suijaku discourse: there were some pairings of major deities which remained consistent, like that of the Great Sun Deity Amaterasu with the Great Sun Buddha Dainichi, but for lesser divinities there was a considerable amount of exibility and variation in the associations attributed to them.54 Hitomaro and Narihira are thus not atypical in having several identied honji, or original ground deities. This exibility of the relationships between various poetic gures is well demonstrated in the passages concerned with the matter of the Three Old Men (mitari no okina) which appear in several texts. This version is from the Gyokuden jinpi.
omoiwabi waka no uraji o tazunureba mitari no okina no ie ni ki ni keri When, with troubled mind, I pay a visit by the road to Poetry Bay, I come to the house of the three old men.
This is a poem by Emperor Montoku from his Sumiyoshi excursion on the eighteenth day of the First Month of the rst year of Tenan [857]. The three old men are said to be Moroe, Yakamochi, and Yukihira. In saying old man, one reads this as having a powerful presence. This is questionable. Regarding this deity, it means having a powerful presence. It also means that the deity, Hitomaro, and Narihira are three people in one body.55
This passage clearly identies both Hitomaro and Narihira as incarnations of the Sumiyoshi deity, but also mentions an alternative theory according to which the three old men were in fact Tachibana no Moroe, tomo no Yakamochi (both associated with the Manysh), and Ariwara no Yukihira (Narihiras elder brother, 818893). There is
53 tani Setsuko, Gasshin suru Hitomaro: waka hisetsu to ken, Imatani Akira ed., ken to jingi, Shibunkaku shuppan, 2002, 265. 54 From these earliest lists [of honji and their suijaku] we can already note that both buddhas and bodhisattvas appear as honji and there appears to be little consistency in their application . . . It is apparent that the identications can change in accordance with the increase or decrease in popularity of the various cults (Matsunaga, 232233). 55 Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 528.
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a play on words here between mitari, three people, and mitari, meaning to have sufcient or powerful presence. The later Hitomaro himitsush adds another set of three poets as possible candidates for the three old men, but reveals that the true referentsa matter of the greatest secrecyare the Sumiyoshi deity and his two incarnations, Hitomaro and Narihira.
This is the reason why this fact is concealed. This matter of the three old men is the most secret thing in the Kokinsh. It should be in the oral transmission. (Quite secret) My late fathers own brush says that the rst poem is by Kuronushi, the second is by Kotonao56 and the third is by Yoshifusa. (Most secret) The mitari okina is in fact the Sumiyoshi deity. The reason for this is that in order to spread this Way of Poetry, he manifested himself as Hitomaro and as Narihira; thus, being three people in one body he was also called the Three-person-old-man. He is also called old man of powerful presence because of the power of the Way of Poetry. In order to conceal this truth, they have also been identied as poems by Yakamochi, Yukihira, and Moroe.57
The three poems referred to appear in the seventeenth volume (Miscellaneous) of the Kokinsh (XVII: 893895), are all anonymous, and are followed by the note These three poems were composed by three men who lived long ago.58 Little notice seems to be taken of the content of the poems, which are all similar in tone, bemoaning the speakers old age; rather, commentarial attention is focused on the editorial note following them. The commentaries pun on mitari reects the malleability of individual identity possible under the inuence of honji-suijaku, allowing the three old men to become one. Narihira is the poet with whom Hitomaro has the most in common in terms of his medieval canonization as a poetic deity, but there are signicant differences between them. Despite the fact that both Hitomaro and Narihira are presented as incarnations of the Sumiyoshi deity, Hitomaro was ultimately canonized as a poetic divinity, but Narihira was not. The difference in status between them is highlighted in passages such as that where Hitomaro is described as a incarnation (keshin) of the Sumiyoshi deity, who was subsequently reborn as Narihira and
56 Possibly Fujiwara no Kotonao (.ca. 900), who has one poem included in the Kokinsh (I:10). 57 Kanbun 10 (1670) woodblock edition of Hitomaro himitsush; reproduced in Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 11291130. 58 Arai and Kojima, 270.
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then as Tsurayuki,59 or Narihira is described as an incarnation of the Sumiyoshi deity, and Hitomaro reborn.60 The implication here is at the very least that the Sumiyoshi deitys earlier incarnation as Hitomaro was the model for Narihira to follow; it also seems to suggest that Hitomaro has sufcient standing as a deity that he is not only a manifestation of greater gods, but can also function as the original ground for an avatar of his own. This interpretation is reinforced by passages like the following from the Edo-period Kingyoku sgi (Dual Meanings of Gold and Jewels):
The Meaning of the Two Characters Now, Narihira is an incarnation [keshin] of Hitomaro. Thus Ise monogatari is something composed by Hitomaro when born as Narihira.
[translation] 1 hito 4 mumarete 5 tsutome ari
3 masa ni 2 maro
Thus when Ise is written, it is read Hitomaro was without a doubt born and has a task [Hitomaro masa ni mumarete tsutome ari ]. The task referred to is to spread the current Way of Poetry. Various things are said about these two characters, but their real meaning is that Hitomaro was born as Narihira and spreads the Way of Poetry, guiding living things as to the deep meaning of yin and yang.61
Here Narihira is explicitly described as an incarnation of Hitomaro. The characters used to write Ise are broken down into their constituent parts to spell out the hidden truth that Hitomaro was born as Narihira and that Hitomaro/Narihira was born into this world to spread the Way of poetry. This method of analysis, which Susan Klein
59 Ishigami Hideaki, Kunaich shorybu z Kingyoku sgi honkoku awasete kaidai, Mita kokubun 15 (12/1991): 47. 60 Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 529. 61 Ishigami, 49. A similar dissection of the characters I-Se appears in the Gyokuden jinpi (Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 542).
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has termed etymological allegoresis,62 has been identied as a key strategy pursued by Fujiwara Tameaki in his commentaries, by means of which he retroactively transformed Heian classical texts such as the Kokinwakash and Ise monogatari into complex esoteric Buddhist allegories by searching for hidden meanings within phrases, proper names, and titles.63 A similar technique was used by later worshippers of Hitomaro who parsed his name in ways which yielded clues as to his divine powers: for instance, his name in its common rendering of Hitomaru could be parsed as hi-tomaru, re-stop, providing a rationale for Hitomaros popular worship for re prevention. Although it is Narihira who is described as an incarnation of Hitomaro in the passage above, a similar indication of Hitomaros status as a honji found in the Ymei bunko text Try kirigami (Memoranda of Our School) describes Tsurayuki as an incarnation of Hitomaro.64 The fake Teika text Guhish (Notes on Foolish Secrets, Kamakura period) also includes a reference to the medieval poet Saigy in similar terms to Narihira above, as Hitomaro reborn (Kakinomoto saitan).65 Hitomaro and Akahito The inuence of honji-suijaku philosophy is felt in the commentarial accounts in which Hitomaro and Yamabe no Akahito, the other poetic sage from the Kokinsh Kana Preface, are revealed to be the same person. However, while these stories involve the same kind of one-poetas-another pattern as seen in the Hitomaro-Narihira relationship, they mostly lack divine or supernatural overtones; the conation of Hitomaro and Akahito generally seems to occur at a mortal level.66 This version
Susan Blakeley Klein, Allegories of Desire: Poetry and Eroticism in Ise monogatari zuin, 445. She mentions the reduction of characters to their constituent parts as an analytical strategy on pp. 4467. 63 Klein, Allegories of Desire, 446. 64 tani, 245. 65 Sasaki Nobutsuna ed., Nihon kagaku taikei 4 (Kazama shob, 1956), 297. 66 Note that there is also an account of Hitomaro and Akahito as former brothers and great ministers in Tang China, now reborn in Japan, in the Gyokuden jinpi (Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 557), and elsewhere in Gyokuden jinpi they are described as manifestations ( gonge) of the bodhisattvas Kannon and Seishi respectively (Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 558). However, the story quoted here about Hitomaro changing his name to become Akahito seems to be much more widespread.
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of the story appears in the Kokinwakash kanj kuden as the third of the Three Types of Oral Teachings about Authors.
Hitomaro and Akahito are the same person. The reason for this is that in the reign of Emperor Mommu [r. 697707], Hitomaro had an illicit affair with the imperial consort, who was the daughter of the Minister of the Left. For this he was released from his bureaucratic post and banished to Yamabe district in Kazusa Province, where he spent months and years. Then, in the reign of Emperor Shmu [r. 724749], when the Minister of the Left Moroe and the Middle Councillor Yakamochi were selecting poems for the Manysh, they asked that Hitomaro be summoned back to the capital to serve as a poetry judge. [. . .] [The emperor] recalled Hitomaro, changing his clan name to Yamabe and calling him Akahito. For this reason, although Hitomaro and Akahito are poetic sages indistinguishable in talent, Hitomaros poems appear in the Kokinsh while there is not one by Akahito. This is because they are one person.67
This account involves the conation of the lifetimes of several poets: Hitomaro, thought to have died in the early eighth century, Akahito, whose latest poem is dated 736, Tachibana no Moroe (684757) and tomo no Yakamochi (c. 717785). As seen in the nal sentence, it also answers a question commonly posed in Kokinsh commentaries: if Hitomaro and Akahito are presented in the Kokinsh Kana Preface as poetic sages of equal ability, why are there no poems by Akahito in the Kokinsh? The standard answer is that they are actually one and the same person, whose poems in the Kokinsh all appear as Hitomaros works. As discussed in Chapter Two, the poems in question actually appear as anonymous in the Kokinsh, with tentative attributions to Hitomaro made in the notes following them. Nonetheless, by the medieval period, these poems seem to have been rmly canonized as his actual compositions. The answer to the question posed here makes use of the narrative archetype of transgression, exile, and redemption. Foundations for Hitomaros identication as one with someone else can be seen retrospectively in the Kokinsh itself, where in the Kana Preface he is described as being in perfect alignment with his sovereign. The actual phrase used to describe this state of being is mi o awasetari, literally, they combined their bodies, in other words, they were as one (in their poetic sensibilities). In the honji-suijaku-inuenced environment of the medieval commentaries, this notion of the combination of bodies was reinterpreted to allow for the identication of
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Hitomaro and his lord as fellow incarnations of a divinity, much as Hitomaro was identied with other poets or poetic deities. This passage is from the Gyokuden jinpi.
Question: Who is the lord? Answer: It is Emperor Shmu. Question: Who is the subject? Answer: Emperor Shmu was a manifestation of the Sumiyoshi deity. The tone of government was bad, so in order to rule, the deity was born into the imperial house. He was called Shmu and also Hitomaro. Thus the deity became incarnate and spread the Way of Poetry. Poetry is the Law [nori ] of our land. Prince Shtoku was also an incarnation of the Sumiyoshi [deity]. Thus [the combined body] is three people in one body. It is said that the originating buddha is Yakushi. It is also seen to be Kannon. . . . Yakushi and Kannon are one body. Why do they have two names? When we speak of Hitomaro and the sovereign as combined in body, it is because they have a single original ground. Keep this secret. Keep this secret.68
This passage also seems to be indirectly addressing the matter of the mitari no okina, the three beings in one body, by identifying Prince Shtoku as being yet another incarnation of the Sumiyoshi deity. The implied conclusion, not explicitly reached in the passage, is that if Shmu (701756, r. 724749) and Hitomaro are one on the basis of their shared honji, then Hitomaro and Shmu must each also be one with Prince Shtoku. Prince Shtoku and Emperor Shmu both played critical roles in the propagation of Buddhism within Japan, and a mental association between them on the part of later readers seems understandable. As seen in Chapter One, both Hitomaro and Prince Shtoku composed poems on dead people by the roadside, and these poems are included in the third volume of the Manysh. Though no connection, implicit or explicit, is made in the Manysh between the two poems, it seems at least possible that, like the Narihira poem in Kokinsh volume IX, the proximity of Prince Shtokus poem to Hitomaros may have been a factor in their later association by way of the same honji. There were other ways in which connections between various poets and poetic deities could be established, however, such as the canonization of (numbered) groups or sets of poets or gods. Prominent examples of such groups (as discussed in Chapter Two) are the Rokkasen, or Six
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Poetic Immortals, praised by Tsurayuki in the Kokinsh Kana Preface, or the Sanjrokkasen, or Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, selected by Kint in his Sanjrokuninsen and subsequently canonized as a group through poetry collections and portraiture. In addition, the Kokinsh commentaries mention the Nisei, or Two Sages (Hitomaro and Akahito),69 also from the Kana Preface, and the Waka no gosen, or Five Immortals of Poetry. Although there is some variation in the composition of the Five Immortals, the Waka kuden sh (Oral Transmissions on Japanese Poetry), a forged commentary spuriously attributed to Fujiwara no Ietaka (11581237), identies them as Hitomaro, Akahito, Narihira, Komachi, and Sarumaru day and states that they are known as the Five Immortals because they are all avatars ( gonge, earthly manifestations of divinities).70 The signicance of the Five Immortals is that while kasen, poetic immortal, in earlier contexts referred to an outstanding poet, the term is used here in a slightly different way, to refer to poets who are divinities, their status as such made clear by their description as avatars. In terms of the process of Hitomaros deication, however, it is his membership in one canonized set of individuals in particular which is signicant, namely, the Waka sanshin, the Three Deities of Waka. The three deities so designated varied somewhat from school to school, although the most common combination seems to have been Hitomaro, the Sumiyoshi deity, and the Tamatsushima deity. This is the combination presented in a later text, the Nan chhki (Treasured Notes for Men), a Genroku-era handbook of essential knowledge for young men.71 Other possible combinations include Hitomaro, Akahito, and Sotoorihime; Sumiyoshi, Tamatsushima, and Tenman Tenjin; and Amaterasu, Hitomaro, Ki no Tsurayuki.72 Hitomaro appears in all but one of these possible sets of three deities, and Narihira, despite his standing as a fellow incarnation of the Sumiyoshi deity, does not appear in any. The entities included in these groupings fall into two broad categories: deities who were once mortal
69 Sanrysh: Nisei, rokkasen to iu toki wa, nisei wa Hitomaro, Akahito nari When one speaks of the Two Sages and the Six Poetic Immortals, the Two Sages are Hitomaro and Akahito (Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 3, 274). 70 Kikuchi, Genja, 62. 71 Nagatomo Chiyoji ed., Onna chhki, Nan chhki: genroku wakamono kokoroe sh, Gendai kyy bunko 1507, Shakai shissha, 1993, 251. 72 Arai Eiz, Waka sanshin, Nihon koten bungaku daijiten (Iwanami shoten, 1983), VI: 331332.
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poets, and deities who were not. The Sumiyoshi deity and his relation to Hitomaro and Narihira has already been discussed. The Tamatsushima deity is enshrined at Waka no ura (Poetry Bay) in Wakayama Prefecture (Kii Province). The shrine is mentioned in the Shoku nihongi (797), and was visited by Emperor Shmu in 724. By the medieval period, however, the Tamatsushima deity had come to be regarded as a divinized form of Sotoorihime, who is presented as a poetic forebear of Ono no Komachi in the Kokinsh Kana Preface.73 The Waka iroha (Colored Leaves of Poetry, 1198) recounts that Sotoorihime once visited Waka no ura in life, and liked the place enough to leave her traces there as a deity.74 Other accounts describe the Tamatsushima deity as originating in Sumiyoshi but later worshipped at Waka no ura.75 In any event, the shrine seems to have been established rst, and then, probably due in part to the name of its location (Poetry Bay), it came to be associated with a poetic gure (Sotoorihime) and its deity worshipped as a poetic god. The identication of Amaterasu, the Great Sun Deity, as a poetic divinity is based on the Akone no ura kuden,76 while Susano-o, although credited in the Kokinsh Kana Preface with inventing the thirty-onesyllable poetic form, does not seem to appear as one of the Three Deities of Waka. As described earlier, Tenman Tenjin is the deied form of Sugawara no Michizane. Although Michizane was in life a poet (composing in both Chinese and Japanese, though more famous for the former), he was deied initially as a thunder god rather than a poetic deity. A victim of the political machinations of his enemies at court, Michizane died in exile in northern Kyushu. When various ominous events transpired in the capital in the years following Michizanes demise, including the premature death of his chief political rival in 909 and lightning striking the palace in 930, they were ascribed to Michizanes vengeful spirit ( gory) and he was enshrined at Kitano in 947 in an attempt at pacication. By this time his identity had become apparent through a series of oracular revelations, and he was also canonized as a literary
73 Ono no Komachi is of the same line as Sotoorihime of old. [Her poetry] is moving but is not strong. It resembles a beautiful woman aficted by illness. Its lack of strength is probably due to its being the poetry of a woman. (Arai and Kojima, 14). 74 Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, 112113. 75 Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, 114. 76 Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 530.
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deity.77 Although Michizane is probably the best-known of the poetic deities, the original motivation for his deication was based on popular beliefs regarding angry ghosts rather than growing out of a specically literary context. Despite the basic similarities in their status as literary deities (and in their origin narratives, as noted earlier), the process of Michizanes deication is signicantly different from that of Hitomaro, whose apotheosis took place initially in a literary environment and whose worship then assimilated popular or non-literary elements. Looking at the poets included among the Three Deities of Waka, we may note that although some of Sotoorihimes poems appear in the Nihon shoki while Hitomaros and Akahitos are found in the Manysh, the poets themselves have one common characteristic: they are all three mentioned in the Kokinsh Kana Preface by Tsurayuki, who is himself sometimes included as a poetic deity. With the exception of Tsurayuki, the poets mentioned hereHitomaro, Akahito, and Sotoorihimewere not contemporary poets at the time of Kokinshs compilation, but rather were gures from the distant (and poetically glorious) past. Even so, it seems that it was not enough for a poet to be merely pre-Kokinsh in order to ascend to the status of poetic divinity; they actually had to be mentioned in the Kokinsh, as is evident from the fact that no Manysh poets other than those mentioned in the Kana Preface, Hitomaro and Akahito, seem to have ended up among either the Five Immortals of Poetry or the Three Deities of Waka. In this sense the selection of Tsurayuki seems unusual, in that he is from a more recent period. It seems natural for Tsurayuki to be canonized for his role as the editor-in-chief of the Kokinsh and author of the Kana Preface, yet the poets whose teachings on the Kokinsh the kokin denju was most concerned with transmitting, Shunzei and Teika, do not seem to appear as poetic deities. The complex nature of Hitomaros divinity becomes apparent through these texts: he is not only a deied poet, but one who is an avatar of other deities, notably the Sumiyoshi deity. Although the reception of Ariwara no Narihira as an incarnation of the Sumiyoshi deity is similar in many ways to that of Hitomaro, what sets Hitomaro apart is that he was widely canonized as not just a divinized kasen, or poetic immortal, but as a poetic deity, one of the Three Deities of Waka. This
77 Robert Borgen, Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994 [1986]), 308309.
