4
Poetic Forms and Techniques

Ryojin hisho contains three major types of songs: homon uta (literally, songs of Buddhist scriptures; 220 songs), shiku no kamiuta (four-line god songs; 204 songs), and niku no kamiuta (two-line god songs; 121 songs). These divisions seem to be based on differences in musical mode rather than in subject matter, for a large number of songs related to Buddhism appear not only in homon uta but frequently in shiku no kamiuta and even occasionally in niku no kamiuta as well. In addition, song texts are often duplicated in the anthology, either within a single section or in different subsections.^[1] The homon uta probably bore traces of melodic solemnity, as their origins are traced to the Buddhist ceremonial music used in temples. In contrast, both shiku no kamiuta and niku no kamiuta shared the musical characteristics of kagurauta performed at Shinto shrines, which derived from folk songs and so bear a closer affinity to secular music than do homon uta .^[2]

All three song types take distinctly different poetic forms. Homon uta usually consist of a four-line stanza, each line with a 7-5 or 8-5 syllable count.^[3] Shiku no kamiuta are characterized by much looser prosodic structure than homon uta ; although many have a four-line stanza, with each line displaying a 7-5 or 8-5 syllable count (like homon uta ), some deviate from this formula, being irregular in meter and line length. Niku no kamiuta are also distinguished by a variety of formal arrangements: a majority exhibit waka prosody with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count, but a considerable number have far: more lines and an irregular meter.

Homon uta

The name homon uta is believed to have been used for the first time in Ryojin hisho ; it does not appear in any other contemporary sources. The term may have been coined by the compiler of the anthology, Go-

Shirakawa, to distinguish this subgroup of imayo of dominantly Buddhist content from others of secular theme^[4]

The homon uta section is the largest in the extant Ryojin hisho , making up about 40 percent of the total. It shows the highest degree of uniformity, homogeneity, and stability in terms of themes, prosodic structure, and formal arrangement. The entire section is devoted to the single topic of Buddhism, its elaborate organizational design reflecting Go-Shirakawa's careful attention to his material as well as his knowledge of Buddhist thought and doctrines. This concern may have resulted from Go-Shirakawa's assertion in Kudenshu that these songs reflected the sacred scripture itself and for that reason alone deserved meticulous handling.^[5]

The homon uta are divided into carefully defined categories based on the conceptual framework of the "three baskets" or "Three Treasures" of Buddhism—the Buddha, the Dharma (or the Law), and the Sangha (com-munity of Buddhist priests). This tripartite division serves not only as a formal classificatory scheme but also as a reminder of the basic articles of belief in Buddhism. An additional and final division in the section, called zo (miscellaneous), represents an amalgam of the elements found in the preceding sections plus a few strains of personal lyricism.

The sutra section of the homon uta is the largest, comprising 125 songs (56.8 percent of the entire section). The songs are further arranged according to the "Five Periods" of the Buddha's teachings following his enlightenment, a chronology devised by Chih-i (538-97), the founder of the Chinese T'ien-t'ai school of Buddhism (the Tendai sect in Japan). The corresponding five categories of sutras are known as Hua yen (Kegon in Japanese), Lu yüan (Rokuen or Agon), Fang teng (Hodo), Po-jo (Hannya), and Fa hua Nieh-p'an (Hokke-nehan). A majority (114, or 91.2 percent) of the sutra songs in the homon uta section are related to the Lotus Sutra, which the Tendai sect especially emphasizes; this fact clearly reflects Em-peror Go-Shirakawa's own religious leaning toward Tendai.

The order of arrangement of homon uta in Ryojin hisho is closely parallel to that of the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra, rendering the homon uta section almost a Lotus Sutra in miniature. The following three songs, which appropriate some of the best-known parables of the Lotus Sutra, illustrate this feature:

Homon uta versification is considered to have grown out of the Buddhist hymns, especially from wasan (Buddhist hymns written in Japanese), which were used in temple services or lecture meetings.^[9] Wasan were based on kansan (Buddhist hymns written in Chinese), which in turn derived from bonsan (hymns written in Sanskrit).^[10] These were songs praising the Buddha, his major disciples, bodhisattvas, and illustrious priests, as well as interpretations of doctrinal points.

