The Pursuit of Harmony

Poetry and Power in Early Heian Japan

Gustav Heldt

• Publisher: Cornell East Asia Series
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781933947396, 9781933947099
• eBook ISBN: 9781942242390
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Poetry
• Index: Literature

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

Table of contents

• i Half-Title Page
• iii Title Page
• iv Copyright Page
• v Dedication Page
• vii Contents
• ix Abbreviations
• xi A Note to the Reader
• xv Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter1 Heian Histories of Poetic Harmony
• Chapter2 Household Harmony in Uda's Poetry Matches
• Chapter3 Compiling Community in the Kokinshu
• Chapter4 Writing Yamato Verse in the Kana Preface
• Chapter5 Screen Poetry and Reflections of Power
• Epilogue
• Appendixes
• Notes
• Glossary
• Works Cited
• Index
• Cornell East Asia Series