Poetry as part of daily life
In the Heian period, which lasted roughly from the late eighth to the twelfth century, the ability to write a good waka was part of being a cultured person at court. Poems were not only for books. They were composed on the spot, written on paper and sent with servants, answered the same day, and often judged by who read them. A person could be remembered for a single poem, and a poorly turned reply could cost a person standing.
A waka is a poem in the Japanese language, usually in the thirty-one-unit form of five lines in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern. The term waka distinguishes it from kanshi, poems in Chinese, which educated men also wrote. Waka is one branch of Japanese poetry more broadly, and the focus here is on how it lived at the Heian court.
Poems that carried messages
Courtiers used poems for many occasions:
- Courtship. A man might send a poem to a woman, who was expected to reply in kind. A poem sent the morning after a night together was a customary courtesy, and the quality of the reply was read carefully.
- Greetings and gifts. A poem could accompany a present, a seasonal visit or a thank-you.
- Farewells and travel. Poets composed on parting or when away from the capital.
- Mourning and reflection. Verses on the death of a relative or the passing of a season were common.
- Public occasions. At banquets, excursions and festivals, those present might be asked to produce a poem on a set subject.
A reply often took up the words of the first poem and turned them, perhaps by taking an image such as dew or a pine and offering a new meaning. This echoing is one of the reasons the court’s habit of verse exchange is described as a kind of conversation.
The physical presentation counted too. People paid attention to handwriting, the color and quality of paper, and whether the poem was tied to a branch or flower suited to the season. Such details are described in the fiction of the time, including the Tale of Genji, which depicts characters judged on their notes as much as on their words.
Shared images
Waka depended on a shared vocabulary of images. Cherry blossoms signified spring and their quick fall suggested the brevity of beauty. The cuckoo, fall leaves, mist, snow, the moon and the sound of a deer were drawn on repeatedly. A place name might carry associations of its own, since certain famous locations were linked with a particular feeling, and a poet could evoke it with a few syllables. Wordplay was frequent: Japanese has many homophones, so a single phrase could carry two meanings, a technique that gives the poems layers that translation struggles to reproduce.
The emotional keynote was often a sensitivity to change. The fading of blossoms, the passing of love and the turning of seasons are central subjects, and the tone is frequently associated with mono no aware, though that phrase gained its modern prominence in later discussions.
Collecting poems
The Man’yoshu, compiled in the Nara period, was the great early collection, but the Heian period created the model for official anthologies. The Kokinshu, compiled in the early tenth century on imperial command, was the first of what became a series of imperial collections. It was arranged in books by topic, with the seasons given large sections, followed by sections on love, travel, parting and other themes. Within the seasonal sections, poems ran in order from the start of the season to its end, which gave the book a sense of time moving.
The Kokinshu opens with a preface written in kana, which set out the aims of the poetry in clear terms. It asserted that poetry grows from the human heart and responds to everything that stirs it. The preface is regarded as a foundation of Japanese literary thought. Later anthologies followed for centuries, and the Kokinshu set a standard for the aesthetic of grace and restraint.
Contests and judging
Poem contests, called utaawase, became a major court activity. Poets were divided into two sides, a topic was set, and each side presented a poem. Judges then decided which poem was better and explained their reasons. The commentary produced in this setting is an important early body of criticism, because it forced people to say why one poem was better than another. Contests could be elaborate, with matching costumes, decorated tables and ceremony.
Related games developed too. In later centuries, the poems of an anthology of one hundred poets were turned into a card game, still played as karuta cards, with players matching the opening lines with the closing ones.
Who wrote
Emperors, nobles, officials, priests and women of the court all composed. The Heian period is especially remembered for the women who wrote waka as well as diaries and tales. Court women often held positions in the households of empresses, where literary talent was prized. Poets are also remembered for being associated with a legendary group of “thirty-six immortals” of poetry, selected by a later compiler, though selections of this kind reflect later taste.
Legacy
The conventions set in this period, including seasonal arrangement, shared images and the stress on suggestion, shaped later forms. Linked verse emerged from waka exchanges, and haiku emerged from linked verse. Painters, calligraphers and craftspeople used lines of waka on screens, fans and decorated boxes. For readers today, Heian waka offer a window into the way a small society conducted friendship, romance and politics through a few lines of verse. They also show how a short poem can be both a personal expression and a public performance, which is part of why they are still read and memorized in Japan.