Kansan came to Japan along with Buddhism and were soon being imitated by Japanese Buddhists. Later, a Japanese genre of kansan emerged, including a work, "Shiho gokuraku san" (Praise of the Western Paradise), written by Prince Tomohira (964-1009), the seventh son of Emperor Murakami (r. 946-76).^[11] Others who composed in this genre included such members of the Kangaku-e as Yoshishige Yasutane, Oe no Yukitoki, Oe no Masahira, and Ki no Tadana. In the long run, however, the kansan form was felt to be too rigid and abstruse to be understood clearly by the general public; as a foreign linguistic medium, it was simply inadequate to express indigenous thoughts and emotions.^[12] The wasan form likely arose as an attempt to overcome such drawbacks.

The development of wasan coincided with the emergence of a national literature, represented by the waka revival in the mid-Heian period. At first, wasan creation was centered among mid-Heian Buddhist leaders, especially those scholarly monks of the Tendai school on Mount Hiei.^[13]Wasan were on the themes of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the "Three Treasures of Buddhism," and were sung in front of the Buddhas.^[14] The earliest known wasan , "Honkakusan" (Praise of the Original Awakening of the Buddha), is attributed to the priest Ryogen (Jie Daishi, 912-

85).^[15] This work was followed by such wasan classics as "Gokurakukoku mida wasan" (Praise of the Amida in Paradise), by Senkan (918-83), and "Tendai Daishi wasan" (Praise of the Great Tendai Priest [i.e., Chih-i]), "Raigo wasan" (Praise of the Amida's Welcome of His Believers into His Paradise), and "Gokuraku rokuji san" (Praise of the Sixth Hour in Paradise), all written by the abbot Genshin.^[16]

Basically, a wasan consists of lines with a syllable count of 7-5, and some of the early wasan are rather lengthy. "Tendai Daishi wasan," for example, is 230 lines long, while "Gokuraku rokuji san" is epic in scale, having 878 lines.^[17] Certain parts of a wasan , however, consisted of semantically complete units of four lines, inherently allowing independent four-line stanzas to be formed. It is believed that such fragmentation gave rise to the four-line homon uta form, especially when the units were suitable for chanting.^[18]

Some homon uta in Ryojin hisho , in fact, are direct extracts from longer wasan works. For instance, no. 224, on the priest Chih-i, is taken from Genshin's "Tendai Daishi wasan," while nos. 43 and 227 are based on his "Gokuraku rokuji san."^[19] Similarly, nos. 172 and 174, each consisting of four lines, are extracted from "Shari wasan" (Praise of Buddha's Relics) by Yokan (Eikan, 1032-1111);^[20] no. 18 derives from "Kuya wasan" (Kuya's Praise) attributed to Kuya Shonin (903-72), an early Pure Land proselytizer among the common people; and no. 30 has its origin in "Gokurakukoku mida wasan."^[21] The following song is a specimen of such direct quotes:

Compared with wasan, homon uta have greater flexibility in lexical choice, syntactic arrangement, and mode of delivery. Despite efforts to make wasan a more tractable mode than kansan , it still bore the imprint of its predecessor, especially in a rigidity that came from forcing Chinese verses to fit into the native 7-5 or 8-5 prosody.^[23] With homon uta , Japanese poets overcame many of the barriers between the two languages by more skillfully mingling Buddhist terms (couched in Chinese loan-words) with indigenous diction, phrasing, rhetorical devices, and syntactic structuring.

Although not completely free of the constraints inherited from wasan , the homon uta form was thus better able to reduce cumbersome generic constraints, thereby achieving a softer tone. With homon uta , in other words, a closer approximation to the vernacular could be effected, and the foreign linguistic medium thus achieved a sort of naturalization. In the end, it represents an intermediate poetic form between formalistic temple ritual songs (kungata, kyoke , or wasan ) and subjective or lyrical waka on Buddhist themes (shakkyoka ), which is for personal use, not to be sung in front of the Buddha in the temple.^[24] Herein rest the characteristics of the homon uta as a poetic form.

