[In the following excerpt, Konishi explains that Yoshimoto's style was influenced by two opposing groups—the Reizei and Nijo factions.]

YOSHIMOTO AND KYūSEI

Codified renga (hereafter simply renga) flourished from the middle of the thirteenth century. The creation of numerous canons and rules for composition must have been a major impetus to its development. According to Nijō Yoshimoto, during the reign of Gosaga (1242-1246), there were many skillful renga poets among the high nobility, and renga masters called Hananomoto (“Under the Cherry Blossoms”) among commoners, but there were no really outstanding poets (Tsukuba Mondō, 78). Yoshimoto's reference to the Hananomoto poets provides evidence concerning two important aspects of the period: first, professional writers had appeared among the common people; and second, renga was linked to something incantatory. Yoshimoto goes on to describe the Hananomoto renga masters in the following:

Dōshō, Jakunin, Mushō¹ and others used to gather great numbers of people of various classes under the cherry blossoms at Bishamondō² and Hosshōji³ every spring to compose renga. Thereafter, famous renga masters from the lower nobility became numerous.

(ibid.)

Dōshō and the other Hananomoto poets were monks, but it is difficult to believe that they were actually attached to temples or practiced Buddhist rites. In all likelihood, they were monks only in form, actually making their livings as judges (tenja) and leaders of renga groups.⁴ These renga masters apparently had their own shikimoku (books of renga rules and canons). According to the Reizeike Zō Sōshi Mokuroku (Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts in the Collection of the Reizei Family), there were shikimoku called Hananomoto Yō (The Hananomoto Style) or Hananomoto Dōshō (Compilation by Dōshō of the Hananomoto) before 1317. Practical rules must have been necessary when the renga masters instructed others.

In any event, the Hananomoto poets advanced rapidly after the beginning of the fourteenth century. For example, in 1333 the shogunal army attacked Chihaya Castle, but could not at once seize it and was forced to wait out a long siege. To ease the boredom, they invited the Hananomoto renga masters from the capital and composed a renga in ten thousand stanzas (Taiheiki [= THK], 7:220). Whether or not this episode actually occurred is not important. Its very depiction in the Taiheiki demonstrates that professional renga masters were known to be active on a wide scale in the early fourteenth century.

Before they were conducted by professional renga masters, Hananomoto renga sittings had simply involved gathering groups beneath cherry blossoms in full bloom to enjoy composing and listening to renga. The custom of enjoying the grand displays of cherry blossoms has existed in Japan since the Heian period and continues to exist today (Yamada Y., 1938, 377-88). This custom implies more than aesthetic admiration of the cherry blossoms. It originated in the religious belief that anyone under the cherry blossoms in full bloom would be infused by the spirit of the flowers with some beneficial result. This partakes of the belief of the Chinkasai (Festival for the Deity of Cherry Blossoms), which celebrates the apotropaic powers of cherry blossoms. During this period, the association of Hananomoto renga with the cherry blossoms led to the belief that renga also had magical incantatory powers. For example, renga were composed as prayers for recovery from illnesses or for victory in battle.⁵ These customs had their origins not in the renga composed at court but in Hananomoto renga.

Hananomoto renga composition led by professional renga masters began between 1356 and 1361.⁶ As Yoshimoto wrote, renga masters not of high noble birth continued to flourish, producing many outstanding poets (Renri Hishō [= RRHS], 46): “There are also a few outstanding poets at the royal palace this time, but the real experts are among those of lesser station.” Yoshimoto refers to the early fourteenth century, and during this period there were certainly a number of outstanding renga poets from the lower nobility. They include Zenna, Jungaku, Shinshō, Ryōa, and others, but Kyūsei (1284-1378) is the one who opens eyes. Kyūsei studied waka with Reizei Tamesuke and renga with Zenna.⁷ Unlike Zenna, he infused his renga with the ga of waka. Yoshimoto describes Kyūsei's style in the following (Jūmon, 112):

Kyūsei's use of diction was always remarkable. It possessed lovely depth (yūgen) and was impressive. He never composed renga with an eye to artifice. Rather, he connected stanzas well. Although few of his stanzas stand out by themselves, he made the most of poetic atmosphere (kakari), and his diction gave the feeling of fragrant blossoms.

The kind of writing this actually referred to can be seen from the following added stanza (tsukeku).

