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38-504: In olden times pronounced mi-tsu-chi , the word can be broken down to mi "water" + tsu a particle meaning "of" + chi "spirit". The -chi is glossed as a word root used only as a part of a compound word (as a suffix , etc.) Mizuchi is also the Japanese transliteration for several Chinese glyphs , each glyph putatively representing a type of Chinese dragon : namely the jiāolóng ( 蛟竜 ; Japanese : kōryū ) or "4-legged dragon",

76-536: A way of providing "traditional feeling expressed in genuine Japanese way". He wrote waka, and waka became an important form to his followers, the Kokugaku scholars. In Echigo Province a Buddhist priest, Ryōkan , composed many waka in a naïve style intentionally avoiding complex rules and the traditional way of waka. He belonged to another great tradition of waka: waka for expressing religious feeling. His frank expression of his feeling found many admirers, then and now. In

114-551: Is "perhaps the first documented appearance of the water spirit that would become known popularly in Japan as the kappa ". A mizuchi is also mentioned in the Man'yōshū , the ancient collection of Japanese poems. The tanka poem #3833 composed by Prince Sakaibe  [ ja ] can be loosely paraphrased to mean "I could ride a tiger to leap over the Old Shack, to the green pool, to take down

152-469: Is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature . Although waka in modern Japanese is written as 和歌 , in the past it was also written as 倭歌 (see Wa , an old name for Japan), and a variant name is yamato-uta ( 大和歌 ) . The word waka has two different but related meanings: the original meaning was "poetry in Japanese" and encompassed several genres such as chōka and sedōka (discussed below);

190-526: Is even worse.   Where do they come from, Flickering before my eyes.   Making me helpless Endlessly night after night. Not letting me sleep in peace? The chōka above is followed by an envoi ( 反歌 , hanka ) in tanka form, also written by Okura: 銀も 金も玉も 何せむに まされる宝 子にしかめやも   Shirokane mo Kugane mo tama mo Nanisemu ni Masareru takara Koni shikame yamo   What are they to me, Silver, or gold, or jewels?   How could they ever Equal

228-434: Is sometimes called Misohitomoji ( 三十一文字 ) , meaning it contains 31 syllables in total. The term waka originally encompassed a number of differing forms, principally tanka ( 短歌 , "short poem" ) and chōka ( 長歌 , "long poem" ) , but also including bussokusekika , sedōka ( 旋頭歌 , "memorized poem" ) and katauta ( 片歌 , "poem fragment" ) . These last three forms, however, fell into disuse at

266-604: The Man'yōshū and other ancient sources exist. Besides that, there were many other forms like: Waka has a long history, first recorded in the early 8th century in the Kojiki and Man'yōshū . Under influence from other genres such as kanshi , novels and stories such as Tale of Genji and even Western poetry, it developed gradually, broadening its repertoire of expression and topics. The literary historian Donald Keene used four large categories The most ancient waka were recorded in

304-477: The qiúlóng ( 虬竜 or 虯竜 ; Japanese : kyūryū ) or "hornless dragon" and the chīlóng ( 螭竜 ; Japanese : chiryū ) or "yellow dragon". F. J. Daniels cautions that for okami ( 龗 ) and mizuchi , "it is unsafe to deduce their forms from the Chinese characters allotted to them". Kunio Yanagita also emphasized that while the use of character like 虬 may suggest a snake-like being, it should be stressed that

342-546: The -chi signified an honorific . As stated above folklorist Yanagita emphasized the meaning of chi as "spirit". Minakata also conjectured that in some parts of the country, mizuchi eventually came to be regarded as creatures of the kappa kind. This is because the kappa creatures are known locally by many names that sound much like mizuchi , such as mizushi (former Noto Province , Ishikawa Prefecture ), medochi ( Nanbu region, parts of Iwate , Aomori , Akita ), mintsuchi ( Ezo , now Hokkaido ). Furthermore, in

380-677: The Five Men of the Pear Chamber to compile the Gosen Wakashū , in addition to preparing kundoku readings for the Man'yōshū , which by that time was already difficult for even educated Japanese to read. In 1005 Emperor Ichijō commanded the compilation of the Shūishū . The above three court anthologies, in addition to the five following anthologies, are known as the "Collections of Eight Ages" ( 八代集 , Hachidai-shū ) , and were all compiled during