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gave him a similar standing to that of the Sumiyoshi deity, and like the Sumiyoshi deity (but unlike Narihira or the other kasen) Hitomaro was able to function as an original ground deity (honji ), with incarnations (keshin) of his own. This ability to act as a original ground constitutes a signicant difference between Hitomaro and other deied poets, and, together with his canonization as a poetic deity, conrms Hitomaros position as the foremost example of poetic apotheosis. Hitomaros Function as a Poetic God From the nature and constitution of Hitomaros divinity, we now turn to the question of his function as a poetic deity, and the uses to which he was put as a great poetic ancestor and tutelary deity of the Way of Poetry. Arising in the wake of the recanonization of the Kokinsh in the twelfth century, the kokin denju as institution, eventually assumed the task of maintaining and enhancing the canonical status of Kokinsh as the rst imperial anthology of Japanese poetry.78 Lionized as a poetic sage in the Kokinsh Kana Preface, Hitomaro was canonized by the kokin denju as a great poet of the greatest poetic text, one representative of a golden age of poetry (the reign of the Nara no mikado). The worship of Hitomaro through the eigu ceremony from 1118 onward cemented his position as the embodiment of the court-poetic tradition, an iconic poetic ancestor (guratively and literally, through the use of his portrait at Hitomaro eigu, eigu utaawase, and waka kshiki ). Hitomaro joined the pantheon of poetic deities going back to the mythical Susano-o, who was credited in the Kokinsh Kana Preface with the creation of the thirty-one syllable poetic form. In this sense, Hitomaro can be seen, like the institution of the kokin denju itself, as both a product of the Kokinshs canonization and as part of its canonizing apparatus by virtue of his status as a tutelary deity of the Way of Poetry. The presence of poetic deities in the Kokinsh and its commentaries served to enhance the aura of authority of those texts, a function clearly demonstrated in the account given above of the receipt of commentaries such as the Gyokuden jinpi from the Sumiyoshi deity. Intimations of Hitomaros role as a guardian of the Way of Poetry can be seen in the following passage from the Shtetsu monogatari (Tales of Shtetsu, 1450):
78
Cook, 104.
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They say that if Japanese poetry is in danger of dying out, [Hitomaro] will without fail come back to the world of men and pass on the art as before. He has also manifested himself numerous times as a god.79
The Kokinsh Kana Preface includes the line, Hitomaro has passed away, but poetry remains! (Hitomaro, nakunari ni taredo, uta no koto, todomareru kana).80 While this line suggests that Hitomaro has died, leaving behind the poetic sensibility shown by the Nara no mikado,81 by the fteenth century, when Shtetsu is writing, Hitomaro is prepared to return to the mortal realm to reprise his earlier ancestral role (as presented in the Kana Preface) of establishing the court-poetic tradition. This passage depends on Hitomaros canonized status as the great ancestor of Japanese poetry, and also allows for him to assume if necessary a similar role to the Sumiyoshi deity in bringing poetic teachings from the divine to the human world. The Kingyoku sgi passage quoted earlier also gave a clear statement of Hitomaros earthly mission: to spread the Way of Poetry (waka no michi o hiromuru).82 Poets could also request personal guidance from Hitomaro for the improvement of their art. An early exampleand one not appearing in a poetic commentary as such, but in a setsuwa collectionseems to be the story included in the Jikkinsh of 1252 (IV:2) in which the origins of Hitomaros archetypal iconography as an old man holding brush and paper are described. As discussed in Chapter Two, the story describes the poet Fujiwara no Kanefusas encounter with Hitomaro in a dream; Kanefusa subsequently had a portrait of Hitomaro made, revered it, and found that his poetry had improved. Kanefusa is in effect rewarded twice for his devotion to Hitomaro; rstly with the dream encounter, and then with the improvement in his poetry. This latter development only takes place once Kanefusa does more than just pray inwardly to Hitomaro, but rather makes obeisance to his portrait. Following the Hitomaro eigu, the worship of Hitomaros portrait continued to play an important role in ceremonies involving him. The late-Kamakura-period Tameaki-line text Chikuensh, (Notes from the Bamboo Garden), for instance, stipulates the display of portraits of Hitomaro and the Sumiyoshi deity (to be hung on the right and left
79 Robert Brower and Steven D. Carter, Conversations with Shtetsu (Shtetsu monogatari), Ann Arbor: Centre for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1992, 66. 80 Arai and Kojima, 17. 81 Arai and Kojima, 18. 82 Ishigami, 49.
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respectively) and the placement of offerings before the portraits as part of the procedure for poetry readings (wakak ).83 This passage from the Reizei house commentary Kokinsh ch was quoted earlier as an example of honji-suijaku thought applied to Hitomaro, but also concerns practical matters such as how to worship him and what to pray for:
This passage clearly illustrates Hitomaros function as a poetic divinity; not only did his godly status imbue the art of Japanese poetry with a measure of divine authority, and legitimacy as a literary form, but he was also available to assist his supplicants in their quest for poetic skill. Private prayers to Hitomaros portrait for poetic success can be seen as descendants of the Hitomaro eigu, and include elements from the eigu like the use of Hitomaros portrait. Similar instructions for the correct form of Hitomaro worship appear in a number of poetic texts, including the following:
Hitomaros vow is this: Scoop water in the tiger-rabbit direction [eastnorth-east] and make offerings to my portrait, arranging the utensils, and if [you recite] the Akashi Bay poem for seven days or thirty-seven days, my virtue will transfer onto you. This is said to be Hitomaros vow. (Kokinwakash kanj kuden [Oral Transmission on the Kokinsh Initiation]) Accordingly, people who wish to keep poetry in their hearts recite Hitomaros Akashi Bay poem three times every day, and hold memorial services for the Five Buddhas of the Five Directions. Not only will they receive the heart of poetry in this world, but they will achieve enlightenment. One can have no doubt about this. (Waka kanj shidai himitsu sh [Secret Notes on Procedures of the Waka Initiation])85
A desire to improve their own poetic technique has been identied as the most signicant motivation for poets to display portraits of Hito-
Sasaki Nobutsuna ed., Nihon kagaku taikei 3, 424425. wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 237. 85 Quoted in Hanabe Hideo, Juka to setsuwa: uta, majinai, tsukimono no sekai, Miyai shoten, 1998, 104105.
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maro at poetry meetings and similar events, where he could serve as an object of worship and of prayers for poetic improvement. It has also been suggested that Hitomaros presence at such events in the form of a portrait served as a substitute for his actual presence (following the example of the Sumiyoshi deity, once said to have appeared at a poetry meeting in the form of an old man).86 In addition to offering assistance in the composition of poetry, Hitomaro could be depicted within the context of the kokin denju as concerned with more worldly affairs, such as the importance of transmitting the secret teachings to a worthy recipient, one who showed the requisite commitment to the Way of Waka. Hitomaro is invoked, and his wrath threatened, in a kishmon, or pledge, which is included in Waka mutei sh.
Next, one should protect ones house, honour the words, revere the buddha Sudatta, who bore a thousand pieces of gold,87 and transmit [the teachings] only to one who is like the Young Ascetic in the Himalayas, who was prepared to cast away his body in search of half a verse.88 If anyone passes this on to someone other [than a person like the Young Ascetic], may they suffer the wrath of Sumiyoshi, Tamatsushima, Hitomaro, Akahito, Shitateru-hime,89 and Susano-o; may they in this life be lost as they search endlessly for the Six Principles; and may they in future existences fall without fail into the three hateful realms.90
The fate threatened here for anyone unwise enough to pass on the poetic teachings to a less-than-deserving recipient is the wrath of an assortment of poetic deities, including Hitomaro. Just as Hitomaro can grant poetic skill, so he can deny it, condemning the object of his displeasure to search endlessly for the Six Principles, the rikugi or six principles of poetry enumerated by Ki no Tsurayuki in the Kokinsh Kana Preface. By extension, the term rikugi could refer to waka itself; the implication seems to be that the transgressor punished by Hitomaro would never be able attain an understanding of waka (despite having received the teachings themselves). On top of their poetic misfortune,
Sasaki Takahiro, Kakai ni Hitomaro ei o kakeru koto, 151153. Sudatta ( J. Shudatsu) was a wealthy disciple of the Buddha. 88 Sessen-dji, the historical Buddha in a former existence, who offered his own body to a demon as food in order to be taught the second half of a verse (the Sessen ge [Verse on the Himalayas], also known as the Shogy muj ge [Verse on the Impermanence of All Things]). 89 Daughter of kuninushi no mikoto. 90 Sasaki ed., Nihon kagaku taikei 4, 251252.
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they would be condemned to an eternity in the lower three of the Six Realms of transmigration: hell, the realm of beasts, and the realm of hungry ghosts. Although the implication from this text is that Hitomaro (and the other poetic deities) were capable of offering punishment as well as reward, there seem to be many more examples of Hitomaro presented as a benevolent deity than otherwise. The Akashi Bay Poem and Waka-Dhran Theory The Hitomaro eigu ceremony of 1118 was a crucial turning point in the process of Hitomaros deication, and set the precedent for the ritual uses to which his portrait was subsequently put, such as its display and function as an object of reverence at poetry meetings, kshiki, and the initiation ceremonies employed in the transmission of the kokin denju. The need for ritual praise of Hitomaro becomes clear when his role as protector and propagator of the Way of Poetry is considered: his blessing was necessary for the Way as a whole to ourish, and could also be personally requested through prayer to improve ones poetry on an individual basis. Hitomaros own poetic talents were displayed to greatest effectin the eyes of his believersin the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409), the text of which could itself be hung as an object of worship in place of portraits of poetic deities.91 The reception of this poem, considered Hitomaros representative work, was closely entwined with that of Hitomaro himself, and, like Hitomaros reception, took on specically medieval characteristics in the course of its transmission through the kokin denju.
Anonymous, Topic unknown honobono to akashi no ura no asagiri ni shimagakure yuku fune o shi zo omou Dimly, dimly, in the morning mist of Akashi Bay, I think of a boat going island-hidden.
A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.92
91 92
Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, 111. Arai and Kojima, 134.
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This poem and its placement in the Travel volume of the Kokinsh were discussed in detail in Chapter Two; it is one of seven in the Kokinsh which, although ofcially anonymous, are tentatively attributed to Hitomaro in the notes which follow them. The prominence of this poem in Hitomaros reception, however, is dependent upon not only its inclusion in the body of the Kokinsh, but in its insertion as one of the exemplary poems for Hitomaro given in the old interpolated notes to the Kana Preface. Presented as the supreme poetic achievement of Tsurayukis sage of poetry, it was subsequently seized upon by Kint, who included it in several exemplary collections. (Later commentaries stress the poems complexity and depth through notes describing how Kint, the foremost poetic critic of his age, took three years to understand it.93) The role of the poem in stories of Hitomaros exile was discussed earlier; here its origins and interpretations, as presented in the commentaries of the kokin denju, will be examined. There are a number of accounts of the poems origins in the commentaries. That in the Sangoki describes how, during the reign of Emperor Heizei, a boat came ashore on the coast of Akashi. The sherfolk there saw that a single Chinese man was riding in the boat. Finding this strange, they reported it to Heizei, who summoned the man to the court, and asked him about his homeland, but no-one could understand his words; only the emperor and Hitomaro understood their meaning. The emperor favored the Chinese man, who was wise in the ways of government and knowledgeable about Chinese poetry, but before three years had passed, the man was longing for his home and expressed his distress to the emperor. Taking pity on him, Heizei had a swift boat prepared for him and, accompanied by Hitomaro, proceeded in secret to Akashi and saw the boat off from afar. Missing the Chinese man, the emperor shed tears, and Hitomaro, also grieving, composed a poem. This was the Akashi poem.94 According to this account, the poem depicts a straightforward scene of Akashi Bay, with a boat disappearing into the distance. The association of Hitomaro and Emperor Heizei is probably based on the interpretations of the Kokinsh prefaces which identied Heizei as the Nara no mikado in whose reign Hitomaro composed poetry and with
93 Kunaich Kokinsh sh (Imperial Household Agency Notes on the Kokinsh), Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 368. 94 Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, 108.
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whom he was in perfect alignment, and the otherwise inexplicable presence of the Chinese man may be in some way related to the legends describing Hitomaro as an envoy to China.95 The story is free of supernatural elements, and no assertions are made as to the divine origins or nature of the poem. This was not always the case, however. Just as the Sumiyoshi deity had been presented as the original author of some teachings of the kokin denju in the Gyokudensh waka saij passage quoted earlier (in which he bestows three scrolls upon Narihira), so he is also presented as the originator of the Akashi Bay poem in a section of the Sangoki where Fujiwara Shunzei, troubled by thoughts that the Way of Poetry might be nothing but wild words and ornate phrases (kygen-kigo), and trivial compared with matters of life and death, goes to pray at the Sumiyoshi shrine. In a dream Shunzei sees an old man of at least ninety-nine years of age, who is wearing a red brocade hat and carrying a white horsehair whisk. When Shunzei asks him about waka, the old man assures him joyfully that there is no need to learn about anything but waka, and that by learning waka he (Shunzei) would be able to attain rebirth in paradise. He then passes on to Shunzei the Akashi Bay poem.96 In this version of events, the poem has divine origins, passed on to Shunzei by the Sumiyoshi deity. Since Hitomaro was, as seen above, regarded as an incarnation of the Sumiyoshi deity, there was nothing contradictory about the Sumiyoshi deity being the originator of the poem; the incongruity lies in the date for this episode, since Shunzei lived more than two hundred years after the compilation of the Kokinsh, in which the Akashi Bay poem appeared. In another account, from the Gyokuden jinpi, Hitomaro himself makes an appearance in divine form to pass on the poem.
The Matter of Hitomaro Worship in the Bamboo Chamber of the Palace After Hitomaros death, in the reign of Emperor Heizei, according to a dream oracle, on the thirteenth day of the Seventh Month of the second year of Daid [807], Hitomaros spirit was worshipped at Chikubushima in mi Province. Afterwards, during the reign of Shirakawa-in, when the Nakayama Middle Councillor Lord Mototoshi visited Chikubushima and
Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, 109, 122. Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, 106107; Sangoki appears in Nihon kagaku taikei 4, 341342.
95 96
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recited the Buddhas name before the shrine, he saw that the door was slightly open, and saw the body of the deity, in the form of Hitomaro. At once there was an oracle: Your knowledge of the Way of Poetry is extraordinary. This poem [encapsulates] the essential meaning of poetry, with which he transmitted the Akashi Bay poem to Mototoshi. Since then, it is said that this poem has been ever more used in the world. After that, during the reign of the Engi emperor, His Majesty had a dream and, accordingly, on the thirteenth day of the Seventh Month of the third year of Engi [903], Hitomaros likeness was copied and he was worshipped in the Bamboo Chamber of the Palace. This is the shrine to his portrait.97
The Hgonji at Chikubushima, an island in the northern part of Lake Biwa, is known for its shrine to Benzaiten. In light of Hitomaros identication as the incarnation (keshin) of Myon bosatsu and Benzaitens identication as Myons manifest trace (suijaku), the setting of this story at Chikubushima becomes signicant, possibly suggesting some conation of Hitomaro and Benzaiten. This is a phenomenon seen elsewhere: the Miyako meisho zue (Pictures of Famous Places in the Capital, 1780) describes a Hitomaro Benten enshrined at the Kisshin Tenmang in Karahashi, Kyoto.98 Although the shrine to which Mototoshi prays in the account above is not specied, it seems likely that it was the shrine to Benzaiten. There are chronological inconsistencies here: although this oracular transmission of the Akashi Bay poem is recorded as having taken place in 903, Fujiwara no Mototoshi (d. 1142) lived considerably later. The choice of Mototoshi here is signicant: he was the poetry teacher of Shunzei, founder of the Mikohidari house, so this account of Hitomaro bestowing the Akashi Bay poem upon Mototoshi in particular serves to legitimize the Mikohidari houses claims to poetic expertise. Involving direct contact with Hitomaro, it can be seen as a response to the Hitomaro eigu of the Rokuj house, primary poetic rivals of the Mikohidari.99 Hitomaros role here in divulging the Akashi Bay poem is comparable to that of the Sumiyoshi deity when he is depicted presenting scrolls of poetic teachings to Narihira. The story also has a similar motivation to that in which Shunzei receives the Akashi Bay
97 98 99
Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 561. Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 238. Hanabe, 103.
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poem from the Sumiyoshi deity, serving to legitimize the Mikohidari house by showing its members receiving the favor of poetic deities. Thus these stories of the divine revelation of the Akashi Bay poem serve to emphasize the prestige of both the poem and its recipient. It may also be noted that in the Chikubushima story, Hitomaro himself goes on to receive imperial favor when he is enshrined within the palace. In addition to accounts of the poems origins, the commentaries include a number of interpretations of its content, varying widely in tone. The poem is classied as a travel poem in the Kokinsh, but in the commentaries it was often given a metaphorical interpretation as a lament. For instance, the Bishamondbon Kokinsh ch notes that although the poem is rst and foremost a travel poem, Someone said that long ago, Prince Takechi, eldest son of Emperor Temmu, died at the age of nineteen. This is a poem about that.100 A similar interpretation appears in the Sanrysh,101 and the Kokinwakash kanj kuden includes the following passage.
This poem is said to commemorate the death of Emperor Mommu, or that of Prince Takechi. Either way, it is a lament. Dimly, dimly means a clear, bright heart. Morning mist means mist which separates things. Akashi Bay is that which allows a boat to be composed on. Where it says, hidden by islands, these are not ordinary islands. Of the sufferings of mankind, the four sufferings of birth, old age, illness and death are called the four devils. Since one dies after undergoing these four sufferings, they are called the four devils. Where it says, I think of a boat, this is no ordinary boat. This is the sovereign. It is usual for the sovereign to be compared to a boat. Therefore, I think of a boat refers to the death of the sovereign after suffering these four devils. The Six Principles are the six hearts of poetry, so one does not expect to nd them all in one poem. However, it is passed down that this poem contains six principles. The reason for this is that although the surface of the poem deals with a scene of Akashi Bay, the underlying meaning follows thoughts of lament; this is the heart of airs [ feng]. Even the sovereign cannot escape the effects of the ephemerality of the world, and compositions on how much more we cannot escape them, exhausting all reason, show the heart of exposition [ fu]. Next, morning mist does mean the mist of morning, but also is a reference to the sovereign as morning; this is a comparison [bi ] poem. Comparing the sovereign to a boat is an affective image [xing] poem. Actually composing on Emperor Mommu suffering
100 101
Hanabe, 9091. Hanabe, 9192; Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 3, 272273.
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the four devils and passing away is an ode [ ya]. Composing to tell of the sovereigns passing away, despite his imperial virtue, to the spirits of the heavens and the earth, is a hymn [song], a heart that lls the ear to overowing. This being the case, one should learn that there is no poem other than this one which includes the Six Principles.102
Here we see Emperor Mommu as another possible candidate for the subject of the Akashi Bay poem as a lament (banka); the Sangoki similarly identies the sovereign on whose death it was composed as Mommu.103 While Mommu is mentioned here because Hitomaro was believed to have been in his service, the interpretations of the poem as a banka for Prince Takechi (654696), the eldest son of Emperor Temmu, are based on the fact that Hitomaro really did compose a lament for him, Manysh II:199201, the longest poem in the Manysh. Thus the Akashi Bay poem could be interpreted as a variation on a theme on which Hitomaro had already composed one work, the death of Takechi. The religious meanings read into the poem give it a cautionary moral to the effect that even the emperor cannot escape the ephemerality of the world, and thisit is impliedapplies even more to his subjects. The human condition is revealed through a play on the word shima, island, which is here parsed as shima, four devils, dened here specically as the four sufferings of birth, old age, illness, and death. This use of wordplay to bring out hidden depths of meaning in the poem can be seen as a logical extension of the classical poetic technique of the kakekotoba or pivot-word, which was similarly dependent on a play on words.104 A more detailed comparison of the parts of the Akashi Bay poem to the four devils is found in the Muromachi-period Kokinsh kanj (Kokinsh initiation).105
102 Hanabe, 9293; Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 510511. Translations of the rikugi are from Owen, Readings in Chinese Literary Thought, 45. 103 Sangoki, 352. 104 Klein, Allegories of Desire: Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan, 16. 105 wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 1990, 246; see also Miwa, 471.
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Translation (read columns from right to left):

