Edo-Era Waka and *Kokugaku* — Keichū, Kamo no Mabuchi, Motoori Norinaga, the Rediscovery of the Man'yōshū

The Place of Edo-Era Waka

For the 265 years of the Edo period (1603-1868), waka continued its medieval traditions conservatively. As an accomplishment of the court (nobility), samurai, and wealthy townsmen, “the way of poetry” was part of life.

But there are few epochal heights among the poetic works of this era, compared with those of the Heian and Kamakura. The iemoto system solidified around the “Nijō school,” “Kyōgoku school,” and “Reizei school,” and the rules and forms of waka hardened.

Instead, the Edo period became an era of study and annotation of waka. The kokugaku scholars’ decipherment of the Man’yōshū, and their reading of the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, and The Tale of Genji — these are the main literary activities of the Edo period. This scholarly accumulation becomes the ground for Masaoka Shiki’s waka reform in the Meiji era.

Early Edo Waka — Completion of the Iemoto System

Nijō, Kyōgoku, and Reizei Schools

After Fujiwara no Teika, his descendants split into the Nijō, Kyōgoku, and Reizei houses, and each served as the iemoto of waka with its own pupils. In early Edo:

• Nijō school: aristocratic traditional school, centered on the Kyoto court
• Kyōgoku school: lineage of Kyōgoku Tamekane (Teika’s grandson), a somewhat newer expression
• Reizei school: direct line of Teika, continuing to the present (Reizei-ke Shigure-tei Bunko still exists in Kyoto)

The iemoto issued “kirigami” (secret transmissions) to disciples, maintaining the iemoto system of waka. But the content of the secret transmissions centered on the observance of “precedent” and “rules,” and independent composition became difficult.

Keichū (1640-1701) — Founder of Empirical Kokugaku

Keichū was a Shingon Buddhist monk of Osaka. Founder of mid-Edo kokugaku. The first scholar to decipher the Man’yōshū — until then mystified — with philological and empirical methods.

Principal Work

• Man’yō Daishōki (mostly completed c. 1690, presented 1697) — an annotation of the entire Man’yōshū

Before Keichū, the Man’yōshū had been shut up in medieval esoteric interpretations. The decipherment of the man’yōgana was incomplete, and the meaning of many poems was not correctly understood.

Keichū’s method:

1. Empirical study of kana usage — establishing readings by comparing the Man’yōshū’s man’yōgana with other old texts (Heian manuscripts, etc.)
2. Pursuit of etymology — explaining difficult words like a dictionary of old words
3. “Read the ancient heart as it was” — excluding medieval interpretations and restoring the Man’yō meaning

This is the beginning of “empiricism” in kokugaku. Later Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga inherit and develop Keichū’s method.

Keichū’s Significance

• Made the Man’yōshū a “readable” text
• Converted the medieval “esoteric study” into a public scholarship
• Nationally evaluated by being commissioned by Tokugawa Mitsukuni (Mito Kōmon) to compile Man’yō Daishōki

Keichū himself is remembered in history less by his own poetry than by his scholarly achievements.

Kamo no Mabuchi (1697-1769) — Advocate of “Masuraoburi”

Kamo no Mabuchi was a kokugaku scholar from Hamamatsu in Tōtōmi Province (present-day Shizuoka). Inheriting Keichū’s scholarship, he greatly developed waka theory.

Career

• His family were Shinto priests of Kamo Shrine
• Studied Keichū’s scholarship in Kyoto
• Went to Edo and served Tayasu Munetake (son of Tokugawa Yoshimune)
• Raised many disciples in Edo (Motoori Norinaga also met him in person once)

Principal Works

• Man’yō Kō — annotation and poetics of the Man’yōshū
• Kai Kō — the essence of waka
• Kanji Kō — a study of makura-kotoba

“Masuraoburi” vs. “Taoyameburi”

Mabuchi’s most important argument is the contrast between the Man’yōshū’s “masuraoburi” (=masculine, powerful) and “taoyameburi” (=feminine, delicate) from the Kokinshū on.

Mabuchi’s claims:

• The Man’yō is the true original heart of Japan — plain, powerful, direct
• After the Kokin is “effeminate” = taoyameburi — turned to technique and lost its original force
• The main road of waka is the return to the Man’yō style

This is a huge overturning of the 1000-year common sense of “regarding the Kokinshū as the standard.” Through Kamo no Mabuchi, the Man’yōshū was re-evaluated as “the origin.”