418-727: The Heian period . After the Heian period, during the Kamakura period and later, renga , a form of collaborative linked poetry, began to develop. In the late Heian period, three of the last great waka poets appeared: Fujiwara no Shunzei , his son Fujiwara no Teika , and Emperor Go-Toba . Emperor Go-Toba ordered the creation of a new anthology and joined in editing it. The anthology was named Shin Kokin Wakashū . He edited it again and again until he died in 1239. Teika made copies of ancient books and wrote on

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456-546: The Muromachi period , renga became popular in the court and people around it. It spread to the priestly classes and thence to wealthy commoners. In much the same way as waka, renga anthologies were produced under the imperial aegis. As momentum and popular interest shifted to the renga form, the tanka style was left to the Imperial court. Conservative tendencies exacerbated the loss of life and flexibility. A tradition named Kokin-denju,

494-462: The mizuchi dragon there, if only I had a sword capable of doing just that". Polymath Minakata Kumagusu , in his essay Jūnishi kō: mi(hebi) ( 『十二支考』 , "A Study of Twelve Animals of Chinese Zodiac" ) states "Even in our country (Japan), the various snakes that dwelled by water and were feared by people seemed to have been called mizuchi, or 'master of the water'". Here Minakata draws on Edo Period scholar Motoori Norinaga ' suggestion that

532-534: The mizuchi signifies a "water spirit". The ancient chronicle Nihongi contains references to mizuchi . Under the 67th year of the reign of Emperor Nintoku (conventionally dated 379 AD), it is mentioned that in central Kibi Province , at a fork on Kawashima River (川嶋河, old name of Takahashi River in Okayama Prefecture ), a great water serpent or dragon (大虬) dwelt and would breathe or spew out its venom, poisoning and killing many passersby. This mizuchi

570-532: The Emperor guided by an oracular dream ordered two men, Kowa-kubi from Musashi Province and Koromo-no-ko from Kawachi Province be sought ought and sacrificed to the " River God " or Kawa-no-kami ( 河伯 ) . One of the men, who resisted being sacrificed, employed the floating calabash and dared the River God to sink it as proof to show it was truly divine will that demanded him as sacrifice. A whirlwind came and tried, but

608-785: The beginning of the Heian period , and chōka vanished soon afterwards. Thus, the term waka came in time to refer only to tanka . Chōka consist of 5-7 on phrases repeated at least twice, and conclude with a 5-7-7 ending The briefest chōka documented is Man'yōshū no. 802, which is of a pattern 5-7 5-7 5-7 5-7-7. It was composed by Yamanoue no Okura in the Nara period and runs: 瓜食めば 子ども思ほゆ 栗食めば まして偲はゆ 何処より 来りしものそ 眼交に もとな懸りて 安眠し寝さぬ Uri hameba Kodomo omohoyu Kuri hameba Mashite shinowayu Izuku yori Kitarishi monoso Manakai ni Motona kakarite Yasui shi nasanu   When I eat melons My children come to my mind;   When I eat chestnuts The longing

646-421: The body of water" would transform into human form and wreak havoc, but terms such as mizushi became reserved for the kappa-kind, whereas the terms to refer to the "masters of the body of water" as mizuchi became forgotten. Footnotes Japanese particles Japanese particles , joshi ( 助詞 ) or tenioha ( てにをは ) , are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow

684-423: The calabash just floated away, and thus he extricated himself from death using his wits. Although River God is not called mizuchi in the source, Aston has regarded the River God (Kawa-no-kami) and the mizuchi as equivalent. Visser  [ de ] concludes, "From this passage, we learn that in ancient times human sacrifices were made to the dragon-shaped river-gods". Michael Dylan Foster suggests this

722-507: The cities, a comical, ironic and satiric form of waka emerged. It was called kyōka (狂歌), mad poem, and was loved by intellectual people in big cities like Edo and Osaka . It was not precisely a new form; satirical waka was a style known since ancient times. But it was in the Edo period that this aspect of waka developed and reached an artistic peak. Still, most waka poets kept to ancient tradition or made those reformation another stereotype, and waka