I think WHEN BIRTH Sickness Dimly, ALL THINGS Birth of a AND DEATH dimly ARE boat ARE DONE IMPERMANENT WITH Today I will Colours are brilliant, cross the tall But they are sure mountains to fade Of this mortal world going THE BLISS OF Death in the island- NIRVANA IS morning hidden REALIZED mist of Akashi Bay To see no more shallow dreams, No more distractions THIS IS THE LAW OF BIRTH AND DEATH So who in our world Will last forever? Old age
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Here the Akashi Bay poem is broken up into four units, the rst phrase (ku), the second and third phrase, the fourth phrase, and the fth phrase, which are each associated with: one line from the Sessen ge, the gth from the Nirvana sutra mentioned earlier;106 one of the four devils; and two phrases from the Iroha uta,107 the Heian-period poem which uses each kana syllable once and which expresses (in Japanese) similar sentiments to those in the Sessen ge. The allegorical implication of this rendering of the Akashi Bay poem is that it encapsulates the essential truth of the impermanence of worldly phenomena through its inclusion of the four devils, in the same way that this truth is encapsulated in the Sessen ge and the Iroha uta. The Kokinwakash kanj kuden then analyzes the poem in terms of the rikugi, the six poetic principles derived from the Shijing and enumerated in the Kokinsh Kana Preface. It is thus presented as containing not only the essentials of Buddhist teachings, but the essentials of poetic composition as well, as it includes all six styles of poetry within its ve phrases. Despite the assertion in the last line of the Kokinwakash kanj kuden passage that there is no poem other than this one which includes the Six Principles, similar claims are made in the Gyokuden jinpi for the following poem, attributed to Akahito:
Waka no ura ya shio no michihi mi o tsukushi fukasa asasa wa kimi ya shiranami The Bay of Waka! the rising and ebbing of the tide exhausts ones body; the depths and shallows are unknown to my lord.108
The discovery of the rikugi in this poem is taken as supporting evidence for the assertion made in the Kokinsh Kana Preface that Hitomaro and Akahito were equally matched. To take a slightly later example, the seventeenth-century Hitomaro himitsush, a compendium of Hitomaro-related lore from the kokin denju, includes a number of interpretations of the Akashi Bay poem, including the following, which is similar to that quoted above from the
106 All things are impermanent/This is the law of birth and death./When birth and death are done with/The bliss of nirvana is realized. 107 Colors are brilliant,/But they are sure to fade/So who in our world/Will last forever?/Today I shall cross the tall mountains/Of this mortal world/To see no more shallow dreams,/No more distractions. 108 Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 557. Possibly a variant of Akahitos Manysh VI:919.
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Kokinwakash kanj kuden in its attempts to discover in the poem principles related to matters other than poetry.
Dimly, dimly means the beginning of things. The beginning is spring. Akashi Bay means this world is bright. This means to praise this world. That which praises is a ritual poem. Ritual is summer. Morning mist is that which separates life and death. In the Wen xuan109 too, it says, mountain mist widely separates the many countries. Therefore the heart that divides life and death is called morning mist. This means the division of death [from life]. Therefore its nature is metal. This is righteousness and autumn. A boat going hid by islands [refers to] the prince leaving this world. This world indicates earth. This is the center. The main point of this poem is this prince leaving this world. Therefore this line [of the poem] gives the main point. Therefore, going hid by islands means ames. I think of a boat [is because] a boat is something that oats on water. Water indicates ow. This, with boat, refers to the princes being crown prince. Therefore boat is water body. This is winter. Therefore in this poem the virtues of the four seasons are assembled, and it includes benevolence, righteousness, rites, wisdom and belief, and the corporeal Six Principles. Therefore this poem takes as its basis the assembly of the corporeal and spiritual Six Principles. The matter of the spiritual Six Principles is on a separate piece of paper, and should be consulted. Therefore, this poem is Hitomaros dhran, and is supreme among poems.110
Here we see the Akashi Bay poem in the context of various sets of principles, including the rikugi. The other principles or sets of concepts mentioned here are the Five Elements ( gogy), the Five Confucian Virtues ( goj), and the four seasons. These sets of conceptsand a number of others, including the Five Planets, the Five Viscera, the Five Directions, the Five Tastes, and so onhad been incorporated into a system of conventionalized correspondences in China during the Warring States period (403 B.C.E.221 C.E.). The correspondences involved in the exegesis of the Akashi Bay poem above may be summarized as follows:111
The line quoted here does not appear to be included in the Wen xuan; like spurious quotations elsewhere in the Himitsush, it seems to be an invocation of an authoritative Chinese source to add an atmosphere of legitimacy. 110 Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 11271128. 111 Adapted from Morohashi, Gogy setsu, I:465.
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Table 3: Correspondences in the Akashi Bay Poem Phrase of poem Honobono to Akashi no ura no Asagiri ni Shimagakure yuku Fune o shi zo omou Elements [ Wood] [ Fire] Metal Earth [ames also mentioned] Water Confucian Virtues [ Benevolence] Ritual Righteousness [Belief ] [Wisdom] Seasons
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Spring Summer Autumn [doy, days falling between the seasons] Winter
A precedent for the use of the Five Elements in poetic analysis can be found in the earlier Gyokuden jinpi, in the section entitled Secret Transmission of the Nine Chapters (Kush mitsuden), which begins with a listing of the nine chapters, the rst ve of which involve the Five Elements. Then comes the following passage:
The wood chapter mentioned above shows rstly the heart of spring and can be supplied with the words of the re chapter. Wood is the beginning of all things. Fire is the words of the heart which praises things. Therefore this chapter cannot be composed as an earth chapter. It is inauspicious for wood to prevail over earth. The earth chapter phrase (ku) should be composed with divinities and words of celebration at its center. A water chapter phrase should not be composed in these two phrases. The water chapter phrase is the teachings of the Buddha. Here a metal chapter or wood chapter is suitable. A metal chapter is the heart that destroys things. It is a poem of impermanence. This phrase cannot be composed as a wood chapter or re chapter. It should ideally be a water chapter or an earth chapter.112
Interpretations such as these depend on a view of language as being non-arbitrary and an assumption that words have magical force. Analogical and/or metonymic correspondences between language and reality are not accidents but signatures left intentionally by a transcendent creator. They are marks indicating where interpretation should take place.113 In this sense, the allegorical interpretations of the Akashi Bay poem parallel those given to the dissected characters of the title of Ise monogatari. Ideas about the magical power of words are also evident in the perceived function of the Akashi Bay poem, and the uses to which
112 113
Katagiri, Chsei kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 567. Klein, Allegories of Desire: Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan, 17.
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it was put. Belief in the poems affective power is clearly illustrated in the passage mentioned earlier from the Reizei house commentary Kokinsh ch:
This passage has already been quoted twice to illustrate Hitomaros canonization within the context of honji-suijaku and the fact that his believers could pray to him for personal poetic success. This time, however, the focus of attention is the role of the Akashi Bay poem in the act of worship. The poem here is treated like an invocation, repeatedly recited in addition to a more standard Buddhist prayer, Praise to the bodhisattva Fine Sound (Namu Myon bosatsu).115 From the context here it is evident that the poem was thought to possess some incantatory power, some kind of magical efcacy, and this attribution is made explicit through statements such as that with which the Hitomaro himitsush passage above concludes: Therefore, this poem is Hitomaros dhran, and is supreme among poems. Similarly, the Edo-period Chdai gokuhi Hitomaro den (Super Great Extreme Secret Hitomaro Biography) includes the following in reference to the Akashi Bay poem:
There are many strange things about this poem; they are incalculable. Since these are known to people, they are not noted here. One should recite it three times every morning. Somehow it surpasses a divine dhran, and becomes a prayer.116
The poem is compared to a dhran; indeed, it is said to be superior to one in terms of its effects as an incantation. Dhran are Sanskrit incantations originally intended to aid Buddhist practitioners in maintaining their concentration but which came to be increasingly regarded as possessing an inherent affective power. The correlation of kami with buddhas and bodhisattvas under the inuence of honji-suijaku thought
wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 237. wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 237. 116 wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 234; see also Nagata Shinya, Date-shi kyiku iinkai z Chdai gokuhi Hitomaro den, Densh bungaku 46 (1/1997): 314.
114 115
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allowed for a parallel correspondence to be drawn between waka and Buddhist teachings, a development which allowed for the reversal of the sin of kygen-kigo and the meritorious practice of waka, as discussed earlier. In the early medieval period, however, this concept was expanded further to include the notion of waka as being equivalent to dhran. The logic followed was that since dhran, seen as summaries of the teachings of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, were in the language used in India, the land where the buddhas and bodhisattvas came from, they were equivalent to waka, which were rst composed in Japanese by kami in Japan. This equivalence or correspondence between dhran and waka is made clear in the following passage from the Shasekish (Collection of sand and pebbles, 1283) of Muj Ichien:
When thinking of the Way of Japanese poetry, there is virtue in stopping ones feelings of disorder and unruliness, and adopting solitude and quiet. Also, make ones words few, while deepening ones feelings. This is the meaning of all-inclusive [sji ]. All-inclusive refers to dhran. The deities of Japan are traces of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and are the most excellent manifestation forms [jin]. Susano-o began to compose in the thirty-one-syllable form, with the poem on the eight-fold fence of Izumo. This is no different from the words of the Buddha. The dhran of India are simply the words of the people of that country. The Buddha used those words to expound dhran.117
Similar ideas regarding the correspondence between waka and mantras (shingon) or dhran are also evident in texts such as the thirteenth-century waka commentary Nomori no kagami (Field Watchmans Mirror) and Shinkeis Sasamegoto (Murmurings, 1463).118 The following is from Nomori no kagami:
Mantras choose the words which are the essence of the teachings of the various buddhas, and since they take to the limit the truth of the speed of the salvation of sentient beings, although their phrases are few, they have great effect. Although the words of poetry are many, they are selected, and [ poems] are just like mantras summed up in thirty-one characters. For showing the sincerity of this intent, there is nothing which surpasses Japanese poetry.119
Like other aspects of the synthesis of waka and religion, ideas about the equivalence of waka and dhran made their way from classical
117 118 119
Watanabe Tsunaya ed., Shasekish, NKBT 85, Iwanami shoten, 1966, 222223. Kikuchi, p. 221. Yamada, Mikky to waka bungaku, 157.
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to popular genres, from poetic discourse to otogizshi (medieval prose narratives), as seen, for instance, in this passage from the Muromachiperiod otogizshi Kamiyo Komachi (Komachi in the Age of the Gods):
Japanese poems are the dhran of the Buddha, and composing them can be said to correspond to the enlightenment of the bodhisattvas and to be a link to attaining enlightenment and release from suffering.120
The concept of waka-dhran equivalence, however, was predicated on more than just the repositioning of waka within honji-suijaku discourse; it also involved the adaptation of existing ideas on the nature of Japanese poetry to a new philosophical environment. Belief in the power of words is apparent in the earliest Japanese texts, and the notion of waka-as-dhran can be seen as a combination of both honji-suijaku thought and earlier concepts such as that of kotodama, word-soul.121 The term kotodama, which makes its rst appearance in the Manysh, refers to the magico-religious efcacy of certain words, which could be invoked or activated by the use of the appropriate ritual language. It is intimately connected to the oral and performative aspects of Japanese poetry,122 at that time being combined with and transformed by the inux of Chinese literary culture; its application may be seen, for instance, in ritual poems such as kunimi, land-viewing poems, in which the sovereign would survey the land and harness its spiritual power through kotodama by reciting a poem of praise.123 This view of poetry as affective and spiritually powerful by nature persisted during the Heian and medieval periods; as mentioned earlier, it was an aspect of waka recognized by Tsurayuki in the Kokinsh Kana Preface, where in the opening paragraph he describes waka as being able to effortlessly move heaven and earth, calm the invisible spirits, soften relations between men and women, and console the hearts of erce warriors.124 It is not hard to draw a parallel between this view of poetic language and the concept of waka as dhran, as both rely on the perceived incantatory power of words recited aloud in the form of an appropriately structured utterance such as a poem. It has also been
120 Kikuchi Hitoshi, Waka darani k, in Watanabe Yasuaki ed. Higi toshite no waka: ki to ba, Nihon bungaku o yomikaeru 4. Yseid, 1995: 217. 121 Yamada, Mikky to waka bungaku, 160. 122 Ebersole, 1922. 123 Ebersole, 39. 124 Arai and Kojima, 4.
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argued that the connection to dhran was partly made on the basis of aural characteristics of waka such as their sound and rhythm, the importance of which is stressed in various commentaries.125 Hitomaros treatment in medieval texts can be situated within this broader trend towards the sacralization of poetic language itself. As the producers of admired poems, great poets could take on divine characteristics, and the important development in Hitomaros medieval canonization is his transformation into a deity rather than merely a mortal sage of poetry. Hitomaros valorization as a poetic divinity in court-poetic discourse, while cementing his position as a canonical symbol of poetic authority, also laid the foundation for his wider reception in the early modern period in both elite and popular genres.
125
Kikuchi, 217
CHAPTER FIVE
HITOMARO IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD: POETIC ICON AND POPULAR DEITY Following Hitomaros elevation to the status of poetic deity in the medieval commentaries on the Kokinsh, his reception and canonization in the early modern period (Edo period, 16031868) can be examined in terms of three main spheres of discourse. The rst is the continuing transmission of Hitomaro as a deity of poetry (as depicted in the texts of the kokin denju), including the reception in popular genres of Hitomaro as a poetic divinity. The second is the re-emergence of Hitomaro as a Manysh poet in the context of the reception and study of the Manysh by scholars of the National Learning (kokugaku) movement. The third is the growth of shrines dedicated to Hitomaro, where he came to be worshipped for distinctly non-literary purposes. These areas were by no means mutually exclusive: rather, there was, broadly speaking, a strong tendency for the image of Hitomaro presented in court-poetic discourse to inuence other areas of his reception. It was through a combination of factors, but primarily the integration of the kokin denju into the body of rituals associated with the imperial house, that the process of Hitomaros deication reached a major milestone with his receipt of a divine title and court rank by imperial permit in 1723. Early Modern Kokin Denju Reception By the Edo period, the transmission of poetic teachings on the Kokinsh was largely in the hands of parties other than the blood descendants of the medieval poetic houses. The system of transmission was reformulated as a paying institution in the fteenth century by the waka poet T no Tsuneyori (14011484) and the linked verse (renga) master Sgi (14211502),1 an event that makes clear the extent to which control of the secret teachings had moved beyond the reach of the poetic houses.
Cook, 22.
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One line of transmission of the kokin denju passed from Sgi to the Sanjnishi house and thence to the warrior and waka poet Hosokawa Ysai (15341610), who transmitted it in turn to the popular linked verse (haikai) poet Matsunaga Teitoku (15711653). The involvement in the transmission of the kokin denju of warriors like Ysai or poets composing in non-waka forms like Sgi and Teitoku is indicative of the changed circumstances of waka in the late medieval period, as the high court canon was appropriated and adapted in other social spheres. However, the Kokinsh and its commentaries still retained a place at the heart of aristocratic culture through the newly reformulated kokin denju, as Ysai also originated the so-called palace transmission ( gosho denju), the line of transmission from Ysai himself to Prince Toshihito (15791629) and Emperor GoMizunoo (15961680; r. 16111629). The advent of the palace transmission was an extremely signicant development in the context of Hitomaros reception, as GoMizunoo was the father of Reigen (16541732, r. 16631687), whose inuence as Retired Emperor was to prove decisive in Hitomaros ofcial deication in 1723. As a product of the power struggle between the medieval poetic houses rather than a natural outgrowth of poetic study,2 the teachings contained in the kokin denju were prized as muchor even morefor their symbolic value as emblems of poetic authority and expertise as they were for their actual content. By the early seventeenth century the kokin denju as reinvented by Tsuneyori and Sgi had been transformed into a syncretic religious ceremonyinvolving the use of Hitomaro portraits as objects of venerationwhich placed emphasis on the mystical and secret nature of the teachings.3 The effects of this perception of the teachings on the Kokinsh are evident in the Edo-period development of the so-called box transmission (hako denju), in which the box containing the scrolls of the kokin denju materials would be passed on to the recipient without any accompanying lectures or instruction in the Way of Poetry. It was this extremely conventionalized and commercialized form of the kokin denju that was the object of particular criticism by the scholars of the National Learning movement,4 notably Motoori