Mabuchi’s Own Compositions

Mabuchi was both a theorist and himself composed waka in the Man’yō style:

“Sakurabana / kiragira kaze no / fuku toki ni / kaori ni tachite / niou ramu kamo”

• Cherry blossoms, at the time when a wind blows glittering
• Will they stand in scent, and fragrance forth

Use of Man’yō words such as “kiragira (=kirakira)” and “niou ramu,” and direct description — the practice of the Man’yō style. But frankly Mabuchi’s compositions do not reach the strength of his theory, and are somewhat imitative.

Mabuchi’s Disciples

• Motoori Norinaga — broadens his interest from the Man’yō to the Kojiki
• Katō Chikage, Murata Harumi — Man’yō-style Edo poets
• Ueda Akinari — author of Ugetsu Monogatari, a kokugaku scholar

Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) — “Mono no Aware” and Kojiki Den

Motoori Norinaga was a townsman-doctor and kokugaku scholar of Matsusaka in Ise Province (present-day Mie). He built the peak of Edo kokugaku. A disciple of Mabuchi but going in a somewhat different direction.

Career

• Born to a merchant family in Matsusaka, made his living as a doctor
• Studied medicine and Confucianism in Kyoto
• Opened his eyes to kokugaku with the books of Keichū and Mabuchi
• 1763, met Mabuchi once in Matsusaka (“Night in Matsusaka”)
• Spent the rest of his life writing Kojiki Den

Principal Works

• Kojiki Den (44 volumes, completed 1798) — a complete annotation of the Kojiki, a 35-year labor of his life
• Genji Monogatari Tama no Ogushi — an essay on The Tale of Genji
• Isonokami Sasamegoto — an essay on “mono no aware”

“Mono no Aware”

Norinaga’s most important concept is “mono no aware.” An aesthetic proposed in his essay on The Tale of Genji:

The “aware” (=exclamation, sympathy, sorrow) felt on touching “mono” (=a thing) = “mono no aware.”

Norinaga argued that the essence of The Tale of Genji is not Confucian or Buddhist morality but a story of the sensitivity “knowing mono no aware.” This rejects the medieval moral criticism of “The Tale of Genji = book of licentiousness,” and establishes “the power to feel” itself as the essence of literature. A pioneering view.

Norinaga’s Compositions

Norinaga too left many waka. Rather than the Man’yō style, incorporating Heian-Kokin technique too, composing natural feeling:

“Shikishima no / yamato-gokoro wo / hito towaba / asahi ni niou / yamazakura-bana”

• shikishima no yamato-gokoro — the Japanese heart
• hito towaba — if a person asks
• asahi ni niou — glowing in the morning sun
• yamazakura-bana — the mountain cherry blossom

If asked what the Japanese heart is, one may answer: the mountain cherry glowing in the morning sun. Composed at 61 (1790). Later cited as a representative poem of “Japanese aesthetic,” but during the Pacific War era it was also interpreted in a militaristic direction, and in the modern era needs careful handling.

Norinaga’s Significance

• Made the Kojiki a “readable” text (what Keichū had done for the Man’yōshū, for the Kojiki)
• Establishment of the aesthetic of “mono no aware”
• Assertion of the autonomy of literature (an activity of “feeling” independent of morality and religion)
• The archetype of Japanese literary studies from the Meiji era on

Kagawa Kageki (1768-1843) — the Keien School

Kagawa Kageki was a Kyoto poet of the late Edo. Opposing Mabuchi’s Man’yō style, he argued for a re-evaluation of the Heian Kokin style. Founder of the “Keien school.”

Kageki’s claims:

• Mabuchi’s “the Man’yō is the true road” is extreme
• The “shirabe” (rhythm) — the musical rhythm — of the Kokinshū is the essence of waka
• Emphasis on the power of “kotodama” (word-spirit)

Kageki was the representative of the Kokin school against Mabuchi. Late Edo was an era of debate between Mabuchi’s Man’yō school and Kageki’s Keien school.

Kageki’s representative poem: “Ana tōto / Kasuga no miya no / haru no hana / saki amaneku te / hana niou ramu”

The flowers of spring at Kasuga Shrine bloom fully and fragrance forth. Reproducing the Kokin-style delicacy.