Shiku no kamiuta

The shiku no kamiuta section of Ryojin hisho differs markedly from the homon uta in terms of organization, formal characteristics, and poetic technique. In place of the exacting categorical divisions of homon uta , only six general nominal groupings differentiate the shiku no kamiuta: jinbun (Shinto-Buddhist syncretic ceremony, 35 songs); butsu (the Buddhas, 11), kyo (the sutras, 7), so (the Sangha, 12), reigensho uta (songs on miraculous sites, 9), and zo (miscellaneous, 130). Each verse, moreover, has much looser and freer prosody than is the case with homon uta . As regards subject matter, in contrast to the preoccupation with Buddhist metaphysics in the homon uta and the accompanying foreign exoticism, the shiku no kamiuta focus largely on aspects of mundane Japanese life.

In general, but by no means invariably, shiku no kamiuta consist of a four-line stanza (as their name suggests) with a syllable count of 8-5 or 7-5. Thirty-two of the total 204 shiku no kamiuta (15.7 percent), however, depart from the four-line format, usually with an increase in line number. For instance, no. 314, the longest song of this genre in Ryojin hisho , has fourteen lines, while no. 257 is a mere three lines long. In addition, almost half the total shiku no kamiuta lines deviate from the 7-5 or 8-5 syllabic scheme; this subgenre, in other words, is somewhat loose in terms of prosody. These facts led to speculation that shiku no kamiuta were born of the contact between the relatively regulated four-line homon uta form and the much looser form of folk songs.^[25]

Shiku no kamiuta frequently include exclamatory particles such as ya, yo , or na , orchestra words (hayashikotoba ) such as ya , and repeated words or phrases; occasionally onomatopoeia make an appearance as well. The following song about the mystic power of shamans is one instance in which most of these elements are present, resulting in a striking rhythmic quality:

The most noted technique in shiku no kamiuta is known as mono zukushi (cataloging device). More than eighty Ryojin hisho songs can be counted in this category, some seventy of which are shiku no kamiuta Four basic syntactic forms characterize the cataloging songs: (1) a line with adjectival + mono + wa ; (2) the same structure, but without wa ; (3) a line with an adjectival (or no ) or adverbial + nominal excluding mono (it could also be rentai kei , attributive form of verbs or adjectives) + wa ; and (4) the same structure, but without wa .

Regardless of differences in the syntactic arrangement, the first line is critical because it sets the topic and mood for each verse. It specifies what the song is about, raising curiosity and expectations. Subsequent lines are usually a straight inventory of objects related to that topic. Although no specific rules govern the number of lines in a song, on the whole mono-zukushi songs take a four-line stanza form.

The following are examples for each of the four categories:

Within the cataloging songs, the michiyuki (road travel) type, signaled by the phrase e mairu michi ("the road to pilgrimage") or jusho wa doko doko zo ("where, oh where, is the residence") and usually used for listing sacred pilgrimage sites, forms a subgroup with formulaic overtones. For instance, the following song on the major leaders of Heian Buddhism makes use of this list-making technique:

In one sweeping stroke, the song names the Buddhist giants of the age and their institutional affiliations, showing respect by honoring them with their posthumous official titles. A who's who of the pillars of Japanese Buddhism, this list would have provided an effective mnemonic device for learning these important facts.

The technique of making poetic lists is by no means a novel invention. A prototype already appeared in two Kojiki poems, one in michiyuki form (no. 58), the other as a simple enumeration (no. 100).^[29] Nihonshoki (Chronicle of Japan, 720) contains one michiyuki-type poem (no. 94),^[30] while four michiyuki in choka (long poems) can be found in book 13 of Man'yoshu (nos. 3230, 3236, 3237, and 3240). The tradition was continued by Heian-period saibara ,^[31] and by the prose monument in catalog making, the Makura no soshi of Sei Shonagon. The large number of catalog songs in Ryojin hisho and the variety of techniques that they display may qualify the anthology as the veritable poetic counterpart of Makura no soshi .

