{Inter} Cultural Japan

Hyakunin Isshu (”One Hunderd Poets, One Poem Each”) is Japan’s most famous compact anthology of classical poetry. About 800 years ago, Fujiwara Teika, himself an accomplished poet, compiled it in his residence on Mt Ogura, in Arashiyama near Kyoto, by selecting the in his view best waka poems from previous imperial collections.

Thanks to the karuta games played at New Year with the Hyakunin Isshu, the collection has become inseparately associated with the Oshogatsu festivities.

No wonder then that even general magazines pay attention to this work of literature in their New Year edition. The biweekly magazine Serai now features a series of articles under the title “Spending the New Year with the Hyakunin Isshu,” for which renowned literary critic Ooka Makoto has contributed a preface.

In “Understanding the Hyakunin Isshu” the deeper meaning behind this eternal bestseller is sought out. The article also discusses the origins of the collection and the esthetical judgements that formed the basis for Fujiwara Teika’s selection.

A second section contains suggestions for visits to places in Kyoto connected with the anthology. One example is Nisonin Temple, which stands on the spot of Teika’s villa in Sagano, west of Kyoto. While there, also visit the new Shigureden Museum (close to Arashiyama St), which displays the Hyakunin Isshu using interactive digital technology made by Kyoto-company Nintendo - the museum was an initiative of the former Nintendo President, Mr Yamauchi Hiroshi.

The rest of the article delves into the karuta game: how the introduction of playing cards from Portugal in the late 16th c. gave rise to the elegant poem game. If you are unfamiliar with the karuta game, here is the explanation given on the Japanese Text Initiatve Home Page:

There are two sets of 100 cards. On one set the complete five-line poems are printed. On the other set only the last two lines (”shimo-no-ku”) of each poem appear. Usually there are two players or sides. Each player takes 25 of the shimo-no-ku cards and spreads them in front of him or her. A third person, acting as reader, reads from the cards with the whole poems on them. As the reader reads the first lines of a poem, each of the two players tries to find the card with the corresponding final two lines. The first player to find the right shimo-no-ku card removes it from the playing area. If the card is in the opponent’s area, the player gives one of the cards from his or her own area to the opponent. The first player to get rid of all the cards in his or her own area is the winner.

Beautifully decorated karuta sets have become art objects in their own right and can often be found in museums, as the Tekisui Museum in Ashiya. Modern editions are sold in December in bookstores all over Japan; you will also find CD-Rom editions.

[Nisonin Temple, where Fujiwara Teika’s villa once stood. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

If you like to see the karuta game in action, played by practitioners in Heian court dress, visit the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto on January 3, when the “Ceremony of the first karuta play of the year” is held (starting at 13:00).

Serai gives a complete text of the work plus a translation in modern Japanese. You will find the whole classic translated on the Japanese Text Initiative homepage of the library of the University of Virginia. For a better but (still) incomplete translation visit the Japanese Literature Homepage. A definitve study, finally, is Mostow, Joshua, trans., Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image (University of Hawai’i Press, 1996). Besides translations and analysis, this beautiful book also contains Edo-period illustrations of the poem collection.