The Keien school had great influence from late Edo to early Meiji, including at the Meiji imperial Ōutadokoro (Bureau of Court Poetry). But in Shiki’s later criticism, the Keien school’s technique-rich style was rejected.

Ryōkan (1758-1831) — the Zen Monk-Poet of Echigo

Ryōkan was born as the son of the village head of Izumozaki in Echigo Province (present-day Niigata). Ordained young as a Sōtō Zen monk, he trained rigorously at Tamashima in Okayama. Returning home, he lived in simple poverty at the Gogō-an and other small hermitages in Echigo.

Ryōkan was a poet, calligrapher, and Chinese-style poet — a rare existence in the late Edo. Belonging to no school and lineage, he built his own style.

Ryōkan’s Waka

Ryōkan’s waka are neither Man’yō nor Kokin, but have a plainness close to the Man’yō and the transparency of Zen.

“Kasumi tatsu / nagaki haruhi wo / kodomora to / temari tsukitsutsu / kono hi kurashitsu”

I spent this long spring day, when the mist rises, playing temari (a traditional ball game) with the children. Composing the paradoxical way of life of “a monk playing with children” plainly. Ryōkan’s signature poem.

“Katami tote / nani ka nokosamu / haru wa hana / yama hototogisu / aki wa momijiba”

What shall I leave as a keepsake? The flowers in spring, the cuckoo of the mountains, the autumn leaves. Leaving nothing of himself and only nature as a keepsake — the Zen realm.

Ryōkan’s Significance

• The figure of “an amateur (free) poet” outside the iemoto system
• Fusion of Man’yō, Zen, and the individual
• Late-life exchange with Teishin-ni — a nun 30 years his junior who became his disciple and edited his poetry collection at his death

Ryōkan is a singular point of Edo-era waka, still deeply beloved today.

Hidden Innovators of Edo Waka

Beyond the kokugaku scholars and independent poets above, the Edo era has many interesting poets:

Ōkuma Kotomichi (1798-1868)

Poet of Chikuzen (Fukuoka). Attempted a compromise between the Man’yō and the Kokin, and served as a bridge to the Meiji era.

Tachibana Akemi (1812-1868)

Poet of Echizen (Fukui). Famous for his 52 poems of “Dokuraku-gin” (Songs of Solitary Pleasure) beginning “Tanoshimi wa”.

“Tanoshimi wa / tsuma-ko mutsumajiku / uchi tsudohi / kōbe narabete / mono wo kuu toki”

Pleasure is when my wife and children gather together in harmony, put their heads side by side, and eat something. Composing plain, everyday themes with the repeated rhythm of “Tanoshimi wa.” A style that reaches the modern Japanese sensibility directly.

The Significance of Edo Waka

1. Scholarly Accumulation

The Edo era is an era of the study of waka more than works of waka. The scholarship of Keichū, Mabuchi, and Norinaga made the Man’yōshū, Kojiki, and Tale of Genji “readable” texts. Modern and contemporary Japanese literary studies are impossible without this.

2. Theorization of “Japanese Sensibility”

Norinaga’s “mono no aware,” Mabuchi’s “masuraoburi” — these theorized Japanese aesthetic for the first time. Later, in contact with the West, they became the basis for answering the question “what is Japan-likeness?”

3. Germ of Departure from the Iemoto System

Independent poets not belonging to iemoto, like Ryōkan and Tachibana Akemi, appear. This is the germ of “individual poets” — the new-verse poets, free-rhythm poets, and Araragi school of the Meiji era.

4. Ground for the Revival of the Man’yō Style

Mabuchi’s revival of the Man’yō style is the direct ground for the Meiji Kokin-critique and Man’yō-restoration by Masaoka Shiki. Shiki could claim “the Man’yō is the true road” only because of Mabuchi-Norinaga’s scholarly accumulation.

Toward the Next Article

1868, the Meiji Restoration. Amid the great turn from Edo to Meiji, waka too faces great change. Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) in 1892 harshly criticized the Kokin Wakashū in “Utayomi ni Atauru Sho” and proposed a waka reform of Man’yō style, shasei, and unified spoken and written language. Thereby the 1000 years of waka common sense since the Heian is overturned. The next article traces the Meiji waka reform and Shiki.