Aso Mizue, Hitomaro shink: sono keisei to tenkai, 24. Janet Ikeda-Yuba, Triumphant survivor on Japans cultural battleeld of the sixteenth century. Hosokawa Ysai, 15341610: Warrior, Nij poet and guardian of the kokin denju (Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1993), 1378. A description of Ysais receipt of the kokin denju in 1574 appears in Ikeda-Yuba, 150152. 4 Ikeda-Yuba, 139.
2 3
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Norinaga (17301801), who described the kokin denju as a disaster and a scandal in his poetic treatise Ashiwake obune (A Small Boat Parting the Reeds, 1757).5 Hitomaro in Popular Genres Even as the transmission of the kokin denju itself was becoming increasingly formulaic, with less attention being paid to the content of its commentaries, that content, including information pertaining to Hitomaro, was making its way into other vehicles for wider dissemination. The content of the secret commentaries had been seeping out of court-poetic discourse and into popular genres such as otogizshi (prose narratives) in the medieval periodas seen in the previous chapter in the case of Kamiyo Komachiand this phenomenon continued into the early modern period. The truly epochal development in the spread of the image of Hitomaro as a poetic deity, however, was the publication in 1670 of the Hitomaro himitsush. This was a printed compendium of the teachings central to Hitomaros treatment in the kokin denju, and a considerable part of its content was taken, in some cases almost verbatim, from the fourteenth-century Tameaki-line commentary Gyokuden jinpi.6 The popularity of the Hitomaro himitsush, which is the second-oldest independent work on Hitomaro after Kenshs Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kanmon of 1184, may be gauged from the fact that it went on to be reprinted twice, in 1675 and 1692.7 This reprinting is situated within what has been characterized as the rst Hitomaro boom; the second such boom came almost a century later, in the form of popular texts with Hitomaro-related storylines based on the content of the secret commentaries which had been revealed in the Himitsush.8 These popular treatments of Hitomaro are found in a variety of genres, including the kusazshi ( grass booklet) Kakinomoto Hitomaro akashi no suzuri (Kakinomoto no Hitomaro: an Inkstone at Akashi) of 1760, the plot of which is heavily dependent on the Himitsush, the kanazshi (vernacular prose booklet) Kakinomoto no Hitomaro tanjki (Record of Kakinomoto
Cook, 110. See Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 11211169. 7 Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 955. 8 Kaisetsu to Kakinomoto Hitomaro akashi no suzuri, in Koike Masatane s no kai ed., Edo no ehon: shoki kusazshi shusei I, Kokusho kank kai, 1987, 8384.
5 6
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no Hitomaros birth, 1762), and the jruri and kabuki play Hitomaro banzai dai (1761).9 Another popular work involving Hitomaroalong with a few other gures from the poetic traditionis the Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi, the title of which may be translated as The Power of Poetry: A Dimly-Dawning Tale of Akashi Harbour.10 It is an illustrated tale probably published soon after 1762, and, like the Kakinomoto Hitomaro akashi no suzuri mentioned above, belongs to the genre of popular prose narrative known as kusazshi. The narrative of the Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi begins in Akashi, where a sher-girl called Kosan comes ashore for a rest from diving and dreams of a romantic encounter with the emperor (identied in the text as the nineteenth sovereign, Hanj, traditionally supposed to have reigned from 406 to 410). Following this dream encounter, Kosan shows signs of pregnancy, but will not tell her parents who the father of her child is. The birth of her child follows in due course:
That year was one in which the persimmon tree bore an unusually large number of fruit. When Kosan went to break off a branch laden with fruit, strangely, her side suddenly began to hurt, and, breaking open the side of her body, a jewel-like boy was born. [. . .] Kosans mother wept. Her father, seeing the birth of his grandson, thought it most strange. The baby took seventeen steps to the left and fourteen to the right, making thirty-one in all; with his left and right hands he pointed to heaven and earth, and announced in a loud voice that throughout the universe Japanese poetry should be revered above all else. It was most strange. At that time the holy man Shk [c. 9171007] from Shoshazan11 in Harima Province was passing by, spreading the teachings of the Buddha. In the Lumbini Garden it had been beneath a owering tree, but since
9 Kaisetsu to Akashigata honobono zshi, Edo no ehon, 54. Just as Hitomaro had not been the only literary gure implicated in honji-suijaku relationships in the medieval commentaries, so he was not the only such gure to be thus represented in popular Edo-Period texts. One slightly earlier example than those listed above is the kusazshi Shinpan Murasaki Shikibu (Murasaki Shikibu newly published) of circa 1747, which recountsamong other thingsMurasaki Shikibus composition of the Genji monogatari and her eventual revelation as a manifestation of Kannon (Keller Kimbrough, Murasaki Shikibu for Children: The Illustrated Shinpan Murasaki Shikibu of ca. 1747, Japanese Language and Literature 40:1 (2006): 137). 10 Katoku akashigata honobono zshi appears in Koike Masatane s no kai ed., Edo no ehon: shoki kusazshi shusei I, Kokusho kank kai, 1987, 3554. All translations from the text appearing here are of this edition of the text. 11 Now in Himeji City. Site of Enkyji, a Tendai temple founded by Shk in the mid-Heian period.
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this was at the foot of a persimmon tree, [Shk] at once named [the child] Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, and, wrapping him in the sleeve of his robe, promised that when [ Hitomaro] was an adult [Shk] would summon him as an acolyte.12
Then comes an abrupt change of scene to the seashore near Mount Fuji, where we are told that in 725 red clouds covered the sun for several days before being dispersed by the recitation of a poem. The poem which exhibited such impressive power is the Shinkokinsh variant (VI:675, Winter) of Manysh III:318:
Tago no ura ni uchiidete mireba shirotae no Fuji no takane ni yuki wa furitsutsu Going out on Tago Bay, when I look on Fujis high peak, white as hempen sleeves, snow is falling.13
The sherman who recites the poem is subsequently identied as the Manysh poet Yamabe no Akahito. Meanwhile, the devious Tachibana no Hayanari (a stereotypical villain with the requisite bushy eyebrows and sideburns) plots to overthrow the emperor; he also wishes to become better acquainted with the beautiful (fth-century) poet Princess Sotoori. Hayanari is infuriated when he overhears Princess Sotoori being presented to the Crown Prince as an unofcial concubine by the (eleventh-century) poet Izumi Shikibu. Hayanari retaliates by imprisoning the Princess father, but Kanefusa, Deputy Governor of Sanuki, rescues him during a drinking party, beheading the guard in the process. Meanwhile, Hitomaronow an acolyte at Shks temple, but already depicted as an old man, as is typical in his portraitsdons a court hat and robe and recites the Akashi Bay poem while gazing out to sea. Soon thereafter Hayanari launches an armed assault on the imperial palace, and the crown prince and his entourage ee the capital for Akashi Bay. Reaching the coast, they encounter Hitomaro, at which point the Crown Prince bestows the Senior Third Rank upon Hitomaro and declares that Hitomaro, Akahito, and Princess Sotoori shall henceforth be known as the three gods of Japanese poetry. After Hitomaro presents him with the Akashi Bay poem, the Crown Princes party departs for the port of Naniwa by sea. Then comes the dramatic climax of the story, and a memorable demonstration of the awesome
12 13
Katoku akashigata honobono zshi, 3940. Katoku akashigata honobono zshi, 41.
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power of poetry, as Hayanaris boats close in and the Crown Prince recites the verse presented to him by Hitomaro:
Dimly, dimly How strange! As the poem was recited, dimly, the gods appeared. In the morning mist They destroyed all the attacking military boats. Of Akashi Bay, The boats were all wrecked, and the soldiers one and all became seaweed on the sea oor. I think of a boat Hayanaris army had pursued them to Akashi Bay; Going island-hidden. The Prince had already seen that they were in danger, but when he recited Hitomaros poem, he was safe, and the boat arrived at Naniwa Harbor.14
Hayanari subsequently causes a drought by sealing up a dragon deity in a large jar, but the (eleventh-century) poet-priest Nin recites a poem praying for rain, releasing the dragon deity and relieving the drought. The story ends with Kanefusa being commissioned by the Crown Prince to draw portraits of the three deities of Japanese poetry. The Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi depicts an imagined poetic past, some of whose prominent guresfrom the Heian period and earlierare inserted into an exciting narrative framework with a amboyant villain, murder, dramatic divine manifestations, and a spectacular climactic scene of marine pursuit and mass drowning. A number of gures in the illustrated textincluding the chief villain, Hayanariare depicted in contemporary eighteenth-century style rather than with Heian or pre-Heian hairstyles or clothing. The story thus constructed is an entertaining pastiche of classical poems, classical and contemporary plot elements, and religious and poetic lore, all rendered in an accessible graphic format. Within this popular illustrated text, however, we can clearly discern elements derived from the esoteric commentaries of the kokin denju. Information that had been preserved in secret for centuries had escaped the bounds of kokin denju transmission to make its way into wider discourse, available to any interested reader. For instance, as seen earlier, medieval accounts of Hitomaros divine origins frequently describe him as miraculously appearing beneath a persimmon tree. A similar scene
14
Katoku akashigata honobono zshi, 49.
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features in the Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi; the difference hereserving to further emphasize Hitomaros divinityis that Hitomaros birth scene in this text is modeled on accounts of the birth of the Buddha, who emerged from his mothers right side beneath a owering tree in the Lumbini Garden. The Buddha is then described as taking seven steps in each of the four directions; by contrast, Hitomaros thirtyone steps equate to the thirty-one syllables of a waka. The infant Hitomaros announcement that throughout the universe Japanese poetry should be revered above all else (tenj tenge waka dokuson) is a clear parody of the newborn Buddhas throughout the universe I should be revered above all else (tenj tenge yuiga dokuson). In both cases similar hand movements are described, with one hand pointing up at the heavens and the other down at the earth. In a further parallel, like the Buddhas mother, Hitomaros mother in this narrative dies soon after the miraculous birth. Another element of the Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi which is found in earlier texts is the concept of the miraculous powers of poetry (katoku). As was noted in the previous chapter, a number of poetic commentaries attribute magical efcacy to the Akashi Bay poem as a means of improving ones compositions, and the concept of poetry as magical utterance, formulated in medieval writings on waka-dhran theory, goes back to the Kokinsh Kana Preface and beyond, to the earlier concept of kotodama (word-soul). The miraculous power ascribed to poetry according to waka-dhran theory could be recorded in the form of short narratives known as katoku setsuwa, tales of the wondrous benets of poetry,15 which started to appear in the late Heian period.16 In the Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi, a descendant of these earlier katoku setsuwa, Hitomaro is the character depicted as having both the most miraculous origins and the most magically powerful poetry. His statement that Japanese poetry should be revered above all else is reinforced by subsequent events in which the recitation of poetry leads to a demonstration of its awesome power. The most spectacular instance of poetic magic in the text is the use of the Akashi Bay poem
15 Keller Kimbrough, Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry: Spells, Truth Acts, and a Medieval Poetics of the Supernatural, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 32:1 (2005): 2. 16 Kimbrough, Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry, 2. He cites Fukurozshi (11571158) and Shasekish (1280) as texts with notable sections of katoku setsuwa.
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that results in the aforementioned destruction of Hayanaris eet. The particular method by which the poem serves this purpose is by summoning various deities, including the Sumiyoshi deity, associated with both poetry and water, who then play a roleunclear from either the text or the imagein the sinking of the eet. In addition, the use of poems to bring rainfall features in a number of katoku setsuwa,17 and one of the best-known such stories, appearing in a number of Heian and medieval texts, involves Nin breaking a drought with a poem.18 It is this episode, including the poem, which is reproduced in the latter part of the Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi, providing an explicit intertextual link to the lineage of earlier texts concerned with poetrys magical potency. Thus the Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi can be seen as a direct descendant of earlier texts dealing with the power of poetry, but can also be understood as very much a product of its time and place, when classical texts were nding a wider audience through the juxtaposition and interaction of elite and popular cultures. Similar adaptations of medieval source material into Edo-period Hitomaro-related texts can be seen in some of the n plays which take him as their subject. These include works such as the seventeenthcentury Hitomaro,19 Hitomaro Saigy (Hitomaro and Saigy),20 thought to date from before the mid-Edo period, and the later (nineteenth-century) Kakinomoto.21 Hitomaro Saigy takes as its source material the Sangoku denki setsuwa, mentioned in the previous chapter, describing an encounter between the poet-priest Saigy and Hitomaros ghost at Akashi. There are, however, some signicant differences between the two texts. Where the Sangoku denki story stresses the religious benets of poetry, explicitly identifying fervent adherence to poetry as a path to Buddhist salvation, the n play employs Hitomaros ghost as a mouthpiece for imparting poetic knowledge (echoing in places the Kana Preface to the Kokinsh). Hitomaro informs Saigy that the latters reward for his years of singleminded devotion to the Way of Poetry is Hitomaros appearance to
See Kimbrough, Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry, 1118. Kimbrough, Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry, p. 17. 19 Ca. 1687. In Mikan ykokush 6, ed. Tanaka Makoto, Koten bunko 227 (Koten bunko, 1965), 193201. 20 Kubota Jun ed., Saigy zensh (Nihon koten bungaku kai, 1982), 1120. The text of the play appears in the same text, 11041108. 21 In Mikan ykokush zoku 2, ed. Tanaka Makoto, 283291. Koten bunko 498. Koten bunko, 1988.
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him22 (rather than rebirth in the Pure Land, as in the setsuwa). This is reminiscent of Hitomaros comments to Kanefusa in Jikkinsh IV:2: You have been good enough to keep Hitomaro in your heart for many years; due to the depth of your wish, I am showing myself to you.23 The n Hitomaro has a similar plot: a traveling poet-priest makes a pilgrimage to a shrine in Akashi, where he encounters an elderly local man. The old man reveals himself to be Hitomaro, recites the Akashi Bay poem, and describes himself as follows:
I have been the guardian deity of poetry since many kalpas in the past. In order to save the masses, I have temporarily assumed human form, comforting my lord and promoting poetry. For generations I was in service [at court], but now I have left my traces here at Akashi. I revere my lord and protect the Way [of Poetry]. The Bright Deity of Akashi refers to me.24
In the case of this play, while the deity is once again Hitomaro, the traveler is the twelfth-century poet-priest Tren, a member of Shunes Karinen salon immortalized in the fourteenth-century Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness; section 188) as a passionate enthusiast of poetry. Near the end of the play, Hitomaro makes a declaration to Tren regarding his appearance which echoes that in Hitomaro Saigy:
It is only because you have applied yourself to the Way of Shikishima [i.e. poetry] and have such a deep relationship with poetry that I have appeared to you.25
Like Saigy, Tren had a reputation for utter devotion to the Way of Poetry, a devotion that was a precondition for Hitomaros appearance.26 In other words, only a truly dedicated poet could hope for an actual encounter with Hitomaro at his gravesite or shrine. Having appeared to Tren, Hitomaro then proceeds to transmit to him the Innermost Truth (gi ) of poetry (again, largely drawn from the Kokinsh Kana Preface). Hitomaro also recounts to Tren the tale of his miraculous appearance beneath a persimmon tree in Iwami. As seen earlier, this anecdote can be found in a number of medieval kokin denju
22 23 24 25 26
Kubota, 11067. Asami, 150. Hitomaro, in Mikan ykokush 6, 198. Hitomaro, 199. Sasaki, Hitomaro tenbo no dent, 2122.
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commentaries, and its inclusion in this n play allows the text to be situated within the larger phenomenon of the emergence of the secrets of the kokin denju commentaries into wider discourse. The same is true for the later n Kakinomoto (c. 1863), which takes place at Toda in Iwami. Still the site of a shrine to Hitomaro, Toda is identied in texts such as the Gyokuden jinpi as the specic site of Hitomaros appearance beneath a persimmon tree, and Kakinomoto includes a retelling of the story in which Hitomaro is discovered as an awesome divine child by an elderly couple beneath a persimmon tree in Toda. Although the waki in Kakinomoto is not identied by name, his connection to poetry is made clear by the fact that he is a priest from Sumiyoshi, who has already visited Tamatsushima and is now en route to the Toda shrine dedicated to the third of the three deities of waka, Hitomaro.27 Hitomaro and National Learning One factor underlying the enthusiasm for Hitomaro reected in popular texts like those quoted above was the renewed interest in and research on the Manysh being undertaken by National Learning scholars.28 For instance, Keichs Manysh daishki (Record of the Manysh in Lieu of my Teacher) was presented to Mito Mitsukuni in 1690, two years before the third printing of the Hitomaro himitsush, and Kamo no Mabuchis monumental Many k (Thoughts on the Manysh) (volumes 3, 4, 5, 6 and appendix [bekki ]) was published in 1768, soon after the two Hitomaro-related kusazshi mentioned earlier. In other words, the revival of interest in Hitomaro in the context of the Manysh spurred interest in Hitomaro as depicted in the kokin denju, despite the fact that the work of the National Learning scholars was in part a reaction against the kokin denju and the type of knowledge and transmission thereof that it involved. The forerunner of the early modern Manysh commentaries was the Manysh chshaku (Commentary on Manysh, 1269) of Sengaku (12031272), which was the first commentary to cover the entire
