Initiation of Waka poet

1. We search secret initiation of 'Waka' poem called 'Kokin-denjyu'.
   ('Waka' was a famous poem express poetic minds of Japanese.)
2. At 'Waka literature museum' we found the answer.
3. 'Kokin-denjyu' was connected to 'Kokin-wakasyu'.

What is the most famous literature in Japanese history? 'The Tale of Gengi' may be famous worldwide, so 'tales' are one of the candidates. However, it would be 'Waka' or Japanese poem when we chose the best. Then, what is 'Waka'?

It would be difficult even for Japanese people to define 'Waka'. It is a short poem, and original in Japan, if we would add one thing, it is especially different from poems from China. This poem is made of two characters, which are 'Hiragana' or character of Japanese origin and 'Kanji' or character arrived from China. This style is one of the special features of 'Waka'. 

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And also, we want to mention our destination. The reason we visited the northern area of Gujyo-hachiman city is the 'Tou' clan who had their ruled place here. And, 'Tou' clan was deeply connected with 'Waka' poems.

site of 'Tou' clan's residence

They moved to this place according to the order of the Kamakura shogunate around 8 hundreds years ago. And their political power became weak in the following years, the Muromachi period and the Sengoku period. They surrendered their ruled area to the 'Endo' clan who was originally the same family. Around the years the Sekigahara war had happened, the 'Endo' clan also lost their ruled area, and a few years later, they recovered it. So, we couldn't understand the relationship between such the Sengoku warriors and 'Waka' poems.

Waka literature museum

We visited 'Waka literature museum' which was built where once the 'Tou' clan's residence had located in an ancient time. If there had been no relationship, this museum was built at the other location. So, there must be connection between the 'Tou' clan and 'Waka' poems. We want to investigate this mystery this time.  

The key word for the mystery is 'Kokin-denjyu'. This word had a secret extra power. As for this power we will mention in the later half. We will start with the main subject.


'Kokin-wakasyu' 
(one of very famous collections of 'Waka' poetty)

Before we mention the mystery of 'Kokin-denjyu', we have to explain the anthology of poetry called 'Kokin-wakasyu'. The 'Kokin-wakasyu' was made one thousand and one hundred years ago. And it was ordered by an emperor at that time for the first time in Japanese history. So, this project to produce the anthology of 'Waka' poems was the first attempt by the imperial direction.

At that time, Japanese people officially used 'Chinese writings' and they considered newly made words, 'Japanese writings' was inferior. However, when they expressed their inner feelings, 'Chinese writings' couldn't work how they wanted to. So, using 'Japanese writings' in this anthology of poetry was an epoch-making attempt. When it was made, Japanese people were struggling to create the new way to express their inner feelings. The fact it was ordered by an emperor was also the epoch-making incident.

By the way, what kind of poems was gathered in this anthology? You might not believe it, but, the theme of poems was 'love'. For Japanese people at that time, the most important theme was 'love'. They used the metaphor flowers, birds, and more to express their inner love. And for the creators and readers, it's difficult to understand poems which were written by 'Chinese writings'. It's a little embarrassing to write on this 'Blog', but, it was the real story of the ancient Japanese literature. 

We supposed 'Kokin-wakasyu' was a poetry which had been edited by broad-minded ancient Japanese. So, there was no relationship between this poetry and the world of 'Struggle for power'. However, we found a new understanding which insisted this poetry was not only a collection of 1100 love songs but also records of political situations. According to a research, series of a typical 'Waka' plus before or following several 'Waka' have an intentional meaning. In these series, center 'Waka' was written by famous people who had a hard time in their political situations. And, if we carefully read these 'Waka', we can find these people's severe situations or their thoughts at the famous incidents.    

For example, a poem of a prince who lost a successor race to the next emperor was posted. If you read this poem and in front and behind poems very carefully, you can find the sympathy of editors. You can also find another example which was a poem by a former emperor. He was forced to retire and tried to restore his position by a civil war with his collaborators. From the sequence sandwiching his poem, his sad feeling and also sympathy of editors was hidden between these poems.  


'Kokin-denjyu'

Then, go back to the 'Kokin-denjyu' story. The most flourished period of the 'Waka' literature was the very beginning of it, namely the era 'Kokin-wakasyu' was made. 

Putting it the other way around, after the completion of the 'Kokin-wakasyu', 'Waka' literature degenerated in a slow speed. In each period, it didn't flourish like that day. However, for especially noblemen, they got strong impact for the 'Waka' poetry. Information about creating 'Waka' poems became a standard knowledge for noblemen after the appearance of this great work. Furthermore, this importance was not changed even though the rulers of Japan changed from noblemen to samurai. Creating 'Waka' poems continued to be a standard knowledge.
      

'Kokin-denjyu' was the kind of teaching of this original literature. When 'Kokin-denjyu' system was born, everything was changed tremendously from the things written by ancient great poets. If some people had a high-level ability to creat 'Waka' poems, they would feel it difficult to understand the value of 'Kokin-wakasyu' poems. For example, the way to appreciate nature, experience, and meanings of words. So, system specialists of reading 'Kokin-wakasyu' taught meanings was born.

This teaching was succeeded limited person as secret. And, the 'Tou' clan drew attention, because they were good at creating 'Waka' poems for generations. They learned the secret ideas of 'Kokin-wakasyu' from a noble family famous for creating 'Waka' poems. It was around 550 years ago when the 'Tou' clan became famous as a successor of 'Kokin-denjyu'.

Tou Tsuneyori who lived these days was the most famous poet among his clan. He was samurai, so the era he lived, many samurai fought each other in the battle fields, but he didn't have any episode as a warrior. Furthermore, he had several famous episodes of 'Kokin-denjyu'. 


Power of 'Kokin-denjyu'

We want to mention one famous episode of 'Kokin-denjyu'. When the famous battle named the 'Sekigahara-no-tatakai' war was happened, some Hosokawa's castle was surrounded by the enemy. And, he had only 300 people and his opposite had 30 of times soldiers for the siege. It was obvious he would be defeated and killed soon. Soon after the news was brought to the noblemen's society in Kyoto, they begged his life and he was released. Because he was a famous 'Kokin-denjyu' master at that time. If he died, no one could succeed the 'Kokin-denjyu' secret, noblemen were afraid at the fact and they tried to beg his life. It was quite remarkable incident at that time. So, 'Kokin-denjyu' was more important than wars. 

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This area where ’Tou' clan's residence had been located was developed as a theme park named 'Kokin-denjyuno-sato' recently. Comfortable lodges are there. Which are restaurant, learning space and resting area.   

A restaurant in the theme park

A learning space

Inside of learning space

You will enjoy silence