760-459: The court to cultivate native talent and look inward, synthesizing Chinese poetic styles and techniques with local traditions. The waka form again began flourishing, and Emperor Daigo ordered the creation of an anthology of waka, where the waka of ancient poets and their contemporaries were collected; the anthology was named " Kokin Wakashū ", meaning Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poems . It

798-412: The early Edo period, waka was not a fashionable genre. Newly created haikai no renga (of whose hokku , or opening verse, haiku was a late 19th-century revision) was the favored genre. This tendency was kept during this period, but in the late Edo period waka faced new trends from beyond the court. Motoori Norinaga , the great reviver of the traditional Japanese literature, attempted to revive waka as

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836-902: The exception of は (written ha , pronounced wa as a particle), へ (written he , pronounced e ) and を (written using a hiragana character with no other use in modern Japanese, originally assigned as wo , now usually pronounced o , though some speakers render it as wo ). These exceptions are a relic of historical kana usage . There are eight types of particles, depending on what function they serve. が, ga, の, no, を, o, に, ni, へ, e, と, to, で, de, から, kara, より yori が, の, を, に, へ, と, で, から, より ga, no, o, ni, e, to, de, kara, yori か, ka, の, no, や, ya, に, ni, と, to, やら, yara, なり, nari, だの dano か, の, や, に, と, やら, なり, だの ka, no, ya, ni, to, yara, nari, dano か, ka, の, no, や, ya, Waka (poetry) Waka ( 和歌 , "Japanese poem")

874-584: The greater treasure That is a child? They can not. [English translation by Edwin Cranston ] In the early Heian period (at the beginning of the 10th century), chōka was seldom written and tanka became the main form of waka. Since then, the generic term waka came to be almost synonymous with tanka. Famous examples of such works are the diaries of Ki no Tsurayuki and Izumi Shikibu , as well as such collections of poem tales as The Tales of Ise and The Tales of Yamato . Lesser forms of waka featured in

912-447: The heritage of Kokin Wakashū, was developed. It was a system on how to analyze the Kokin Wakashū and included the secret (or precisely lost) meaning of words. Studying waka degenerated into learning the many intricate rules, allusions, theories, and secrets, so as to produce tanka that would be accepted by the court. There were comical waka already in the Kojiki and the Man'yōshū , but

950-405: The historical record the Kojiki and the 20 volumes of the Man'yōshū , the oldest surviving waka anthology. The editor of the Man'yōshū is anonymous , but it is believed that the final editor was Ōtomo no Yakamochi . He was a waka poet who belonged to the youngest generation represented in the anthology; indeed, the last volume is dominated by his poems. The first waka of volume 1

988-444: The later, more common definition refers to poetry in a 5-7-5-7-7 metre . Up to and during the compilation of the Man'yōshū in the eighth century, the word waka was a general term for poetry composed in Japanese, and included several genres such as tanka ( 短歌 , "short poem") , chōka ( 長歌 , "long poem") , bussokusekika ( 仏足石歌 , " Buddha footprint poem") and sedōka ( 旋頭歌 , "repeating-the-first-part poem") . However, by

1026-696: The lore of Echigo Province ( Niigata Prefecture ), the kappa was said to abhor the calabash gourd, which is reminiscent of the episodes in Nihon Shoki where the River God or mizuchi are challenged to submerge the calabashes. Similar observations are made by folklorists Yanagita and Jun'ichirō Ishikawa. Minakata was also encouraged by the fact that the snake and the kappa (alongside the suppon soft-shelled turtle) were grouped as three creatures known to kill humans in water by Asakawa Zen'an  [ ja ] 's essay Zen'an zuihitsu and conjectured that there used to be lore where sacred snakes which were "masters of

1064-463: The modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence. Their grammatical range can indicate various meanings and functions, such as speaker affect and assertiveness. Japanese particles are written in hiragana in modern Japanese, though some of them also have kanji forms: ( 弖 or 天 for te て ; 爾 for ni に ; 乎 or 遠 for o を ; and 波 for wa は ). Particles follow the same rules of phonetic transcription as all Japanese words, with

