Wit and Humor
The wit and humor of many Ryojin hisho songs are truly a delight. Concentrated mostly in the shiku no kamiuta , such songs involve various wordplays, compact aphorisms, and, sometimes, sharp comments on how the world works. Structurally, most of the songs take the catalog format and function as revealing guides to what their authors found pleasing, exciting, ridiculous, or surprising.
The objects of these observations, however, are not those usually found in waka ; instead we encounter ordinary and comparatively drab images drawn from the everyday world of commoners. Ryojin hisho poets, in fact, seemed to shun refined or elegant images; they found the common-place uncommon, the ordinary extraordinary, and the seemingly meaningless full of meaning. This break from waka practice reveals an important aspect of the Ryojin hisho poets' attitude toward life: they could find joy and beauty even in the smallest things in nature and in the most insignificant facets of human activity. The alert sense of perception, im-mediacy, and flair for waggishness that these songs demonstrate gives credence to the description of the anthology as a Heian depository of commoners' exercises in witticism, ingenuity, and poetic sensibility.
The delight in finding little equivalences in people's immediate living environment is characteristic of these songs. The poet (re)discovers for us the possibilities of things we would likely overlook as interesting objects of poetic perception:
RH 435 | ||
sugunaru mono wa tada | Straight things are simply: | |
karasao ya nodake | flails, yes, bamboo arrows, | |
kanna no shi moji | the letter shi in kana , | |
kotoshi haetaru mumezuhae | thin plum branches newly grown, | |
hatahoko saitoridake to ka ya | flag-decked halberds, birdcatching bamboo poles, and so on | |
In pointing to the shi letter as something straight—an ingenious perception—and comparing it to more tangible items, the wit of the poet flashes.
The next two companion songs also reveal an elevated pleasure in
ordinary things. This time, the scope moves beyond nature to take in the human realm:
RH 330 | ||
yokuyoku medetaku mau mono wa | Things that dance superbly well: | |
konagi konaraha kuruma no doto ka ya | shrine-maidens, oak leaves, cart axles, and so on | |
yachikuma hikimai tekugutsu | spinning tops, acrobats, puppets; | |
hana no sono ni wa cho kotori | and in the blooming garden, butterflies whirl with tiny birds. | |
RH 331 | ||
okashiku mau mono wa | Eye-catching dancers are: | |
konagi konaraha kuruma no do to ka ya | shrine-maidens, oak leaves, cart axles, and so on | |
byodoin naru mizuguruma | the water wheel at Byodoin; | |
hayaseba maiizuru ibojiri katatsuburi | and when they feel the beat and dance, the praying mantis and the snail.[36] | |
These songs are refreshing precisely because of the unexpected yoking of human elements to a list of objects of slim significance. Notice, incidentally, the continuing interest in miko and other performing artists, a sign of their importance to commoners' diversion and entertainment.
The same technique of juxtaposing human and natural elements is used to explore a more poetically inclined topic:
RH 333 | ||
kokoro no sumu mono wa | Things that cool the heart: | |
kasumi hanazono yowa no tsuki | mist, flower gardens, the midnight moon, | |
aki no nobe | the fields of autumn, | |
joge mo wakanu wa koi no michi | love that knows no class distinction, | |
iwama o morikuru taki no mizu | the waterfall escaping through the rocks. | |
The abrupt and unexpected introduction of human love in the midst of the list of natural images suspends the smooth flow of association and offers a new context and way of looking at the power of such unconventional love—as something arresting, refreshing, and free.
Another song achieves a similar jolting poetic effect by inserting a
human element amid a list of things all natural. Here, the unexpected reference to courtesans brings such women into sharp relief as the focal point of the song, thus delivering a surprising twist. Indeed, the skill with which this is accomplished suggests that the cataloging technique required considerable imagination and went far beyond a simple mechanical enumeration of similar images and thoughts:
RH 334 | ||
tsune ni koisuru wa | Always in love: | |
sora ni wa tanabata yobaiboshi | in the sky, the Weaver Maiden and shooting stars; | |
nobe ni wa yamadori aki wa shika | pheasants in the fields, the autumn deer; | |
nagare no kyudachi fuyu wa oshi | women of the floating world; in wintertime, mandarin ducks.[37] | |
As we have seen, some catalog songs begin with a harmless list of things, and only toward the end—usually in the last line—does one realize that the song is not an innocuous compendium after all, but a vehicle of curt messages. In this way folk wit, wisdom, and sometimes satire come in to teach—and outsmart—the audience, whose mental reaction to the punch lines approaches "sudden enlightenment." The following famous example capitalizes on the technique, in conjunction with wordplay based on homonyms:
RH 382 | ||
fushi no yogaru wa | Funny knotty things: | |
ki no fushi kaya no fushi | tree knobs, the joints of reeds, | |
wasabi no tade no fushi | horseradish lumps, and smart weeds; | |
mine ni wa yamabushi | hermits sleeping in the mountains, | |
tani ni wa ka no ko fushi | fawns nestled in the valleys, | |
okina no binjo marienu hitori fushi | the naughty old man lying alone without a pretty woman of his own. | |
The song is built on puns on the word fushi (knot or knob), as set forth in the first line. By the end of the third line, however, fushi is no longer a noun, but a form of the verb fusu (to lie down); it is in fact linked to the word yarnabushi (yama + fushi ), which literally means "those who lie down on the mountains." This image of rugged yamabushi on the mountain is then contrasted with the gentler image of fawns resting (fusu ) in
the valley. Yet the most striking turn of the song comes in the last line, where an old man, having failed to win the favor of a young woman, lies in bed alone. His "lying down" (fushi ) is neither spiritual, like that of the yarnabushi , nor natural, like that of the fawns. Thus the song ridicules an old man who has passed his season but is still preoccupied with things of the flesh.
