A Lesson in Failure: Linked-Verse Contests in Medieval Japan

The contest format was used with success as a vehicle of criticism by poets in two major genres of Japanese poetry, the classical uta and the Edo-period hokku. Yet attempts to put that same format to use in linked verse, the primary poetic genre of the late medieval period (1300-1600), ended in fail...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Oriental Society 1984-10, Vol.104 (4), p.727-737
Main Author: Carter, Steven D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthologies
Contests
Couplets
Earths Moon
Literary criticism
Literary history
Poetry
Textual criticism
Vehicles
Vocabulary
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Summary:The contest format was used with success as a vehicle of criticism by poets in two major genres of Japanese poetry, the classical uta and the Edo-period hokku. Yet attempts to put that same format to use in linked verse, the primary poetic genre of the late medieval period (1300-1600), ended in failure. This essay will outline the history of the renga-awase, or "linked-verse contest," and also suggest a few reasons for why that history is not more substantial-the chief one deriving from the power of precedent in medieval critical habits.
ISSN:0003-0279
DOI:10.2307/601902