… No one knows how long life lasts
but the spring day lasts on
… the bright dew drops
bejewel the lovely willow
as the light rain falls(8)

(TBS, 1:70)

The stanza preceding Kyūsei's is a difficult one to connect with. Its speaker, perhaps an old man whose remaining time is short, is saying: “The span of my remaining life is uncertain, but the spring day is long.” There is a certain uneasiness in the contrast between the long spring day and the shortness of life, but the speaker attempts to comfort himself with the balmy beauty of the spring landscape. With so complete a conception, an addition to the stanza is very difficult.

Kyūsei, however, changes the meaning of “span of life,” making it refer not to a person but to the dew: “After the rainfall, how long will the raindrops remain on the leaves of the willow? I do not know, but it is the season when the days are long, so let us enjoy them while we can.” Kyūsei also links the two stanzas by his use of pivot words (kakekotoba) and word association (engo). The “o” (small or pretty) of “oyanagi” pivots a second meaning as “string,” and this “string of jewels” associates with “nagakere” (long) in the previous stanza. Moreover, “tsuyu” (dew) associates with “inochi” (life) in the previous stanza.⁹

This subtle use of verbal association is what Yoshimoto refers to when he says, “Kyūsei's use of diction was always remarkable,” or when he says that “he connected stanzas well.” Yet if we consider Kyūsei's stanza by itself, it appears to be nothing more than a description of a beautiful spring landscape, devoid of the complex mental state of the preceding stanza. This is what led Yoshimoto to say that “he never composed renga with an eye to artifice”—that is, complex mental states or mental images. That his poems place primary emphasis on “poetic atmosphere”¹⁰ and that his diction is sensually beautiful may also be seen in this stanza, in which the beauty of white drops of dew set against the green of willow leaves is further emphasized by the rhetorical flourish of referring to them as jewels. This is nothing other than the style of yūgen, which in this period was used in a sense almost precisely identical to that of yūen (elegant charm).¹¹ Yoshimoto's own statement that Kyūsei's “diction gave the feeling of fragrant blossoms” refers precisely to this quality of yūgen in Kyūsei's stanzas.

Here is another example of his skill in stanzaic connection (TBS, 4:332):

… Come and gone in just one turn
autumn drizzle goes its way
… the plants in bloom
the flower-viewing carriage
sets out over fields

In a beautiful meadow resplendent with blooming autumn plants, Kyūsei poses a carriage, which apparently belongs to someone of rank, making this truly a stanza of elegant charm. His poising of “kuruma” (a carriage or even a wheel) against the “hitomeguri” (in just one turn) of the rain is richly deserving of Yoshimoto's high praise for his language and connections. Moreover, as in the previous example, the poem has no particular point of its own but places the focus of reading on its connection with the previous stanza, which is crucial in renga. Kyūsei's disciple, Shūa, who was the principal figure in the renga world from 1352 to 1379, wrote in a style that focuses interest on the stanza itself.¹² The view of Yoshimoto and Kyūsei that the interest of renga should always be in the connection between stanzas was revived by Bontōan, and after the appearance of Sōogi this became the dominant view.¹³

Kyūsei was the ideal collaborator for Yoshimoto in compiling the Tsukuba Shū (A Collection of Renga) and a new renga shikimoku (The New Shikimoku of the Ōan Era; Ōan Shinshiki). The Tsukuba Shū was completed in 1357, and in the same year it was accorded a status just below a royal anthology. This was an epochal event in the history of renga, for the acceptance of the Tsukuba Shū as second only to a royal collection meant that renga, which had always been viewed as a literary form below waka, had finally been accepted as a premier art. Moreover, in 1372, the Renga Shinshiki was given royal sanction. Until then, a number of rule books (shikimoku) were in existence. It was not only that Yoshimoto unified this diversity, but that his achievement was given the authority of royal sanction.

In fact, Yoshimoto entrusted both of these important projects almost entirely to Kyūsei. This is an indication of Yoshimoto's trust in him, and that trust must have arisen from his stylistic consistency with Yoshimoto's own poetic ideals. Yoshimoto wrote many treatises on renga: Hekirenshō (A Biased Treatise on Renga), Renri Hishō (A Secret Treatise on Renga Principles), Gekimoshō (The Gekimo Treatise), Tsukuba Mondō (The Tsukuba Dialogues), Jūmon Saihishō (A Top Secret Treatise on Ten Questions), Kyūshū Mondō (The Kyushu Dialogues), and Renga Jūyō (The Ten Styles of Renga). From these and the opinions stated in his waka treatises, Kinrai Fūteishō and Gumon Kenchū, it is clear that his poetic ideals were a synthesis of the theories of the Nijō and Reizei poets. And it was Kyūsei who realized Yoshimoto's stylistic ideals in his renga practice.