27 28
Tanaka Makoto ed., Mikan ykokush zoku 2, 283291. Edo no ehon, 84.
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anthology. The rst major Manysh commentary of the Edo period is the Manysh daishki, which began as a commentary commissioned by Tokugawa Mitsukuni (16281700), Ieyasus grandson and lord of the Mito domain, from Shimokbe Chry (16241686). Stricken by illness, Chry in 1682 asked that the work be completed by his friend Keich (16401701). Keichs Manysh daishki, the nal version of which was presented to Mitsukuni in 1690, is notable for the quality of its philological analyses of the text and heralded the beginning of a new era in Manysh studies.29 Along with this increased interest in the Manysh came new studies of Hitomaro, and yet despite the advances in Manysh scholarship, the effects of Hitomaros image from the kokin denju, or at least from his post-Manysh reception, persisted. Chry wrote the following on Hitomaro in his Kasen sh (Notes on Poetic Immortals):
A person of Tsuno village, Iwami Province. Served sovereigns at the Fujiwara palace, then returned to his home province and died there. His rank and that of his ancestors are nowhere to be seen.30
While incorporating the Manysh-based tradition of Hitomaro dying in Iwami, based on his putative death poem in volume II of the Manysh, this entry also draws on the story of Hitomaros origins in Iwami rst seen in the Sanrysh of 1286. Kasen sh also includes comments on the Akashi Bay poem (Kokinsh IX:409): Chry interprets it as a straightforward scene of Akashi Bay, composed at the time Hitomaro was going to China, and goes on to say:
Although the story of Hitomaro going to China is not seen elsewhere, it appears in the Shish and so should not be doubted. On top of that, a number of poems composed by Hitomaro at Akashi can be seen in the Manysh.31
Chry then criticizes the allegorical interpretations given the poem in the kokin denju, noting that this poem has been compared to various things, and false reasons noted. All of these are useless.32 Despite Chrys criticism of the kokin denju and his familiarity with Hitomaros poems in the Manysh, his comments on Hitomaro and the Akashi Bay
29 Information in this paragraph is from Peter Nosco, Manysh Studies in Tokugawa Japan, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Fourth series, 1, 1986, 111117. 30 Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 979. 31 Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 979980. 32 Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 980.
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poem in the Kasen sh clearly show the inuence of Hitomaros Heian and medieval reception. The very inclusion of the Akashi Bay poem in his discussion of Hitomaro and his acceptance of the Hitomarovisiting-China narrative suggest Chrys regard for the Kokinsh and Shish and the image of Hitomaro presented therein. His approach to Hitomaro seems similar to that of the mid-Heian period prior to the advent of the kokin denju,33 as he largely refutes the medieval treatment of Hitomaro (apart from describing Iwami as Hitomaros birthplace) but does not exclude the two early imperial anthologiesKokinsh and Shishfrom consideration. The Manysh daishki includes a similar biography of Hitomaro to that in Chrys Kasen sh in its Hitomaro no koto (The Matter of Hitomaro) section, based mainly on the Manysh but with Iwami identified as Hitomaros birthplace.34 Doubts over this version of Hitomaros life were expressed by Kada no Azumamaro (16691736) in his Manysh dmsh (Childs Notes on the Manysh):
It is very difcult to know in which province Hitomaro was born. In later ages, Iwami has come to be passed down as the province of his birth. Prior to this collection [Manysh] there was the poem from the time when he parted from his wife to come up to the capital, and here too is the poem from the time of his death. Perhaps this is why [ Iwami ] came to be seen as his home province. However, there is no clear record of the province of his birth in any of the national historical records and so forth, and so it is difcult to decide where it is; but perhaps it should be understood as Iwami, following the headings in this collection [Manysh] to the poem on coming to the capital and to his nal poem.35
However, a major advance in Manysh-based discussion of Hitomaros life was made by Azumamaros student Kamo no Mabuchi, who considers Hitomaros biography in the appendix to his six-volume commentary Many k. As mentioned in Chapter One, Mabuchis reconstruction of Hitomaros biography was very inuential, becoming the basis of the standard theory regarding Hitomaros life36 among later scholars. Mabuchi suggested that Hitomaro served Princes Hinamishi and Takechi as a low-ranking ofcial (toneri ), and was posted to Iwami late
33 34 35 36
Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 980. Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 982. Aso, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ronk, 190191. Inaoka Kji, Densh, 107.
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in life. He was summoned to the capital for a meeting of ofcials,37 and died unexpectedly on the road in Iwami on either this journey or a later one. Regarded as one of Japans premiere eighteenthcentury nativists,38 Mabuchi is particularly noted for his work on the Manysh, and his proposed biography of Hitomaro was soundly based on poems (and their headnotes) appearing in the Manysh. Yet even Mabuchis writings could not entirely escape the effects of Hitomaros canonization in the Kokinsh. In his Niimanabi (New Learning, 1765), Mabuchi praises the Manysh for its masculine style (masuraoburi ) and deplores the feminine style (taoyameburi) of the poetry of the Kokinsh. He praises Hitomaros poetry as representative of the more masculine style, yet quotes as Hitomaros work not a Manysh poem, but one of the anonymous poems tentatively attributed to him in the Kokinsh, VI:334 (Winter):
ume no hana sore to mo miezu hisakata no amagiru yuki no nabete furereba The plum blossoms I cannot see which they are, as the distant sky is so misty with snow falling everywhere.
. . . This is a poem of someone of the Nara period, and is one with the sentiment and metre of Hitomaros poetry. Without speaking even slightly of trivial things, the height and breadth of the sentiments of the noble masculinity of the meter appear. In the same collection [i.e. Kokinsh], there are many amusing-sounding poems on plum blossoms, but one realizes that they are composed concealing narrow sentiments; think [ instead] on the noble sentiments of people of the Nara period. Look toward the poems of the Kamakura Great Minister of the Right.39 Hitomaros poem has vigor, like a dragon ascending to the sky, and the words are like the movements of the tides of the sea. The meter is like the sound of Sotsuhiko of Katsuragi plucking a great bow. The words of the poems of Akahito are as clear as the waters of Yoshino River, and the sentiments as unapproachably noble as Fujis lofty peak. Hitomaro is as different [from Akahito] as the heavens from the earth, but they both made excellent poems of old.40
37 As a chshshi, a messenger sent to present the annual report on the provincial government to the central administration. 38 Nosco, 109. 39 Minamoto no Sanetomo (11921219), the third Kamakura shgun, noted for his poetry in the Many style. 40 Taira Shigemichi and Abe Akio ed., Kinsei shint ron: zenki kokugaku, Nihon shis taikei 39, Iwanami shoten, 1972, 364.
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As well as its appearance in the body of the Kokinsh, the plum blossom poem (VI:334) is quotedalong with the Akashi Bay poemin the old interpolated notes to the Kana Preface as one of Hitomaros exemplary poems. Despite the similarity of this poem to some Manysh poems,41 its appearance here seems to indicate Mabuchis acceptance of the attribution to Hitomaro made in the Kokinsh footnote, and can be taken as an illustration of the difculties faced by those trying to free the study of Hitomaro from the sphere of court-poetic discourse. The most detailed biographical treatment of Hitomaro in the early modern period was Ueda Akinaris (17341809) Kaseiden (Biography of the Poetic Sage, 1785), in which Akinari sets out to rectify inaccuracies in existing accounts of Hitomaros life. He makes use of a wide range of sources, including the Manysh, the Kokinsh, the Kakinomoto eigu ki, shrine records and monumental inscriptions, Shtetsu monogatari, Kenshs Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kanmon, Kiyosukes Fukurozshi, Mabuchis Many k, and the Hitomaro himitsush. Akinari critically evaluates medieval traditions surrounding Hitomaro, dismissing, for instance, an apocryphal death poem attributed to Hitomaro in Shtetsu monogatari as useless, by someone unfamiliar with old poems.42 The early modern period saw what has been described as the liberation of the classical Japanese literary tradition43 from the restricted and exclusive lines of transmission of the kokin denju. The classical texts were freed from the exclusive purview of the court poets and made accessible through publications and lectures, provoking interest among the reading public and introducing Hitomaro to a broader readership not composed exclusively of practicing poets (poetic producers being the recipients of the teachings of the kokin denju). It was against this background that popular interest in Hitomaro grew, and the publication of the Hitomaro himitsush in 1670 reected both the increased interest in Hitomaro and the loss of the kokin denjus monopoly on information about him. Elements of Hitomaros medieval canonization inuenced every aspect of his reception in the early modern period, affecting not only the popular works drawing on the Himitsush, and Hitomaros
41 E.g. Manysh VIII:1426: waga seko ni/misemu to omoishi/ume no hana/sore to mo miezu/yuki no furureba (The plum blossoms/I thought to show/to you, my love/cannot be told apart/from the falling snow) (Katagiri, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, I:1077). 42 Koka shiranu hito no itazuragoto nari (Nakamura Yukihiko ed., Kaseiden, Ueda Akinari zensh 4, Chkronsha, 1993, 26). 43 Nosco, 114.
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imperially sponsored deication, but even extending to the work of the National Learning scholars despite their avowed opposition to the form and content of the kokin denju and its teachings. Hitomaro Enshrined The major Edo-period development in the process of Hitomaros canonization was his extra-literary canonization as an enshrined deity. Shrines to Hitomaro had existed in the medieval period, but they ourished in terms of both status and number in the Edo period. Although the impetus for Hitomaros deication was rooted in his reception in court-poetic discourse, his apotheosis in the early modern period was taking place on two levels. At a local level, he was being assimilated into local systems of folk belief (minkan shink) and frequently worshipped for reasons that had nothing to do with poetry.44 On a national level, however, his status as a great poetic deity was enhanced through the proliferation of the kokin denju and was formally recognized through his imperially-sponsored deication as the Kakinomoto daimyjin (Great Bright Deity Kakinomoto) in 1723, believed to be the one-thousandth anniversary of his death. Today there are numerous shrines dedicated to Hitomaro throughout Japan:45 the two largest and best-documented are at Takatsu, in what was formerly Iwami Province (modern Masuda city, Shimane Prefecture) and Akashi. There are additional important shrines to Hitomaro in Shimane, notably at Toda (near Masuda) and in Yamato (modern Nara Prefecture), site of the Fujiwara palace where he is thought to have served at court. Until it was abandoned in the nineteenth century there was also a temple, the Shihonji or Kakinomotodera, near the Wanishita shrine in Tenri City, in the ancestral territory of the Wani clan from which the Kakinomoto clan was descended.46 The earliest reference to a shrine to Hitomaro is found in the Shtetsu monogatari of 1450. The relevant passage is as follows:
Edo no ehon, 83. Sakurai Mitsuru includes a list of over two hundred shrines to Hitomaro in his Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 227259. 46 The rst record of the Kakinomoto temple, apparently the clan temple of the Kakinomoto clan, appears the Tdaiji yroku, a late-Heian compilation of records of Tdaiji, where it is said to be in the province of Yamato, Snokami district (Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 3132).
44 45
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Wooden images of the poet Hitomaro can be found in the provinces of Iwami and Yamato. The one in Iwami is located in Takatsu. There is an inlet from the sea on the western side of this place, and to the rear it is encircled by the Takatsu mountains. The image was enshrined in a square-shaped chapel out in the elds. It held in one hand a brush and in the other a piece of paper. It was made of wood. One year, when there were heavy rains, the area was ooded along with the rest of the countryside; the tide came in and the sea covered it up; and the chapel was swept away by the tide or waves and disappeared, no one knew where. Then after the waters had subsided, a peasant was digging with shovel and hoe in order to make an arable eld, when it sounded as if his hoe had hit something. He dug it up, and there it was, the image of Hitomaro. It had been buried under the seaweed and still had the writing brush safely in its hand. Believing this to be no ordinary occurrence, the people quickly repainted the image, rebuilt the chapel as it had originally been, and enshrined it there. The story spread abroad and people from two or three provinces around all ocked to see it. I heard this story from someone who gave me a full account of the incident.47
It is difcult to date the beginnings of the local worship of Hitomaro, since shrine and temple histories tend to backdate the establishment of the institution in order to enhance its reputation. The traditional history of the shrine at Takatsu, for instance, places its construction in the Jinki era, 724729, during the reign of Shmu,48 while the Gesshji jiden (Account of Gesshji Temple), the traditional history of the superintending temple of the Kakinomoto shrine at Akashi, places the initial installation of Hitomaro at Akashi in Ninna 3 (887). In that year (according to the temple history), the priest Gakush of the Konanzan Yryji was visited by Hitomaros spirit in a dream; he then requested an eleven-headed Kannon, depicted aboard ship, from the Kakinomoto temple in Yamato and enshrined Hitomaro as the tutelary deity of the temple, the name of which was changed to Gesshji.49 Regardless of the questionable foundation dates found in the traditional shrine/temple origin accounts, however, from the Shtetsu monogatari entry above, it seems that the shrine at Takatsu, in some form, dates back to at least the fteenth century, while local historical
Brower and Carter, Conversations with Shtetsu, 65. Yatomi Kumaichir, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro to Kamoyama, Masuda: Masuda kydo shi yatomikai, 1964, 283. 49 Mase Sekizen ed., Gesshji jiden, 1.
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records indicate that the Kakinomoto shrine at Akashi was moved to its current location in 1618.50 While Hitomaro was worshipped as a poetic deity at his shrines, he was also co-opted into local belief structures, his role and perceived powers varying from place to place according to the spiritual needs of the local population. In Iwami Hitomaro is regarded not only as a poetic deity but as one of agricultural production and disease prevention.51 Legend also credits him with introducing the craft of paper-making to Iwami, and during the celebrations of the 1225th anniversary of his death at Takatsu in 1958 he was celebrated as the ancestral deity of the Japanese paper-manufacturing industry (Seishigy no soshin).52 In Akashi Hitomaro is worshipped for poetry and for marine safety. As mentioned in Chapter Two, Akashi was the westernmost boundary of the home provinces around the capital (kinai ).53 The straits of Akashi overlooked by the Kakinomoto shrine were of geographical and spiritual signicance to travelers as a crossing point into unknown territory, and, as noted earlier, Hitomaros travel poems in the Manysh include some which appear to have been composed at Akashi as tamuke, offerings to ensure the safety of the travelers.54 The following passage from the Kakinomoto daimyjin engi (Origins of the Great Bright Deity Kakinomoto, n.d.) of the Kakinomoto shrine at Akashi, explicitly describes the efcacy of praying to Hitomaro in case of travel difculties:
There are many places where [ Hitomaro] left his traces, but the most famous of all is Akashi. In fact, this is why there is nothing in the world like the Akashi Bay poem. Now, waka began in the age of the heavenly gods, and has been a custom of our land up to the present age. [Out of all poems] the Akashi Bay poem is revered by all, from the highest ministers to the common people; and, revering Hitomaro as the rst teacher, there are no scholars of poetry who do not visit this shrine. Now, the straits of Akashi are the most difcult point in the western seas, and the boats that come and go meet the dangers of the wind and waves. Long ago, when at this difcult [point] the wind was bad, and the ship
Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 35. Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 152. 52 Yatomi, 291. 53 Sakurai Mitsuru, Akashi to, 84. 54 Manysh III:254, III:255, III:303. As noted in Chapter Two, the recitation at a certain place of some Hitomaro travel poems by envoys to Silla, recorded in the fteenth volume of the Manysh (XV:36023611), seems to hint at the ritual signicance and power of Hitomaros travel poems as tamuke poems.
50 51
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was already turning back, they prayed to the kami, sincerely reciting, O kami, said to guard the Way of Poetry and the Way of ships, who have left your traces in Akashi [uta no michi/fune no michi o/mamoru tote/akashi no ura ni/ato tareshi kami ], and escaped that danger.55
