Session 17: Shin-Kokinshū, including a discussion of ushin and yōen

Topics

❖ Shin-Kokinshū
◊ poetic technique: honkadori (本歌取り, "borrowing from a former poem")
◊ aesthetic term: ushin (有心)
❖ aesthetic term: yōen (妖艶)

Thoughts—read before class, revisit for tests

For various reasons, the midterm which would usually be on this day has been moved to the following session. The material presented this day will not be on Midterm 02, but will be on Midterm 03.

This session introduces the Kamakura period Shin-Kokinshū more fully. We have read from it earlier, when considering examples of lyricism across various premodern centuries. In that introduction, besides the basics, I will discuss one of the literary techniques for which it is particularly well-known: honkadori. I will then present two ideas developed in poetics, ushin and yōen, which are important to the Shin-Kokinshū and subsequent artistic expressions.

Required—to be completed for today's session

✓ Read in full the Shin-Kokin Reader and Shin-Kokin Poems not in Reader (both bSpace, PDF). They may or may not be referenced during lecture but are the basis of discussion in section and required.

✓ Look over the one page example sheet and explanation on Honkadori (bSpace, PDF)

✓ Yōen (bSpace, PPT).

Multimedia notes

❖ None.

Links

⇢ None.

Other

Terms and such mentioned this day that are not otherwise in an obvious place on the web site, the powerpoints, the assigned reading, etc. (to help with capturing items mentioned, perhaps quickly, in class, not for test purposes)

None.