1102-481: The noble style of waka in the court inhibited and scorned such aspects of waka. Renga was soon in the same position with many codes and strictures reflecting literary tradition. Haikai no renga (also called just haikai (playful renga)) and kyōka, comical waka, were a reaction to this seriousness. But in the Edo-period waka itself lost almost all of its flexibility and began to echo and repeat old poems and themes. In

1140-447: The occasion of someone's death), and other miscellaneous topics. During the Nara period and the early Heian period, the court favored Chinese-style poetry ( kanshi ) and the waka art form largely fell out of official favor. But in the 9th century, Japan stopped sending official envoys to Tang dynasty China . This severing of ties, combined with Japan's geographic isolation, essentially forced

1178-511: The theory of waka. His descendants, and indeed almost all subsequent poets, such as Shōtetsu , taught his methods and studied his poems. The courtly poetry scenes were historically dominated by a few noble clans and allies, each of which staked out a position. By this period, a number of clans had fallen by the wayside, leaving the Reizei and the Nijō families; the former stood for "progressive" approaches,

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1216-615: The time of the Kokinshū ' s compilation at the beginning of the tenth century, all of these forms except for the tanka and chōka had effectively gone extinct, and chōka had significantly diminished in prominence. As a result, the word waka became effectively synonymous with tanka , and the word tanka fell out of use until it was revived at the end of the nineteenth century (see Tanka ). Tanka (hereafter referred to as waka ) consist of five lines ( 句 , ku , literally "phrases") of 5-7-5-7-7 on or syllabic units. Therefore, tanka

1254-551: The varied use of the "ten styles" and novelty, while the latter conservatively hewed to already established norms and the "ushin" (deep feelings) style that dominated courtly poetry. Eventually, the Nijo family became defunct, leading to the ascendancy of the "liberal" Reizei family. Their innovative reign was soon deposed by the Asukai family, aided by the Ashikaga shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshinori. In

1292-588: The water-dragon's fellows. Now the tribe of all the water-dragons filled a cave in the bottom of the pool. He slew them every one and the water of the river became changed to blood. Therefore that water was called the pool of Agatamori". A river-god reported seen in Nintoku 11 (putatively 323 AD) is also regarded by commentators to be a mizuchi, due to paralleling circumstances. On that year, the Mamuta dikes  [ ja ] built along Yodo River kept getting breached and

1330-412: Was by Emperor Ōjin . Nukata no Ōkimi , Kakinomoto no Hitomaro , Yamabe no Akahito , Yamanoue no Okura , Ōtomo no Tabito and his son Yakamochi were the greatest poets in this anthology. The Man'yōshū recorded not only the works of the royalty and nobility, but also works of soldiers and farmers whose names were not recorded. The main topics of the Man'yōshū were love, sadness (especially on

1368-485: Was compiled by Ki no Tsurayuki , Ki no Tomonori , Ōshikōchi no Mitsune and Mibu no Tadamine on the orders of Emperor Daigo in 905. It collected roughly 1,100 waka that had not appeared in the Man'yōshū into 20 volumes, arranged by theme. The Kokinshū poems are generally considered to be reflective and idealistic. Roughly half a century after the compilation of the Kokinshū , in 951, Emperor Murakami commanded

1406-502: Was exterminated by a man named Agatamori ( 県守 ) , ancestor of the Kasa-no-omi ( 笠臣 ) clan. He approached the pool of the river, cast three calabashes which floated to the surface of the water and challenged the beast to make these gourds sink, threatening to slay it should it fail. The beast transformed into a deer and tried unsuccessfully to sink them, whereby the man slew the monster. The record goes on to say: "...He further sought out

1444-628: Was presented to the emperor in 905. This was the first waka anthology edited and issued under imperial auspices, and it commenced a long and distinguished tradition of imperial anthologies of waka that continued up to the Muromachi period. The first three imperially-commissioned waka anthologies ( 三代集 , Sandai-shū ) were the Kokin Wakashū , the Gosen Wakashū and the Shūi Wakashū . The Kokinshū

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