Sharp observation of the disparities, contradictions, and absurdities of human life is apparent in the next example. In its forcefulhess and directness, this song is perhaps the most striking of its kind:
RH 384 | ||
shaba ni yuyushiku nikuki mono | This world's most disgusting things: | |
hoshi no aseru agari uma ni norite | a monk on horseback, the restless horse | |
kaze fukeba kuchi akite | rearing in the wind, mouth open wide; | |
kashira shirokaru okinadomo no wakame gonomi | old greybeards hot for young girls; | |
shutome no amagimi no mononetami | a jealous mother-in-law, mama nun. | |
The characters in the song are far from exemplary, though they ought to be. For that reason, they are here the objects of caricature, with revulsion at their lack of self-knowledge the main theme. Like the preceding song, this one condemns old men with inordinate sexual desires, probably revealing the female singers' loathing detestation of old age.[38]
The time-honored theme of waka , autumn, also receives poetic attention in the following shiku no kamiuta :
RH 332 | ||
kokoro no sumu mono wa | Things that cool the heart: | |
aki wa yamada no io goto ni | clappers to frighten the deer in autumn, | |
shika odorokasucho hita no koe | sounding from every mountain watchman's hut; | |
koromo shide utsu tsuchi no oto | the sound of fulling blocks beating cloth. | |
The clappers and fulling blocks were well-established waka images evoking autumnal melancholy. The clappers were mentioned in Man'yoshu ,[39] but their first use in this specific sense is found in Goshuishu , poem no. 369. Since then, along with deer and insects, they have been staple symbols for
the sad mood of autumn. The sound of the fulling block was first used by Ki no Tsurayuki in a poem (no. 187) included in the autumn section of Shuishu , and thereafter became almost synonymous with both autumn and the longing felt for a loved one away from home.[40] In the present song, however, these images, set as they are in the commoner's working life, have a different aesthetic effect, conveying something close to the existential loneliness that seems to pervade all sentient beings.
Several songs in Ryojin hisho display a refined sense of beauty equal to that of any waka , with the larger poetic space provided by the shiku no kamiuta form giving more room for imagination. For example:
RH 373 | ||
kaze ni nabiku mono | Things that sway in the breeze: | |
matsu no kozue no takaki eda | high pine branches, | |
take no kozue to ka | and topmost bamboo leaves; | |
umi ni ho kakete hashiru fune | ships running on the seas with sails raised high; | |
sora ni wa ukigumo | in the sky, the drifting clouds; | |
nobe ni wa hanasusuki | in the fields, spiked pampas grass. | |
The most radical departure from the decorum of waka and an outstanding example of folk humor is found in the following shiku no kamiuta about lice. Not only the images but also the verbs used indicate a playful mind at work:
RH 410 | ||
kobe ni asobu wa kashira-jirami | On my head the head-lice frolic, | |
onaji no kubo o zo kimete kuu | then snack on the nape of my neck; | |
kushi no ha yori amakudaru | but the comb's tooth drags them down to earth; | |
ogoke no futa nite mei owaru | on the clothes chest's lid, a tragic death. | |
Usually, amakudaru refers to the descent of the heavenly kami to earth, as in the well-known case of Ninigi no Mikoto, the grandson of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, reported in Kojiki .[41] And the phrase mei owaru (a partial Japanese reading of myoju ) is often used in the Buddhist sutras to allude to the death of an illustrious personage.[42] The humor comes from the use of these lofty verbs to describe such lowly creatures as lice.
On the whole, the wit found in Ryojin hisho relies on comparatively down-to-earth perceptions, whether these involve natural phenomena,
fellow human beings, or society as a whole. What is operative in this exercise is an analytical power avidly engaged in sorting out, distinguishing, or comparing objects close at hand. It then classifies and puts them in order, usually in catalog form. This technique, perfected by Sei Shonagon in Makura no soshi to preserve her perceptions, found a poetic heir in Ryojin hisho .