It is perhaps natural that through his association with Akashi Hitomaro should come to be regarded as a deity of sea travel, but it may also be noted that two other poetic gods with which Hitomaro is often grouped, the Sumiyoshi deity and the Tamatsushima deity, are also enshrined on the coast, and the Sumiyoshi deity was originally a sea deity.56 Also, Benzaiten, related to Hitomaro through a common honji or original ground in the form of the bodhisattva Myon, was originally (as the Vedic Sarasvat) a river personied into the form of a goddess.57 A possible metaphorical link between water and poetry is hinted at in the Gyokuden jinpi account of Hitomaros appearance in Iwami, where it is said that When he was commanded to compose poetry, his skill was such that the words owed like water.58 Hitomaro is worshipped at both his major shrines as a god of re prevention and safety in childbirth. These beliefs, while not connected to his poetic role in terms of content, doas noted in the previous chaptershare a common methodology of allegorical interpretation with some commentaries on the Kokinsh and Ise monogatari. In the Heian, medieval, and early modern periods Hitomaros name was often rendered Hitomaru, and, as mentioned earlier, this could be parsed as hi-tomaru, re-stop; it could also be parsed (with a little twisting) as hito-umaru, to be born. Similarly, Hitomaro is in Akashi credited with the ability to cure eye diseases and blindness through interpretation of the place name Akashi as the continuative form of the verb akasu, to make bright. Various anecdotes record Hitomaros manifestation of these divine powers:
There are many people in various provinces who were having difculties in childbirth, but had an easy birth when they grasped an amulet in their right hand and recited aloud the Akashi Bay poem. [ The poems]
wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 238. Katagiri, Waka kami toshite no Sumiyoshi no kami, 684. 57 Matsunaga, 256. Matsunaga notes that The transformation from a river goddess to deity of music and learning is not so unusual, since it is most likely that Vedic lore and learning developed along the banks of this river (256). 58 Katagiri, Chsei Kokinsh chshakusho kaidai 5, 554.
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other merits are too numerous to record. One character of this Akashi Bay poem encapsulates a thousand leagues and is the same as a Shingon dhran. According to past [precedent], if one recites the poem in ones heart three times, seven times, or even a hundred times every morning, one will without a doubt escape evil and disaster and will attain fulllment of ones many wishes.59 It is said that a house that believes in Hitomaro will escape res. One can think of the reading [of Hitomaros name] as re-stop [hi-tomaru]. It is said that when a house near the shrine of the Hitomaro deity in Akashi, Harima, caught re, an old man came out of nowhere and instantly quelled the ames.60 A blind man came from Tsukushi to visit the shrine, and recited, Dimly, dimly, /if you truly are a god/of making bright/show to even me/Hitomaros grave [honobono to/makoto akashi no/kami naraba/ware ni mo mise yo/Hitomaro no tsuka] at which both his eyes suddenly opened, and when he stood the staff of cherry wood he had come with near the garden and went home, it grew branches and owers.61
In addition to Hitomaros worship for non-poetic purposes at a folk level, interest was growing in him as a poetic deity, both through the transmission of the kokin denju and the wider dissemination of its contents through popular texts. The palace transmission of the secret teachings on the Kokinsh played a critical role in inspiring interest in Hitomaro in the early Edo period, being regarded as the central element of the line of transmission descending from Sgi and Tsuneyoris reformulated kokin denju. The focus of the palace transmission was the emperor himself,62 and by the eighteenth century, the receipt of the teachings of the kokin denju had been formally adopted as a ritual in which all emperors were expected to participate.63 This was particularly signicant for Hitomaro, who was not only canonized as an ancestor of the Way of Poetry within the kokin denju, but had from his earliest appearance in the Manysh been associated with the imperial house. In the case of the Manysh, this relationship
59 From the Kakinomoto daimyjin ryaku engi (Abbreviated Origins of the Great Bright Deity Kakinomoto, n.d.) of the Gesshji at Akashi, quoted in Hanabe, 108. 60 Nagata, 314. 61 Kakinomoto daimyjin engi, quoted in wa, Hitomaro no jitsuz, 255. A blind-mansstaff-cherry tree still stands before the Kakinomoto shrine in Akashi. 62 Arai Eiz, Kokin denju no rekishi, Kokubungaku kaishaku to kansh 50:1 (1/1985): 123. 63 Cook, 29n. A chart showing the line of the palace transmission from GoMizunoo to Nink (18001846, r. 18171846) appears in Arai, Kokin denju no rekishi, 123.
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involved Hitomaros composition of banka for deceased members of the imperial family, but in the Kana Preface of the Kokinsh he is presented as having been in very close proximity to his sovereign, so close, in fact that he and the Nara no mikado are described in that text as being in perfect union. The symbolic importance of this relationship becomes particularly clear in the context of the palace transmission, which reunited the sovereign with Hitomaro as a poetic guide.64 As described earlier, it was Hitomaros combination of poetic and political standingas depicted in the Kana Prefacethat made him an appropriate gure for courtiers like the members of the Rokuj house to venerate through eigu and hope to emulate themselves. The driving force behind Hitomaros imperially-sponsored apotheosis in 1723, however, was an actual member of the imperial line, Retired Emperor Reigen, who through his receipt of the teachings of the kokin denju was symbolically bound to Hitomaro, canonized as the ancestral poetry teacher of the imperial house. Reigen was a devoted adherent of the Way of Poetry who presented poems to a portrait of Hitomaro every New Years Day for forty years.65 It is hardly surprising, then, that when Reigen applied to the bakufu in the winter of 1722 regarding a possible promotion for Hitomaro, he was overjoyed when permission was ultimately granted by Shgun Tokugawa Yoshimune.66 In ceremonies at his major shrines in Takatsu and Akashi in 1723believed to be the one-thousandth anniversary of his deathHitomaro received the divine title (shing) of Kakinomoto daimyjin and was also promoted to the Senior First Rank (shichii ) by imperial decree. This momentous event, through which Hitomaro was transformed into a revered deity of the highest rank, took place some 605 years after his initial worship as a quasi-divine ancestor in the rst Hitomaro eigu of 1118. The text of the edict (senmy) presented on the occasion is as follows:
The sovereign,67 according to his imperial will, deigning to speak before Kakinomoto, said, a thousand years have passed [since the time of Hitomaro], yet the Way [of poetry] continues; I worship it in public and private. Its virtue grows ever higher, yet the deitys rank is low; I have considered this in particular and reverently present the headdress of the
64 65 66 67
Cook, 16. Yatomi, 297. Yatomi, 306. Nakamikado (r. 17091735).
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Senior First Rank. Accordingly I have dispatched Chamberlain Urabe no Ason Kaneo of the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade, and have had him as my representative present a written record of [the award of ] this rank. I ask that, hearing this, you make the world peaceful and serene, make the forest of words ourish ever more, and protect and aid us forever.68
One result of Hitomaros ofcial recognition as a deity seems to have been new restrictions on his worship. His formal apotheosis apparently spurred greater interest in Hitomaro eigu, so much so, in fact, that in an effort to combat what he saw as the excessive use of Hitomaros portrait at poetry gatherings, Reigen banned the practice, arguing that more deference should be shown to the divine authority of the newly promoted deity. Poets were advised to use portraits of Fujiwara Teika (11621241) in place of those of Hitomaro. Hitomaro eigu ceremonies could still take place, but anyone wishing to hold one now had to obtain imperial permission to do so.69 Teika was in some ways a logical substitute for Hitomaro in the context of poetic worship. As a founding gure of the Mikohidari school, and ancestor of the Nij, Reizei and Kygoku lines, Teikas writings were revered by court poets, and each of the competing poetic houses laid claim to their correct interpretation and transmission through the kokin denju. The Shtetsu monogatari of the Reizei-trained poet Shtetsu opens with the declaration that In this art of poetry, those who speak ill of Teika should be denied the protection of the gods and Buddhas and condemned to the punishments of hell. Shtetsu goes on to recommend that an aspiring poet ignore the poetic schools and cherish the style and spirit of Teika and strive to emulate him even though he may never succeed.70 In addition, Teikas reception illustrates the systematic application of the eigu ritual as a canonizing paradigm to another poet besides Hitomaro. As seen in Chapter Three, the use of Teikas portrait as a poetic icon may have begun with Retired Emperor Juntoku in 1241 or 1242, and the worship of Teika by his descendants in the Reizei house continues today through the kmon eigu ceremony. Thus Teika occupies a crucial position as an ancestral gure (in very concrete terms, having
68 Yatomi, 308309. The text (Ason zi senmy) also appears in Masui Tadayuki, Z sh ichi-i Kakinomoto no ason Hitomaro kiji, Masuda-ch, Mino-gun, Iwami no kuni: Shineki kappanjo, 1910, 57. 69 Yatomi, 304305. 70 Brower and Carter, 6162.
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produced both critical writings and offspring) of the court-poetic tradition as it existed in the medieval and early modern periods. Yet, as a more recent gure, and one whose existence was well documented, Teika seems to be fundamentally different from Hitomaro as a poetic icon despite the fact that both were the subjects of eigu ceremonies. Unlike Hitomaro or Narihira, Teika does not seem to have been deied in the commentaries,71 and he was not appropriated as a divine protective gure of the Way of Poetry as a whole in the way that Hitomaro was. In spite of this, however, Teikas and Hitomaros modes of reception seem to have converged, by imperial decree, with Reigens instructions to eighteenth-century poets to substitute Teikas portrait for Hitomaros. Although Reigens interest in and devotion to Hitomaro seems to have been unusually strong, his prohibition of the use of Hitomaros portrait raises questions as to the proprietary interest of the imperial household in Hitomaro. That such a decree could have been made can be seen as part of the continuing association of Hitomaro with the imperial household described earlier. This association was the motivation for Reigens efforts to secure a promotion for Hitomaro, and for his support of Hitomaros two major shrines, at Akashi and Takatsu (Iwami), to which he donated poems (hraku waka, poems presented at a shrine) on numerous occasions, starting on the 18th day of the Third Month in 1723.72 However, it also seems to have been something that he felt entitled him to a degree of control over the use of Hitomaro as a poetic divinity. It can be argued that the adoption of the kokin denju as an imperial ritual through the palace transmission made Hitomaro (in his capacity as a poetic deity) part of the support apparatus of the imperial house. Evidence for this view of the kokin denju in general can be found in the works of Motoori Norinaga, who recognized that the imperial connection meant that a certain amount of discretion had to be employed when offering criticism of the kokin denju.73 In the case of Hitomaro, his position within the kokin denju in general and the palace
71 As noted in the previous chapter, in general no poet from a text later than Kokinsh seems to be described as a kasen or waka no kami in the kokin denju commentaries. 72 Yagi Ichio, Kinsei dj Kakinomoto yashiro hraku waka, Shint shi kenky 44:2 (4/96): 2731. The eighteenth day of the Third Month had been accepted as Hitomaros death anniversary since its description as such in Shtetsu monogatari: The anniversary of Hitomaros death is kept secret, so that few people anywhere know the date. It is the eighteenth day of the third month. (Brower and Carter, 136.) 73 Cook, 29n.
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transmission in particular may have led ultimately to a dramatic elevation of his divine status, but it also brought himas a poetic deity, at leastunder the control of the imperial house. Hitomaro and Tenjin In contrast to the interest taken in Hitomaro as a poetic deity by social elites, folk worship of Hitomaro in general is decentralized and seems to be concerned primarily with this-worldly benets rather than with poetry.74 A useful comparison can be made with the worship of another well-known deied poet, Sugawara no Michizane, deied as Tenman Tenjin in the tenth century and still a popular object of worship today. The worship of Tenjin has been described as follows:
[ N ]either an accepted core of doctrine nor an extensive organizational structure ever developed. Instead, the cult consisted simply of reverence for a deied ancient hero who was worshipped throughout Japan at independent shrines, great and small. In these respects, Tenjin worship resembles other aspects of Japans native religious heritage. Lacking both unied theology and institutional hierarchy, it is best described in terms of its historical development.75
Parallels can be drawn between the shrines to Tenjin, which are numerous but include two large representative shrines at Kitano and Dazaifu, and shrines to Hitomaro, which include many small shrines and two large ones, Takatsu and Akashi. In another parallel with Tenjin, Hitomaro has come to be regarded as a deity of learning and exam success. Although, as described in the previous chapter, the initial processes of Michizanes and Hitomaros deication were quite differentMichizane being originally feared as an angry ghost and worshipped as a thunder deitythere seems to have been a gradual convergence of their paths. This is evident not only at the level of folk worship, but also in their roles as literary deities, as seen in the biography of Hitomaro presented to the shrine at Takatsu in the Third Month of 1652 by Kamei Koremasa (16171680), the head of the Tsuwano domain in Iwami, within whose territory the shrine lay:
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Kikuchi, Hitomaro gens, Shintensha, 1995, 201. Borgen, 307.
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Since Great Minister Kan76 was accomplished in the Way of Chinese poetry, being the great ancestor of the Way of Letters, and a master of poetic composition, he performs miracles as Tenman Tenjin. Hitomaro is the immortal of the Way of Japanese poetry, and being the teacher of the Bay of Waka, is without doubt the incarnation of a deity.77
In medieval texts such as the Kokon chomonj the ancestor of Chinese poetry held up in parallel to Hitomaro, the ancestor of Japanese poetry, is the Tang poet Bo Juyi (Kokon chomonj XX:721). However, Tenjin had been regarded as a literary gure, at whose shrines poetry could be presented, since at least 986,78 and the mid-seventeenth-century account of Hitomaros life quoted above presents Michizane as the representative practitioner and divine ancestral gure of the Way of Letters, in other words, composition in Chinese. Tenjin came to be regarded as a deity of scholarship in addition to literature in the Edo period,79 and it seems likely that Hitomaro took on similar qualities under the inuence of this transformation of Tenjin. Conclusion: Canonizing Hitomaro Hitomaros canonization as a gurehead of the Japanese court-poetic tradition begins at almost the earliest stage of his reception, with his valorization by tomo no Yakamochi as the sanshi no mon, gate of the mountain persimmon, in the eighth-century Manysh. The process of his canonization, as covered in this study, spans a thousand years and transforms Hitomaro from a man to a god. His reception stems from and is inextricably entwined with that of two texts, the Manysh and the Kokinsh, the former being the repository of his poems and the latter the source of his authority and prestige as an uta no hijiri or sage of poetry. Hitomaros canonization as a poetic deity has notable parallels with the literary canonization of the Kokinsh and Manysh, a fact that illustrates the symbolic power these textslike Hitomarocame to possess in court-poetic discourse. The Kokinshs compilation in the early
76 77 78 79
Kan shj, i.e. Michizane, who was appointed Minister of the Right in 899. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro denki, 502. Borgen, 324. Borgen, 328.
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tenth century was an attempt to raise the prestige of Japanese poetry as a genre in the face of the dominance of poetry in Chinese at court. Ki no Tsurayukis Kana Preface to the Kokinsh presents a history of Japanese poetry and ancestral gures for the genre, the foremost such poetic ancestor being Hitomaro. Japanese poetrys canonical elevation to a status equivalent to that of poetry in Chinese was accomplished through the appropriation of elements of the practice of poetry in Chinese such as poetry meetings and the form of the imperial anthology itself. The epochal development in Hitomaros canonization as a tutelary poetic deity, his role as an object of worship in the Hitomaro eigu of 1118, can be understood within this broader trend, as the eigu ceremony itself was based largely on a Chinese model, the sekiten ritual through which Confucius was worshipped. Situating Hitomaros canonization within the larger context of the canonization of Japanese poetry as a genre and the Kokinsh as the supreme text of that genre also elucidates factors in Hitomaros deication in medieval poetic commentaries. Just as Japanese poetry had appropriated elements of the dominant Chinese-based discourse of the Heian period, so it did likewise with the dominant Buddhist discourse of the medieval period. Mahyna non-dualist thought allowed for the fusion of the Way of Japanese poetry and Buddhism, and under the inuence of honji-suijaku thought (similarly non-dualist in nature) poets could become avatars of deities and thus divine beings themselves. As a result, we see Hitomaro canonized in medieval poetic discourse as a tutelary deity of the Way of Japanese poetry, at once a symbol of its glorious past and a guardian to ensure its future ourishing. This was a role in which he cameat least initiallyto be enshrined and worshipped from the late medieval period onward, and for which purpose he was ofcially deied in 1723. Although the Manysh is the text in which Hitomaros poems appear, it was not as highly regarded as the Kokinsh, which was canonized as the supreme achievementand denitive textof Japanese court poetry until the modern period. This lack of recognition of the Manysh meant that it could not serve as the primary vehicle for Hitomaros canonization; rather, it was the canonization of the Kokinsh as the pinnacle of Japanese poetic achievement that enabled the canonization and eventual apotheosis of Hitomaro, based on his appearance therein. Yet there is a certain symbiotic nature to the relationship between Hitomaro and the Kokinsh. Hitomaro is invoked in the Kokinsh Kana Preface as the greatest poet of a past golden poetic age, presented as