Yoshimoto had both theoretical and practical reasons for taking a position that combined the principles of the Nijō and Reizei factions. On the theoretical side, his views represent an assimilation of Sung shih theories into waka and renga. We saw earlier that Sung shih treatises place emphasis on styles that are simple (p'u) or crude (cho), and that in special or extreme cases they advocated a style of elegant simplicity (heitan). However, Sung poetic ideals did not aspire merely to elegant simplicity. As an ideal, it held that poets who had mastered ornate expression should gradually arrive at a style of elegant simplicity as they grew older. This ideal was propounded, for example, by Su Shih, who was greatly respected in Japan after the beginning of the fourteenth century, and his views are quoted in the Shih-jen Yü-hsieh. Yoshimoto refers frequently to this work in his own treatises. Considering that he borrowed many critical terms from Sung poetics (Konishi, 1955a, 1-9), it seems likely that he learned of the theory of advancing from ornate styles to a style of elegant simplicity from the Shih-jen Yü-hsieh.

For example, Yoshimoto writes as follows concerning the diction of renga (RRHS, 40): “One should choose diction with the intention of searching among flowers for the most beautiful flower, or searching among jewels for the most beautiful jewel.” Here, flowers and jewels are metaphors for yūen, which in Yoshimoto's usage is equivalent to the beauty of yūgen. Although Yoshimoto basically affirms yūgen, however, he goes one step further to advocate the beauty of shiore (moisture) (RRHS, 41): “The stanzas of a person who uses diction effectively are easily linked and impressive, as if the flower or the jewel had been moistened by the morning mist.” This passage follows the one above and suggests that when diction is used skillfully, the beauty of yūen is not sensed directly but in the way that one admires a beautiful flower when its luster is disguised by the dampness of morning mist. This kind of stanza is easy to link; but if yūen is too explicit in a stanza, it will be difficult for the following poet to compose a suitable linking stanza.

Yoshimoto comments further on the manner of forming the conception (kokoro) of a stanza (RRHS, 48):

In all respects, the best approach is to avoid the artificial, to write of what is natural to oneself. To favor the unorthodox and seek the unusual is for the time when one has not yet achieved the deepest perfection. Renga is also like this. The essence of poetic ability lies in the genuineness of ordinary stanzas attractively and freshly connected with conceptual depth.

The advocacy of stanzaic connection at once attractive and fresh certainly does not deny originality. Although essentially affirming that the interest of poetry emerges from originality, however, Yoshimoto argues that ultimately clear and light writing constitutes the highest art.

The Nijō poets were the advocates of the style of elegant simplicity (heitan), while yūgen (defined as yūen) was associated with the Reizei faction. One reason that Yoshimoto incorporated both ideals into his own theory is that he had relations with the waka poets of both factions. His original adherence to the Nijō faction was a natural outcome of his close relationship with Tonna, but in waka circles he was also on intimate terms with Reizei Tamehide and Reizei Tamemasa. Yoshimoto himself made clear his reasons for assuming his position (Jūmon, 114-15):

In all the arts, once the world decides upon a given track, one must go along, even if one's opinions differ. To persist in one's own opinion has no effect at all. Thus, when Dōyo favored a certain fashion, everyone began to use the same devices.¹⁴ In our time, the atmosphere of his highness's [Yoshimitsu's] renga is lovely and, while he employs rather ordinary devices for his stanzas, his style makes them fresh. This wins my consent. In all the world there seems no effort likely to alter this dominant style.

One must go along with the styles that everyone prefers, and the present fashion is based on the style favored by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408). Yoshimoto himself preferred this style and saw no reason why the form of expression should change. This passage suggests the importance of Yoshimitsu's influence in the practical aspects of Yoshimoto's theory of renga.

