I study Japanese
classic literature in the department of Comparative Culture. Japanese classic
literature has Waka. Waka is a 31-syllable Japanese poem. It consists of five units usually with
the following pattern of: 5-7-5-7-7. In the Heian era, Waka reached the peak of its popularity. To compose a 31-syllable
Japanese poem called Waka was one of
the things that the aristocracy had to learn. A man and a woman exchanged it
and told their own feelings to each other because men couldn’t see women
directly. In this era, women were not allowed to see men except her father, her
brothers who didn’t come of age and her husband and talk to them directly. I think Waka
is a most wonderful work of Japanese classic literature. There are two reasons.
First, Waka has characteristics
unlike other poems in the world. Second, we can sympathize with the feeling of
the person who wrote Waka even now.
First, Waka is poem with a fixed form of 5-7-5-7-7.
It consists of 31 characters, so it is called “misohitomoji” too. In many cases, people compose the poems that
nature and love are described in, but the number of the characters of Waka is limited. For this, rhetorics are
frequently used. Kake-kotoba is one
of the rhetorics. Its technique is that it is one same sound and expresses more
than two meanings. Jo-kotoba is also
one of the rhetorics and it leads a word. It reminds readers of a background of
the poem or something. Furthermore, unlike Western literature, Waka is made at public places. This is
the story that I heard from a professor in a certain class. The place is called
Utage and Utaawase. Utage was a
party opened when an emperor held events or went out to do something with the
aristocracy. It seems that the emperor lets the people who attended him write
poems and they enjoy Waka together. Utaawase is a poem contest. The people
are divided into left and right and select one 31-syllable Japanese poem each
other. A judge decides which poem is superior or inferior. The game is repeated
a few times. A group with many poems that won the games is a winner. In this
way, Waka is made in places where
many people compose poems together. In this respect, it is different from the
Western modern literature that an individual describes the inside of the self
in imagination.
Second, we can
sympathize with the feeling of the author when we read Waka even now. I think a sense of beauty in Japan is described in
the poems. Many poems describe flowers and the moon. Both of them change. In a class about Japanese classic
literature, I learned that Japanese people tend to like the things that change
over time rather than the unchangeable things in all ages. In addition, many poems
describe love. After we read the poems about the love, we will understand that
the old people were in love like we modern people.
For the reasons
stated above, Waka is a rare and
beautiful poem. It has the specific forms and characteristics. Moreover we can
feel sympathy because it describes the familiar things for current us. I think
we should learn and know about it more.
542words
Reference
Utaawase.
(n.d). Retrieved June 8, 2014, from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%8C%E5%90%88
Kakekotoba.
(n.d). Retrieved June 8, 2014, from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8E%9B%E8%A9%9E
Jokotoba.
(n.d). Retrieved Jun 8, 2014, from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8E%9B%E8%A9%9E
Waka.
(n.d). Retrieved Jun 8, 2014, from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%92%8C%E6%AD%8C