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a symbol of the antiquity, and thus authority, of Japanese poetry as a genre. Hitomaros poetry is not critiqued in the Kana Preface; what is stressed is his proximity to his sovereign. Hitomaros presence legitimized the compilation of the Kokinsh, and the canonization of the Kokinsh cemented Hitomaros position as a gurehead of the Way of Japanese poetry. Similarly, when the recanonization of the Kokinsh in the twelfth century gave rise to the system of secret teachings known as the kokin denju, Hitomaros evolution into a full-edged deity of poetry in medieval commentaries added to the prestige of Japanese poetry and its most admired text, the Kokinsh. In concrete terms, the less-valorized Manysh provided elements of Hitomaros legend based on poems by or associated with him, such as his connection to Iwami and his ties to the imperial household as an attendant and poet. However, the actual poems with whose reception much of Hitomaros later canonization was concerned do not appear in the Manysh but are rather tentatively attributed to him in the Kokinsh. The Manysh could serve as evidence of Japanese poetrys antiquity (and thus authority) even though it was not regarded as a source of normative poetic values like the Kokinsh and even though it was not widely read in its entirety. In this sense parallels can be drawn between the reception of Hitomaro and that of the Manysh: rather than great attention being paid to their substance, both were canonized largely as ideas, as potent symbols of the long and venerable history of Japanese poetry as a genre. Their canonization in this way took place within the Kokinsh-dominated discourse of Japanese court poetry in the Heian and medieval periods. The Manyshs rediscovery and recanonization in the early modern period involved rigorous philological and literary analysis of the Manysh as a text, within which Hitomaro was ultimately recanonized as a mortal poet rather than a poetic divinity. It was precisely this recanonization as the foremost poet of the Manysh that allowed Hitomaro to survive, canonically speaking, the sudden decanonization of the Kokinsh at the end of the nineteenth century. Hitomaros canonization through his presentation in poetic texts such as anthologies and commentaries, however, is only part of the larger process of his deication. His canonization as a deity of Japanese poetry also depended on extratextual modes of canonization, like the Hitomaro eigu and the medieval ceremonies for which it set a precedent, the Kakinomoto kshiki and waka kanj (initiation) rituals. Hitomaro was also canonized visually, in terms of his iconography, through portraiture. This particular development can be tied to the
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need for portraits for use in Hitomaro worship rituals such as the eigu, literally, portrait-offerings, and to the development of kasen-e, poet portraits, through which groups of poets, Hitomaro included, came to be canonized. The culmination of Hitomaros extratextual canonization came in the form of his imperially sponsored deication in 1723, when he was granted the title of Kakinomoto daimyjin and posthumously promoted to the highest possible court rank, the Senior First, thus having his status conrmed in both divine and mortali.e. courtlyterms. Within the larger picture of the process of Hitomaros canonization, in both textual and ritual contexts, the specic phases of his receptionin other words, the state of his reception at any given timecan often be related to a specic cultural pattern or trope visible elsewhere in literary or religious discourse at that time. The apocryphal nature of Hitomaros purported death poem in the Manysh, for instance, is suggested by its similarities to poems of the kroshinin no uta (poems on nding dead people by the wayside) sub-genre, some of which Hitomaro did compose. The legends of his exile, based on poems attributed to him in the Kokinsh and Shish, can be tted into a genealogy of exile narratives reaching back to the Kojiki. The eigu ritual devised for his worship as a poetic ancestor by the Rokuj house was based largely on existing worship ceremonies for Confucius, and also incorporated elements of esoteric Buddhist sect-founder services. Tales of his miraculous origins as a poetic deity in medieval commentaries cast him as a divine youth who appears beneath a tree (a persimmon tree, naturally), a narrative archetype which may be understood broadly in terms of medieval ideas of the potentially divine nature of the oldest and youngest members of society and more narrowly as part of a group of similar narratives on the appearance of great poets as supernatural children, including stories involving Yamabe no Akahito and Sugawara no Michizane. Thus Hitomaros treatment, when looked at episodically, is in some ways unexceptional, employing existing tropes or archetypes. Yet the prestige and canonizing power of the Kokinsh gave Hitomaros canonization process unequaled momentum, propelling him through all of these different stages, the cumulative effects of which, combined with the points where he was singled out for special treatment, elevated him to a singular status as a once-mortal deity of the Way of Japanese poetry. In this sense the critical turning point in Hitomaros canonization is his worship in the eigu ceremony in 1118. Although the eigu drew on existing
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rituals for its form, its application to Hitomaro, based ultimately on his treatment in the Kokinsh, was a watershed not only for his canonization but for the treatment of poets and poetry in broader terms. The eigu represented the introduction of an ancestral worship ceremony from a purely philosophical or religious context into a poetic environment, and, as described earlier, set a precedent for the development and use of worship rituals as part of waka praxis. Most signicantly for Hitomaros canonization, it was also subsequently applied to other poets, and can thus be understood as a point at which Hitomaros canonization became itself a trope or patternthe worshipped poeton which the treatment of other poets could be modeled. This becomes particularly apparent in the eighteenth-century case of poets being instructed by the Retired Emperor to substitute portraits of Teika for Hitomaro at eigu and similar ceremonies. The Retired Emperors involvement in this process also hints at the extent to which Hitomaros early modern canonization through the kokin denju involved issues of imperial power and control. The most important developments in Hitomaros canonization occurred at the heart of the high classical canon, within the realm of court-poetic discourse. However, like other elements of classical literary culture (including other gures from the Heian literary canon), the canonized image of Hitomaro and the poems associated with him spread from the high canon to non-canonical genres such as popular ction (medieval otogizshi, early modern kusazshi ) and theatre (kabuki). His canonization was thus occurring in both central and peripheral genres, although the process seems to have been mostly one-way, based on the seepage of Hitomaro-related lore from canonical texts and their critical apparatus, such as commentaries, to other, less prestigious, genres. A parallel of sorts can be drawn with the worship of Hitomaro at his shrines: although he was originally deied and enshrined as a poetic deity, his actual worship involves a number of folk elements unrelated to poetry and predicated rather on allegorical renderings of his name or the spiritual needs of the local populace. These other worship practices did not obliterate the poetic worship of Hitomaro; rather, worship of him can be said to have continued at two levels, poetic and popular. Hitomaros prominence in the literary canon and his close ties to the Kokinsh serve to situate the process of his canonization at the centre of court-poetic discourse. In this sense a study of his canonization can become a window onto the complex processes at work in the development and transmission of Japanese court poetry as a genre. An
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analysis of Hitomaros deication illuminates sweeping changes such as the medieval inux of Buddhist thought into poetic theory and praxis, and also lesser cultural phenomena such as the tropes or archetypes frequently employed in the canonization of historical or literary gures. An examination of Hitomaro worship also highlights the complex interaction of textual and extratextual modes of canonization that combined to lead to his apotheosis as a poetic god.
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INDEX
Abe no Nakamaro (698770), 7375, 78, 81 academic success, Hitomaro as deity of, 1 Akashi (Harima), 67, 6870, 7983, 106, 130, 131, 139, 140, 161, 168, 177, 178180, 182, 183, 185; as site of Hitomaro shrine, 189194, 196, 197. See also Kokinwakash IX:409 Akashi Bay poem. See Kokinwakash IX:409 Akashi ryaku engi (Abbreviated Account of the Origins at Akashi, n.d.), 140 Akone no ura kuden (Akone Bay Oral Transmission, n.d.), 142, 154 Amaterasu mikami , 91, 147, 153, 154 Amida sutra , 93 Ariwara no Narihira (825880), 74, 81, 84, 85, 152; as incarnation of Hitomaro, 149, 150; as incarnation of the Sumiyoshi deity, 144, 146, 147, 148, 154156; in commentaries, 135, 141, 142, 146, 147, 153, 162, 163, 196 Ariwara no Yukihira (818893), 147, 148 Ashiwake obune (A Small Boat Parting the Reeds, 1757), 177 Asuka-no-Kiyomihara palace (672694), 11 banka (elegies), 6, 10, 11, 12, 17, 30, 33, 165, 194; as adaptation of Pan Yue poems, 26; as means of spirit pacication, 32. See also Iwami banka Benzaiten , 145, 163, 192 Bidatsu, Emperor (538585, r. 572585), 5 birth: of the Buddha, 178, 181. See also Iwami Bishamondbon kokinshch (Bishamon Hall Notes on the Kokinsh), 48, 164
Bo Juyi (772846), 47, 48, 84, 92, 93; and Hitomaro portrait, 108; as ancestral gure of Chinese poetry, 124, 198 Bch fudo chshinan (Report on the Record of the Provinces of Su and Nagato, n.d.), 20, 82, 84 Chikubushima , 162164 Chikuensh (Notes from the Bamboo Garden, late Kamakura period), 157 China, 7376, 82, 98, 99, 168; Hitomaros supposed journey to, 6567, 72, 7480, 109, 162, 185, 186. See also tot tenjin chinkon (spirit pacication), 32, 33, 70 Chdai gokuhi Hitomaro den (Super Great Extreme Secret Hitomaro Biography, Edo period), 170 chka (long poems), 10, 12, 17, 23, 26, 27, 33, 36, 45, 76 Chkei, Emperor (13431394, r. 13681383), 64 chokusensh (imperially commissioned anthology), 39, 66, 86. See also individual chokusensh by title Confucius (c. 551479 BCE), 98101, 199, 201; shrine to (Kongzi miao ), 99. See also sekiten Da tang kaiyuan li (Rituals of the Kaiyuan Era, 732), 99, 101 era (806810), 42, 43, 45, Daid 139, 162 Daigo, Emperor (885930, r. 897930), 42, 52 daishiku (offerings to the Great Teacher), 100102, 107 death, 3133, 100, 101, 105, 154, 162, 168; of Hitomaro, 9, 12, 1820, 27, 29, 33, 40, 44, 46, 57, 90, 83, 89, 123, 131, 138, 139, 162, 185, 186, 188, 189, 191, 194, 201; of
214
index
Fujiwara no Arifusa (12511319), 123 Fujiwara no Atsumitsu (10631144), 96, 103, 106, 107, 114 Fujiwara no Ietaka (11581237), 153 Fujiwara no Kanefusa (10011069), 102106, 109, 115, 143, 157, 179, 180, 183 Fujiwara no Kint (9661041), 57, 85, 86, 100, 161; and Akashi Bay poem, 59, 60; and Sanjrokuninsen, 40, 44, 50, 86, 88, 89, 94, 109, 153; and Shish, 85 Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (11041177), 57, 104, 109, 117, 128132, 188; and Fukurozshi, 42, 43, 78; visits Hitomaros grave, 129 Fujiwara no Michitoshi (10471099), 57, 113 Fujiwara no Morifusa (d. 1094?), 44 Fujiwara no Mototoshi (d. 1142), 92, 112, 135, 162, 163 Fujiwara no Nakazane (10571118), 76 Fujiwara no Shunzei (11141204), 2, 39, 117, 118, 128, 133, 134, 155, 163; encounters Sumiyoshi deity, 162 Fujiwara no Tadamichi (10971164), 112 Fujiwara no Tameie (11981275), 133, 134, 137 Fujiwara no Tamenori (12271279), 134 Fujiwara no Tamesuke (12631328), 134 Fujiwara no Tameuji (12221286), 134 Fujiwara no Teika (11621241), 2, 50, 55, 56, 117, 133135, 155; and eigu, 118, 123, 124, 195, 196; and recanonization of Kokinsh, 133; spurious attributions to, 135, 150. See also portraiture Fujiwara no Yukinari (9721027), 69 Fujiwara Tameaki (c. 1230sc. 1290s), 137, 150, 157, 177 Fukurozshi (Bag Manuscript, 1157), 42, 78, 188
Hitomaros wife, 11, 17, 21; of Prince Arima, 28; of Retired Emperor GoToba, 123; of Kensh, 133; of Emperor Mommu, 164, 165; of Prince Takechi, 165; of Saigy, 131; of Tameie, 134; of Teika, 123; of Yamato Takeru, 28; terminology for, 44, 45 death anniversary: of Kkai, 100; of Hitomaro, 101; of GoToba, 123 dhran. See waka-dhran theory divine titles of Hitomaro: Kakinomoto daimyjin (great bright deity Kakinomoto), 1, 189, 191, 194, 201; Kakinomoto no myjin (bright deity Kakinomoto), 128 dream, 109, 129, 162, 163, 166, 178, 190; of Hitomaro, by Kanefusa, 102104, 109, 143, 157 Ebersole, Gary, 27 eigu utaawase (poetry contest with portrait-offerings), 118, 119, 121, 124, 156 eigu (portrait-offering ceremony): for Hitomaro (Hitomaro eigu ), 38, 39, 51, 59, 60, 86, 91, 94111, 113119, 121125, 127130, 136, 137, 156158, 160, 163, 194196, 199202; for Retired Emperor GoToba, 123, 124; for Koga no Michimitsu, 123; for Minamoto no Shunrai, 123, 124; for Teika (kmon eigu ), 118, 123, 124, 195. See also Kakinomoto eigu ki ekijin (deities of pestilence), 69 Etch , 36 exile, 40, 73, 80, 81, 89, 161, 201; of Hitomaro in Bch fudo chshinan, 83; in Hitomaro himitsush, 8384; in Iwami no kuni fudoki, 82; in Kokinwakash kanj kuden, 151; of GoToba, 123; of Michizane, 154; kishu ryritan (archetypal narrative of the exiled noble), 40, 80, 84 four Hitomaros, 78 Fgash (or Fgawakash , Elegant Collection of Japanese Poetry, 1346), 63 Fujiwara capital (694710), 11 Fujiwara (Rokuj) no Akisue ( ) (10551123), 86, 91, 97, 99, 103, 105, 106, 109, 111, 112, 114119, 123, 129
index
Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, eleventh century), 40, 80, 84 Genshin (9421017), 121 Gesshji , 122, 140; Hitomaro as tutelary deity of, 190 GoDaigo, Emperor (12881339, r. 13181339), 64 gogy (Five Elements), 168 goj (Five Confucian Virtues), 168 GoMizunoo, Emperor (15961680, r. 16111629), 176 Gonki (Supernumerary Record, 1026), 69 gory (angry ghost), 69, 154 GoSaga, Emperor (12201272, r. 12421246), 64 Gosensh (or Gosenwakash , Collection of Later Selections of Japanese Poetry, 951), 61, 63 gosho denju. See kokin denju Goshish(or Goshiwakash , Later Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poetry, 1096), 63, 104, 112, 113 GoToba, Emperor (11801239, r. 11831198), 105, 118, 119, 123. See also eigu grave, Hitomaros, 128132, 183, 193 groups of poets. See Nisei, Rokkasen, Sanjrokkasen, Waka no gosen, Waka sanshin Guhish (Notes on Foolish Secrets, Kamakura period), 150 Gyokuden jinpi(Deep Secrets of the Jewelled Transmission, fourteenth century), 46, 78, 132, 135, 137140, 142, 144147, 152, 156, 162, 167, 169, 177, 184, 192 Gyokudensh waka saich (Supreme Jewelled Transmission on Japanese Poetry, KamakuraMuromachi period), 142, 144, 162 Gyokuysh (or Gyokuywakash , Collection of Jewelled Leaves of Japanese Poetry, 1312), 6264, 128 hanka (envoy poem), 12, 23, 26 Hashimoto Tatsuo , 24, 26 Heij capital (710784), 42 Heizei, Emperor (774824, r. 806809), 42, 60, 139, 161, 162
215
Hitomaro (Hitomaro, 1687), 182, 183 Hitomaro banzai dai (c. 1761), 178 Hitomaro Benten , 163 Hitomaro eigu. See eigu Hitomaro himitsush (Secret Notes on Hitomaro, 1670), 83, 148, 167, 170, 177, 184, 188 Hitomaro kanmon (Report on Hitomaro, 1153), 42, 43 Hitomaro Saigy (Hitomaro and Saigy, mid-Edo period), 182, 183 Hitomaro sh (Hitomaro Collection, mid-Heian period), 59, 65, 78, 88, 89 Hitomaros wife, 11, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 138, 186; Yosami no otome, 12, 1619, 21, 22, 33 honji suijaku (original groundmanifest trace), 122, 127, 151, 158, 170, 172, 199; in relation to Hitomaro and Akahito, 150; in relation to Hitomaro, Narihira and the Sumiyoshi deity, 144148; and waka mandala, 9195 hraku waka (poems presented at a shrine), 196 Hosokawa Ysai (15341610), 176 Inaoka Kji , 22, 44 Iroha uta (mid-Heian period), 167 Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise, c. 947), 40, 80, 81, 84, 85, 94, 137, 142, 146, 150, 192; analysis of title, 149, 169 It Haku , 23, 24, 28 Iwami , 9, 12, 14, 1622, 27, 29, 44, 57, 82, 83, 89, 137, 139, 187, 197, 200; as site of Hitomaros appearance or birth, 20, 138, 183186, 192; as site of Hitomaros grave, 131, 132; as site of shrine to Hitomaro, 189, 190, 191, 196 Iwami banka (Iwami elegies), 9, 17, 19, 2123, 27, 28, 3133, 40, 49, 57, 67, 80, 83, 84, 89. See also listings by poem number under Manysh Iwami no kuni fudoki (Record of the Province of Iwami), 19, 82
216
index
Kakinomoto no Ason Saru (), 5, 6 Kakinomoto no Hitomaro akashi no suzuri (Kakinomoto no Hitomaro: an inkstone at Akashi, 1760), 177, 178 Kakinomoto no Hitomaro tanjki (Record of Kakinomoto no Hitomaros birth, 1762), 177 Kakinomoto temple (Shihonji or Kakinomotodera), 129, 189 Kamei Koremasa , 20, 197 Kamiyo Komachi(Komachi in the Age of the Gods, Muromachi period), 172, 177 Kamo no Chmei (c. 11551216), 130 Kamo no Mabuchi (16971769), 6, 20, 23, 24, 27, 186188 kanj (initiation), 94, 137, 146, 168, 200 Kannon (bodhisattva), 92, 145147, 152, 190 Kanshi. See poetry in Chinese Karinen , 119, 121, 124, 130, 183 Kasa no Kanamura (. 724749), 76 Kasa no Kanaoka , 7577 Kasa no Kanamura sh (Kasa no Kanamura Collection, eighth century), 35 Kaseiden (Biography of the Poetic Sage, 1785), 188 kasen (poetic immortal), 47, 95, 153, 155, 156. See also Rokkasen, sage of poetry, Sanjrokkasen, shisen, Waka no gosen, Waka sanshin kasen-e (pictures of poetic immortals), 89, 109, 201 Kasen sh (Notes on Poetic Immortals, seventeenth century), 185, 186 kasen utaawase (poetry contest between poetic immortals), 86 katoku (miraculous powers of poetry), 181; katoku setsuwa (tales of miraculous powers of poetry), 181, 182 Katoku Akashigata honobono zshi (The Power of Poetry: A Dimly-Dawning Tale of Akashi Harbour, c. 1762), 178, 180182
Iwami smonka (Iwami love poems), 9, 10, 12, 17, 19, 2129, 33, 40, 67, 85. See also listings by poem number under Manysh Izumi Shikibu (eleventh century), 179 Jakuren (d. 1202), 128, 132 Jikkinsh (Notes on Ten Lessons, 1252), 105, 108, 109, 110, 116, 157, 183; IV:2, on Kanefusas dream of Hitomaro, 102 jinnin (representatives of the deities), 6 Jit, Empress (645702, r. 690697), 11, 24, 28, 34, 82, 106 Juntoku, Emperor (11971242, r. 12101221), 123, 195 Kada no Azumamaro (16691736), 186 kadan (poetry circles), 111 kad (Way of Japanese poetry), 2, 117, 124, 125, 136, 171, 198201 kakai ( Japanese poetry meetings), 110, 111 kakekotoba (pivot-word), 165 Kakinomoto (Kakinomoto, c. 1863), 182 Kakinomoto clan, 4, 5, 132, 189 Kakinomoto daimyjin. See divine titles of Hitomaro Kakinomoto eigu ki (Record of Kakinomoto PortraitOffering, twelfth century), 96, 101, 102, 109, 188; translation of, 97, 106, 114 Kakinomoto j sanmi Hitomaro ki (Record of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro of the Junior Third Rank, n.d.), 140 Kakinomoto kshiki(Kshiki for Kakinomoto, twelfth century), 119, 121. See also kshiki Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro kanmon (Investigative Report on Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, 1184), 129, 177, 188 Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro no kash (Poetry Collection of Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro, in Manysh), 10, 11, 51; distribution of poems in, 34, 35; and Hitomaros supposed journey to China, 65