Yoshimoto summarizes the principal features of Yoshimitsu's style in two points: (1) the feeling the reader receives from his writing is beautiful (yūgen/yūen), and (2) although he employs an ordinary style of composition, his stanzas have originality. Clearly, the first aspect of Yoshimitsu's style corresponds to Reizei principles while the second is characteristic of the Nijō school. Yoshimoto had no choice but to maintain relations with waka poets of both factions, a point that cannot be understood without reference to the influence of Yoshimitsu, for his patronage of both the Nijō and Reizei factions was one of the most important social realities of renga composition. The renga poet that best gave concrete expression to these ideals was Kyūsei. But it was Zeami, in the world of nō, who perfected Yoshimoto's ideals both in theory and in literary creation. …

Notes

1. The only thing known of the dates of three poets named is that they flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century.

2. Bishamondō was the popular name for the temple Izumoji (Tendai sect) located in Izumoji in northern Kyoto. [The two words “Izumoji” have different third characters; “Izumo Temple” and “Izumo Street.”—Ed.]

3. Hosshōji was a temple built by Shirakawa (r. 1072-86) in Okazaki, Sakyōku of present Kyoto.

4. Like performers of dengaku and sarugaku (predecessors of nō), performers of many other arts formally took orders. It seems likely that renga masters followed the precedent. There were certain advantages to being a monk: exemption from taxes and conscript labor; and possible freedom, if one was from the lower classes, to associate with people of high station.

5. The hokku (opening stanza) of the first hundred stanzas (hyakuin) of Sōgi's solo sequence, A Thousand Stanzas at Mishima (Mishima Senku), was composed as an offering to the deity of the Mishima Shrine when Tō no Tsuneyori's son, Takeichimaro, was suffering during an influenza epidemic, and the thousand stanzas were presented to effect recovery. Sōchō also composed a solo senku, A Thousand Stanzas on Call to Battle (Shutsujin Senku), as Imagawa Ujichika was about to go to camp (Yamada Y., 1937, 150-51).

6. In the Shinsatsu Ōrai (New Correspondence) of 1367, it is observed that “Attendance at renga held under cherry blossoms at Jinshu and Washio Shrines has declined in recent years. Truly a regrettable thing” (Shinsatsu, 1:467).

7. “Kyūsei is the disciple of Lord [Reizei] Tamesuke at Fujigayatsu and is able to compose waka to some extent” (Rakusho, 196). “Kyūsei studied with Zenna but has since left him” (Jūmon, 109). [Kyūsei (d. 1376 or 1378) is a name also pronounced Kyūzai, Kasei, and Gusai.—Ed.]

8. [The author of the first two lines or stanza is not named, and that stanza is presented to show Kyūsei's skill in connection (tsukeai), as also because after the opening stanza (hokku), every stanza is complete only as an additional stanza is added, whether in the two- or the three-line stanza forms that alternate. Collections of renga stanzas give the previous stanza (maeku) so that understanding and appreciation of the added stanza (tsukeku) is possible.—Ed.]

9. See the anonymous love poem, Gosenshū, 13:895: “If I live on, / Perhaps I shall understand / His real heart, / But like the dew my life is fragile / And meanwhile I suffer so.”

10. “Kakari” may be rendered “poetic atmosphere” and is a word often found in Yoshimoto's late writings. More particularly, it resembles “sugata” (total effect, configuration). In opposition to a fixed, separate sugata, that with kakari is fluid, rhythmical, connected (Nose, 1946-47a, 155-57).

11. Yoshimoto's usage of “yūgen” involves the beauty of elegant refinement (as if written with the “yū” of “yūen” rather than that of “yūgen”); there are implications of the sensitive and sensuous, along with youthfulness and splendor (Nose, 1944a, 303-307).

12. Shūa's dates are not certainly known. It seems he died in 1376 or 1377, and his stanzas begin to appear after 1355 (Kidō, 1971, 273-76).

13. Bontōan's secular name was Asayama Morotsuna. He was born in 1349 and died sometime after V.1417 (Mizukami, 1950, 12-17). …

14. Dōyo, whose priestly name is Sasaki Takauji (1306-73), is a complex figure. Famous as a warrior, he also flouted authority by quarreling with the chief priest of Myōhōin, who was a prince, razing the main temple building (THK, 21, 337-39). On the other hand, he was a connoisseur of the tea ceremony, incense, formal flower arrangement, nō, and especially renga. Eighty-one of his stanzas were selected for the Tsukuba Shū (Yoshimoto has eighty-seven stanzas in the collection [Hasegawa, 1961, 204-12]).