Niku no kamiuta

The niku no kamiuta section contains the smallest number of songs in Ryojin hisho —only 121—and yet it represents a fascinating study in contrasts in terms of structure and form.

First, we find an elaborately broken-down subsection of jinja uta (shrine songs), with sixteen subheadings for only sixty-one songs, sandwiched between two untitled subsections comprising sixty songs in all. Second, while the jinja uta are adopted largely from waka poems with verified authorship, the songs in the two untitled subsections are entirely anonymous. Third, the name niku no kamiuta , generally translated as "two-line god songs;' is itself open to interpretation. Niku may refer to a poem of two lines; more likely, though, the reference is to songs constructed like a waka poem, in which a third line (of five) serves as a caesura, breaking the whole into two "parts."^[32] In fact, the majority of niku no kamiuta , mostly in the jinja uta section, fit this latter formal category. The following song demonstrates this feature well, with uchitataki serving as a caesura:

The niku no kamiuta , in fact, include too many exceptions to be called simply "two-line" songs. The following untitled song is an extreme case, comprising seven lines of irregular prosodic scheme:

The diversity of forms in niku no kamiuta led to a theory that niku referred neither to the prosody nor to the length of the verse, but to the songs' musical style.^[35] This hypothesis further promoted the idea that niku no kamiuta were products of the interaction between folk songs, unbound by formal restrictions, and court kagurauta , with their prescribed prosody.^[36] This would parallel the development of shiku no kamiuta , which apparently arose from the interaction of folk songs and the prosodically regulated Buddhist ritual repertoire.^[37]

Jinja Uta

The jinja uta section, as we have mentioned, is divided into sixteen parts, each of which is named for a specific shrine. Generally speaking, the Shinto shrines are grouped according to an official classification called nijuni sha , or "Twenty-two Shrines," which extends from the Ise Imperial Shrine at the top to the Kibune Shrine at the bottom. These were the most prestigious shrines in Japan, and from the mid-Heian period they had gained considerable power and influence as recipients of court support and patronage.^[38] Out of these twenty-two, twelve are selected as headings for the jinja uta : Iwashimizu, Kamo, Matsuno-o, Hirano, Inari, Kasuga, Oharano, Sumiyoshi, Hiyoshi, Yoshida, Kibune, and Hirota. The four non-

nijuni sha are Kumano, Itsukushima, Amatsuyuwake, and Konoshima.^[39] The number of songs about each of these shrines varies widely, and does not necessarily reflect the official importance of the shrines. For instance, only six songs are devoted to the prestigious Iwashimizu Shrine, second in rank only to Ise, while the lower-ranking Inari and Kasuga shrines are granted ten songs each. Furthermore, eleven songs—the largest number devoted to any one shrine concern the middle-ranking Sumiyoshi Shrine.^[40]

The most important sources for the jinja uta lyrics in Ryojin hisho are two imperial anthologies, Shuishu (Collection of Gleanings, ca. 1005-11) and Goshuishu (Later Collection of Gleanings, 1086; the third and fourth imperial waka anthologies, respectively), with eleven poems adopted from each. In addition, two poems come from Kokinshu (the first imperial anthology), along with one each from Gosenshu (Later Collection, 951; the second) and Shikashu (the sixth). The sections in these anthologies that proved most fruitful for the provision of jinja uta lyrics were those entitled “Praise" or “Shinto." Privately compiled waka anthologies were mined for material as well: Kyuan hyakushu provided seven poems; Kokin(waka)rokujo (Six Quires of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry, ca. 987) and Kaya no in shichiban utaawase (Seventy Rounds of Poetry Matches at Kaya no In) supplied five each; and Horikawa-in hyakushu-waka (One Hundred Poems for Emperor Horikawa, 1105) and Tsurayukishu (Collection of Tsurayuki's Poems, date unknown) contributed one each.^[41] The fact that Kyuan hyakushu , a work personally commissioned by Emperor Sutoku, occupies a conspicuous place in the jinja uta section may reflect the same kind of concern as was shown in the compilation of Senzaishu (see chapter 2). In any case, it is evident that the jinja uta lyrics are rooted firmly in the elite waka poetic tradition. The following song, taken from Goshuishu , poem no. 1062, composed by Emperor Go-Sanjo (1034-73), speaks clearly for such aristocratic origin:

One distinctive feature of jinja uta is that every poem mentions either the name of the shrine under which it is grouped or some clearly associated landmark. This lack of ambiguity ensures for the jinja uta section a certain exactness and uniformity. For instance:

Many songs in the jinja uta section originated as written waka poems but were later put to music for imayo vocal performance. Most of the other songs in Ryojin hisho , by contrast, were intended for oral performance from the very start. Thus we come full circle as these poems, which originally existed in written form, were now set on paper again but in a very different context: that of imayo textual transmission.

Untitled Niku No Kamiuta

The untitled niku no kamiuta , which appear before and after the jinja uta in two parts, consist of forty-nine songs and eleven songs, respectively, with the latter section bringing Ryojin hisho to a close. This second group of untitled niku no kamiuta is in fact believed to be a later addition.^[44] For the sake of convenience, we will call the songs in the untitled parts simply niku no kamiuta , in contradistinction to the jinja uta .

In terms of form and prosody, the niku no kamiuta are a mixture of regular tanka and irregular syllabic schemes and line lengths. As in shiku no kamiuta , orchestra words, onomatopoeia, and repetition, the trade-marks of folk songs, are frequently found in niku no kamiuta . For example:

The technique of repetition is fully exploited here: the negative imperative, “na ... so; ‘ is used twice, while chiri (from chiru , to fall) is repeated three times, producing a strong rhythmic resonance. Such a device renders the message of the song compelling—whether it is a wish for long life for an aging mother (haha , couched in hahasoba , oak leaves) or a plea for changeless love.^[45]

The use of onomatopoeia is exemplified by the following song, dra-

matizing the pain of lost love, where cho to and tei to aptly convey cracking and jarring noises:

Niku no kamiuta also often employ kakekotoba, engo , or joshi (preface) to give multiple levels of meaning, a fact that sets this particular subsection apart from the other sections of Ryojin hisho . As the following song on jilted love illustrates, the use of these classical waka techniques expands and enriches the content of the poem beyond its literal signification:

This song consists of a series of puns or plays on homonyms involving the words azumaya (a bower, or a house in the east), tsuma (eaves, or a wife), and mune (a ridge, or breast). First there is a wordplay between azumaya and its engo, tsuma , which also functions as a kakekotoba , producing two layers of meaning: "bower with eaves" and "a wife in the eastern house." Next enters another wordplay between tsuma and mune , which is another engo for azumaya and also a kakekotoba , to further stretch the meaning of the poem to something like "the breast of a wife in a ridged eastern house."^[47] This kind of complex wordplay in niku no kamiuta , though infrequent, provides the imayo genre with rare but close poetic parallels with waka .

As we have seen, the motley nature of Ryojin hisho as an anthology stems in part from the prosodic, rhetorical, and formal diversity displayed in the song lyrics. Even the arrangement and organization of the subsections contribute to the multifariousness of the collection as a whole. It is

important to observe, however, that these devices accommodate the con-tent and themes they embody and are governed by certain philosophical, religious, and poetic principles; they are not, in short, haphazardly assembled. The songs with religious orientation, such as the Buddhist homon uta and the Shinto jinja uta , tend to be carefully regulated, while some of the folk song-like shiku no kamiuta and niku no kamiuta are largely allowed to deviate from tight formal control. This concord of the techniques and formal characteristics of the Ryojin hisho songs will become more apparent in the following chapters, where we will explore the songs from a thematic point of view.