index
Keich (16401701), 184, 185 kenshiragishi (envoys to Silla), 70, 71, 72 Kensh (c. 1130c. 1210), 129, 130, 133, 177, 188 Ki no Tsurayuki (c. 868c. 945), 37, 38, 41, 4348, 52, 58, 63, 65, 85, 86, 89, 105, 113, 149, 150, 153, 155, 159, 161, 172, 199; admiration of by Kint, 60, 86; as incarnation of Hitomaro, 149, 150, as poetic deity, 153, 155 Ki no Yoshimochi (d. 919), 42, 48 kigai (outer provinces), 69, 70 kinai (home provinces), 69, 70, 80, 191 Kingyokush (Collection of Gold and Jewels, 1007), 45, 59, 86 Kingyoku sgi (Dual Meanings of Gold and Jewels, Edo period), 149, 157 Kinysh (or Kinywakash , Collection of Golden Leaves of Japanese Poetry, 1127), 112 kishmon (pledge), 105, 159 kishu ryritan. See exile Kitamura Kigin (16241705), 37 Koga no Michiteru (11871248), 123 Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712), 4, 5, 28, 80, 201 koka sh (collections of old poems), 35 kokin denju (transmissions on the Kokinsh), 116, 127, 131135, 137, 155, 156, 159, 161, 162, 167, 175; criticism of, 177; in early modern period, 175, 176, 183186, 188, 189, 193196, 200, 202; gosho denju (palace transmission), 176, 193, 194, 196; hako denju (box transmission), 176; initiation ceremonies for, 160 Kokinsh kanj (Kokinsh Initiation, Muromachi-period), 66, 165 Kokin waka rokuj (Six Notebooks of Old and New Japanese Poems, tenth century), 59, 61 Kokinsh (or Kokinwakash , Collection of Old and New Japanese Poetry, c. 905):
217
III:135, 52; IV:211, 52; V:283, 55; V:284, 5456, 66; VI:334, 50, 52, 59, 87, 103, 109, 187, 188; IX:406, 73, 74, 81; IX:407, 73, 75; IX:408, 73, 75; IX:409 (see separate entry); IX:410, 74, 80, 85; XIII:621, 53; XIII:671, 53; XVII: 893895, 148; XVII:907, 54; XIX:1003, 45. See also Kokinwakash IX:409, Kokinwakash Kana preface, Kokinwakash Mana preface Kokinwakash IX:409 (Akashi Bay poem), 49, 53, 57, 65, 67, 69, 76, 107, 131, 179, 183; divine origins of, 162164; and notes to Kokinsh preface, 58, 59, 103; and Hitomaro portraits, 109, 160; as incantation or dhran, 145, 158, 160, 169, 170, 180, 181, 191193; as part of travel sequence in Kokinsh, 72, 73, 75, 7981, 85, 146; inclusion in exemplary collections, 59, 8587; later interpretations of, 165, 167169, 185, 186, 188 Kokinwakash Kana Preface (Kanajo ): divine origins of poetry in, 41, 154, 156, 181; inuences on, 38, 41, 159, 167; Manysh canonized in, 62, 63; old interpolated notes to, 48, 49, 57, 58, 72, 88, 103, 109, 161, 188 Kokinwakash kanj kuden (Oral Transmission on the Kokinsh Initiation, mid-Kamakura period-early Muromachi period), 151, 158, 164, 167, 168 Kokinwakash Mana Preface (Manajo ), 42, 45, 47, 57, 60, 107, 113, 139 Kokinwakash mokuroku (Index to the Kokinsh, c. 1113), 76, 77, Kokinwakash Tona jo ch (Tonas Prefatory Notes on the Kokinsh, mid-Kamakura periodearly Muromachi period), 140 Kkitoku (bodhisattva), 9294 Kokon chomonj (Things Old and New Noted and Heard, 1254), 95, 115, 124, 198; V:164, on waka mandala, 94; V:204, on Hitomaro portrait, 104 kokugaku (National Learning), 175, 176; treatment of Hitomaro, 184189 kmon eigu. See eigu
218
index
32; III:426, 31, 32, 33; VI:919, 49; VII:1068, 34; VII:10871089, 34; VII:10921098, 34; VIII:1424, 49; VIII:1454, 76; X:1812, 89; X:1843, 87; X:1981, 87; X:2033, 11; X:2210, 55, 87; XI:2802, 50, 87; XV:35783722, 70; XV:3606, 70; XV:3607, 71; XV:3608, 71; XV:3609, 71; XV:3676, 71; XV:3666, 72; XVII:3969, 9, 36, 48; XVII:3973, 36, 37 Manysh daishki (Record of the Man'ysh in Lieu of My Teacher, 1690), 184, 185, 186 Manysh dmsh (Childs Notes on the Manysh, after 1725), 186 masuraoburi (masculine style), 187 Matsunaga Teitoku (15711653), 176 Matsuo Bash (16441694), 1 Meigetsuki (Record of the Bright Moon, thirteenth century), 118 Mibu no Tadamine (. tenth century), 45 mieku (offerings to portraits), 100, 102, 107. See also eigu Mikohidari house , 117, 133, 134, 163, 164, 195 Minamoto Michichika (11491202), 118 Minamoto no Shitag (911983), 61 Minamoto no Shunrai (Toshiyori) , (c. 1055c. 1129), 91, 97, 112, 113, 119. See also eigu. Minamoto no Tsunenobu (10161097), 113, 135 minkan shink (folk belief ), 189; involving blindness, 192, 193; involving re prevention, 192, 193; involving safety in childbirth, 1, 192 Miyako meisho zue (Pictures of Famous Places in the Capital, 1780), 163 Mommu, Emperor (683707, r. 697707), 11, 42, 45, 82, 83, 84, 106, 151, 164, 165 Motoori Norinaga (17301801), 177, 196 Muj Ichien (12261312), 171 Mumysh(Nameless Notes, 12111216), 130
Konjaku monogatari sh (Collection of Tales of Times Now Past, c. 1120), 8082; XXIV:45, on Ono no Takamuras exile, 81 Korai fteish (Notes on Poetic Styles from Ancient to Modern Times, 1197), 133 kroshinin no uta (poems about dead travellers), 9, 3133, 201 kshiki (praise service), 121, 122, 156, 160. See also Kakinomoto kshiki Ksh, Emperor (475393 B.C.E.), 4 kotodama (word-soul), 172, 181 Kuhon waka. See Waka kuhon Kkai (774835), 79, 100 kusazshi (popular illustrated prose narratives), 177, 178, 184, 202 kygen-kigo (wild words and ornate phrases), 93, 162, 171 Kygoku house , 63, 134, 195 Kygoku Tamekane (12541332), 62, 64 Lu Ji (261303), 25, 26, 37 Many k (Thoughts on the Manysh, 1768), 6, 20, 27, 184, 186, 188 (Notes Many shsuish on Gathered Grain of the Manysh, 16821690), 37 Manysh chshaku (Commentary on Manysh, 1269), 184 Manysh (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, c. 759): II:131134, 1214, 16, 17, 2226, 28; II:135137, 12, 14, 15, 17, 2226; II:138139, 12, 15, 16, 2224, 28; II:140, 12, 16, 2224; II:141142, 28; II:1679, 10; II:1968, 10; II:199201, 165; II:207209, 11, 17, 26, 27; II:210212, 11; II:220222, 2930, 32, 33; II:223, 17, 19, 27, 33, 44, 45, 57, 89; II:224, 18, 22, 27, 32, 33, 89; II:225, 18, 22, 27, 32, 33, 89; II:226, 18, 27, 33, 89;II:227, 18, 19, 27, 89; III:249256, 67; III:254, 67, 68, 70; III:255, 67, 68; III:264, 87; III:303, 68, 70, 72, 77; III:304, 68, 70, 72, 77; III:318, 50, 179; III:415, 31,
index
Munenaga, Prince (b. 1311), 64 Myon (bodhisattva), 145, 146, 163, 170, 192 Nan chhki(Treasured Notes for Men, seventeenth century), 153 Nan Goshish (Difculties with Goshish, 1086), 113 Nara no mikado (Nara emperor), 42, 51, 156, 157, 161, 194 Nashitsubo no gonin (Five Men of the Pear Chamber), 61 Nihon shoki(Chronicles of Japan, 720), 46, 155 Niimanabi(New Learning, 1765), 187 Nij house , 63, 64, 134, 195 Nijgo sanmai shiki (Reading on the Twenty-ve Samdhi, 986), 121 Nirvana sutra , 92, 93, 167 Nisei (Two Sages), 153 Nomori no kagami(Field Watchmans Mirror, thirteenth century), 171 Ogura hyakunin isshu (Ogura Collection of One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, thirteenth century), 50 kagami(Great Mirror, late eleventh century), 82 mi court (667672), 11 Ono no Komachi (. ninth century), 51, 120, 153, 154 Ono no Takamura (802852), 73, 75, 8082 tomo no Ikenushi (. eighth century), 9, 36, 37 tomo no Yakamochi (717?785), 40, 51, 83, 86, 87, 89; as Manysh compiler, 10, 38; and sanshi no mon, 9, 36, 37, 39, 48, 198; in commentaries, 147, 148, 151 Pan Yue (247300), 26, 37 paper-making, 191 persimmon tree (kaki ), 5, 128; as site of Hitomaros appearance, 5, 20, 138140, 178180, 183, 184, 201 poetic deity, 2, 121, 130132, 136, 137, 143, 145, 148, 152, 154156, 159,
219
160, 164, 175, 177, 189, 191, 193, 196199, 201, 202. See also kasen, Nisei, Rokkasen, sage of poetry, Sanjrokkasen, Waka no gosen, Waka sanshin poetic immortal. See kasen pictures of poetic immortals. See kasen-e poetry in Chinese (kanshi ), 39, 110, 111, 113 portraiture, 94, 95, 100, 121, 136, 153, 158, 160, 180; of Bo Juyi, 108, 124; of GoToba, 123; of Hitomaro, 3, 91, 94, 9698, 101110, 115121, 145, 156160, 163, 170, 176, 179, 194, 195, 200, 201; iconography of Hitomaro portrait, 102, 108, 109, 143, 157; of Lian Cheng Wu, 124; Nobuzane and Iwaya types of Hitomaro portrait, 109; origins of Hitomaro portrait, 102; of the Sumiyoshi deity, 94, 157; of Teika, 195, 196, 202; transmission of Hitomaro portrait, 103105, 115. See also tot Tenjin, kasen-e public/private (hare /kei ) distinction, 11, 23, 25, 26, 27, 39, 46; in relation to sekiten, 99 Reigen, Emperor (16541732, r. 16631687), 176, 194196 reijin (shrine entertainers), 6 Reizei house , 64, 134, 195; and kmon eigu, 118; commentaries of, 144, 146, 158, 170 rikugi (six styles or principles of poetry), 41, 106, 107, 159, 167, 168 ritsury system, 5, 45, 110, 136 Rokkasen (Six Poetic Immortals), 38, 86, 152. See also kasen, Sanjrokkasen, Waka no gosen Rokuj house , 104, 105, 115, 117, 118, 121, 122, 129, 130; as hosts of rst Hitomaro eigu, 51, 60, 91, 100, 111, 113, 115, 116, 201; competition with Mikohidari house, 133, 163; Hitomaro as divine ancestor of, 111, 124, 194, 201 Ruij karin(Forest of Classied Poems, seventh to eighth century), 35 sacrices, 99 sage of poetry, 2, 7, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 58, 65, 85, 91, 106, 121, 143, 150,
220
index
Satakebon sanjrokkasen (Satake Text of Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, thirteenth century), 109, 110 sekiten (Ch. shidian, worship ritual for Confucius), 91, 98102, 107, 108, 110, 115, 124, 199 Sengaku (12031272), 184 Sensai (d.1127), 9296 Senzaish(or Senzaiwakash , Collection of Japanese Poetry for a Thousand Years, 1187), 133 Sessen ge (Verse on the Himalayas), 167 Shasekish(Collection of Sand and Pebbles, 1283), 171 Shidian. See sekiten Shihonji. See Kakinomoto temple Shijing(Classic of Poetry, c. 600 B.C.E.), 41, 107, 167 shima (four devils), 165 Shimokbe Chry (16241686), 185, 186 Shinysh (or Shinywakash , Collection of New Leaves of Japanese Poetry, 1381), 64 Shinchokusensh (or Shinchokusenwakash , New Imperially Commissioned Collection of Japanese Poetry, 1235), 133 Shingoshish (or Shingoshiwakash , New Collection of Later Gleanings of Japanese Poetry, 1383), 64 Shinkei (14061475), 171 Shinkokinsh (or Shinkokinwakash , New Collection of Old and New Japanese Poetry, 1205), 3, 50, 63, 128, 133, 179; Hitomaro poems in, 66; role of eigu utaawase in compilation of, 119; VI:675, 50, 179 Shinsen manysh(Newly Selected Manysh, 893), 60 Shinsen seishiroku(Newly Selected Record of Names, 815), 5 Shinsen waka sh(Newly Selected Collection of Poems, c. 934), 59, 86
151, 153, 156, 161, 173; uta no hijiri (sage of poetry), 39, 4749, 51, 62, 89, 107, 198; kasei (sage of poetry), 47, 122, 127; waka no hijiri (sage of Japanese poetry), 47, 48, 107. See also kasen, Nisei, shisen, Waka sanshin Saigy (11181190), 1; as Hitomaro reborn, 150; meeting Hitomaros ghost, 130, 131, 143, 182, 183 Saigy monogatari(Tale of Saigy, late Kamakura period), 131 Sait Mokichi (18831953), 6, 21 san (praise inscription), 9698, 101, 103, 106, 107109 Sanbekotoba(Tales of the Three Treasures, 984), 101 Sandaish (Collections of Three Generations), 63, 112 Sangoki(Thirty-ve Records, c. 13121317), 135, 145, 161, 162, 165 Sangoku denki(Biographies of Three Countries, fteenth century), 130132, 143, 182 Sanjnishi house, 176 Sanjninsen(Selection of Thirty People, c. 1009), 59 Sanjrokkasen (Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals), 40, 86, 95, 109, 153. See also kasen, Rokkasen, Waka no gosen Sanjrokunin kasenden (Biographies of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, c. 1094), 20, 44, 45, 89 Sanjrokuninsen(Selection of Thirty-Six People, 10091012), 40, 44, 59, 153; and kasen-e, 109, 110; Hitomaros canonization in, 8588, 94; spurious Hitomaro poems in, 50, 87, 88, 90 Sanrysh(Notes on Three Streams, 1286), 135, 139, 141143, 146, 164, 185 sanshi no mon (gate of the mountain persimmon), 36, 37, 39, 40, 48, 89, 198 Sasaki Takahiro , 115 Sasamegoto(Murmurings, 1463), 171
index
Shinshokukokinsh(or Shinshokukokinwakash , New Continued Collection of Old and New Japanese Poetry, 1439), 3, 63, 104 Shinshish(Inner Chamber Secret Notes, c. 1012), 59 Shipin(Classication of Poetry, sixth century), 37, 38 Shirakawa, Emperor (10531129, r. 10721086), 103, 104, 112114, 116, 162; and Fujiwara no Akisue, 105, 112; and Hitomaro portrait, 104, 105, 116 Shirin saiy sh(Notes on Leaves Taken from the Forest of Words, 1366), 19, 82 shisen (immortal of Chinese poetry), 47 Shoku nihongi(Continued Chronicles of Japan, 797) 5, 74, 99, 154 Shokugosensh(or Shokugosenwakash , New Later Collection of Japanese Poetry, 1251), 133 Shokukokinsh(or Shokukokinwakash , Continued Collection of Old and New Japanese Poetry, 1265), 133 Shmu, Emperor (701756, r. 724749), 42, 43, 82, 83, 151, 152, 154, 190 Shtetsu monogatari(Tales of Shtetsu, 1450), 156, 157, 188, 189, 190, 195 Shtoku, Prince (574622), 31, 32, 152 shrines, 6, 74; to Hitomaro, 1, 3, 20, 82, 122, 140, 164, 175, 183, 184, 188194, 196, 197, 199, 202; to Benzaiten, 163; to Confucius, 99; at Ise, 94, 95; to the Sumiyoshi deity, 92, 132, 141, 162, 163; to the Tamatsushima deity, 154; to Tenjin, 154, 197, 198; Wanishita shrine, 189 Shish(Notes on Gleanings, pre-1007), 85 Shish(or Shiwakash , Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poetry, 1007), 40, 50, 63, 186, 201; and Sanjrokuninsen, 85, 87, 8890; attribution to Hitomaro of formerly anonymous poems in,
221
56, 57; Hitomaros journey to China described in, 6567, 72, 7480, 84, 85, 185; I:3, 87; I:12, 87; I:18, 88; II:125, 87; VI:219, 56; VI:352, 75; VI:353, 66, 75, 77, 79; VIII:478, 67, 76, 77; XIII:778, 50, 87; XIII:848, 88; XX:1289, 88 Shune (b.1113), 105, 119, 122, 183 Shunrai zuin(Shunrais Poetic Essentials, 11111113), 59 Silla , 70, 72 six styles or principles of poetry. See rikugi Sgi (14211502), 175, 176, 193 smonka (love poems), 11, 12, 17. See also Iwami smonka Snokami district, 4, 129 Sotoorihime (fth century), 120; as a deity of waka, 153155 spirit pacication. See chinkon Sugawara no Michizane (845903), 4, 60, 61, 79, 82, 154, 155, 197, 198, 201; hagiography of, 140, 143. See also Tenman Tenjin Sumiyoshi daimyjin (Sumiyoshi deity), 85, 94, 132, 141, 142144, 146, 149, 153, 154, 156, 157, 159, 163, 182; and Akashi Bay poem, 162, 164; and Gyokuden jinpi, 135, 142, 156; and Kkitoku bodhisattva, 92, 93; as sea deity, 192; Hitomaro as manifestation of, 144, 145148, 152, 153, 155; Narihira as manifestation of, 146148, 153, 155; Emperor Shmu as manifestation of, 152; Prince Shtoku as manifestation of, 152. See also portraiture, shrines, Waka sanshin Susano-o-no-mikoto , 41, 154, 156, 159, 171 Tachibana no Moroe (684757), 83, 84, 147, 148, 151 TaihCode , 99 Tajihi no Mahito , 18, 19, 21, 27, 28, 33 Takahashi no Mushimaro sh (Takahashi no Mushimaro Collection, eighth century), 35 Takatsu (Iwami), 13, 14, 83, 131, 132; as site of Hitomaro shrine, 20, 189191, 194, 196, 197
222
index
Tsuwano domain, 197 Two poems Composed on the Road to the Capital (Lu Ji), 25 Ueda Akinari (17341809), 188 uta haiy (poet-performer), 23, 24, 28 uta monogatari (poetic narrative), 29, 55 utamakura (famous place names), 75 Waka iroha(Coloured Leaves of Poetry, 1198), 154 Waka kanj shidai himitsu sh (Secret Notes on Procedures of the Waka Initiation, Kamakura period), 158 Waka kuden sh (Oral Transmissions on Japanese Poetry, Kamakura period), 153 Waka kuhon (Nine Grades of Japanese Poetry, c. 1009), 59, 86 waka mandala , 91, 9496 Waka mutei sh,(Notes on the Innite Profundity of Japanese Poetry, Kamakura period), 135, 159 Waka no gosen (Five Immortals of Japanese Poetry), 153 Waka sanshin (three deities of Japanese poetry), 153155, 158, 179, 180, 184. See also kasen, Nisei, poetic deity, Rokkasen, sage of poetry, Sanjrokkasen, Waka no gosen waka-dhran theory (the equivalence of Japanese poetry and Buddhist incantations), 2, 127, 160, 168, 170, 171, 172, 173, 181, 193 Wakadokoro (Ofce of Poetry), 118 wakak (poetry readings), 158 Wakamandokoro ipponky kuy hybyaku (Ofce of Poetic Affairs Offering with Sutra Chapters Invocation, 1166), 119 Wakan reish(Collection of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing, c. 1012), 59, 93 Wani clan, 4, 132, 189 Way of Japanese poetry. See kad Wen xuan(Writings Selected, sixth century), 11, 25, 26, 37, 43, 79, 108, 168
Takechi, Prince (654696), 6, 58, 106, 164, 165, 186 Tamatsushima myjin (Tamatsushima deity), 153, 154, 159, 192 Tamekaneky wakash (Lord Tamekanes Notes on Poetry, c. 12851287), 63, 64 Tamesuke Kokinsh ch (Tamesukes Notes on the Kokinsh, fourteenth century), 131 tamuke, (travel offerings), 32, 33, 70, 191; tamuke uta (travel-offering poetry), 70, 191 Tanabe no Sakimaro sh (Tanabe no Sakimaro Collection, eighth century), 35 tanka (short poem), 10, 12, 15, 17, 24, 33, 36, 61 taoyameburi (feminine style), 187 tay (holders of the First to Fifth ranks), 44, 45, 83 Teikin no sh(Exemplary Notes, Kamakura period), 147 Temmu, Emperor (d.686, r. 673686), 5, 11, 34, 82, 138, 141, 144, 164, 165 temples. See Gesshji, Kakinomoto temple Tenman Tenjin , 4, 153, 154; comparison with Hitomaro worship, 197, 198; hagiography, 140; visits China, 79, 109. See also Sugawara no Michizane T no Tsuneyori (14011484), 175, 176, 193 Toda (Iwami), 138, 140, 143, 184, 189 Tokugawa Mitsukuni (16281700), 184, 185 Tokugawa Yoshimune (16841751), 194 toneri (ofcial), 6, 7, 186 Tren (twelfth century), 183 Try kirigami(Memoranda of Our School, n.d.), 150 Toshihito, Prince (15791629), 176 tot Tenjin (Tenjin visiting Tang China), 79; portraits of, 109 Towazugatari (Unrequested Tale, c. 1306), 123, 130
index
Yakushi (buddha), 146, 152 Yamabe no Akahito (. c. 724736), 6, 37, 38, 8689, 120, 155, 167, 179, 187; as sage of poetry, 47, 153; as same person as Hitomaro, 48, 84, 150, 151; in Kokinsh prefaces, 41, 42, 4751, 62, 14 1, 151; origins of, 141, 143, 201. See also Waka sanshin Yamanoue no Okura (660733), 35, 79 Yamato monogatari(Tales of Yamato, 951), 43, 55, 88
223
Yamato Takeru , 28, 80 Yosami no otome . See Hitomaros wife Yoshino (Yamato), 10, 41, 58, 64, 106, 187 Ya (1291?), 19, 82 Zenjgoban utaawase (Former Poetry Contest in Fifteen Rounds, c. 1008), 59 zka (miscellaneous poems), 11, 34
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Hitomaro - Poet As God

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Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 23.

hitomaro and the MANYSH

chapter one The Iwami Poems

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

The poem texts followed are those in Inaoka, Zench, 445463.

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro and the MANYSH

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

chapter two Hitomaro Poems in the Kokinsh

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.35

Arai Arai Arai Arai

and and and and

Kojima, Kojima, Kojima, Kojima,

110. 134. 192. 205.

A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro36

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

Katagiri, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, I:985. Arai and Kojima, 96.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

A certain person said that this was a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

Suzuki, Many ka no densh, 362.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

Nishimiya, Nishimiya, Nishimiya, Nishimiya,

60. 140. 142. 140143.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

Texts of Kokinsh IX:40610 are from Arai and Kojima, 133135.

Takeoka, 936. Katagiri, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, I:138139.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

Katagiri, Kokinwakash zenhyshaku, I:141. Komachiya, Shiwakash, 101.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

Gunsho ruij v. 285: 137139.

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

hitomaro in heian texts: a sage of poetry

Sakurai, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ron, 180181.