h. mack horton - renga unbound: performative aspects of japanese linked verse

Harvard-Yenching Institute

Renga Unbound: Performative Aspects of Japanese Linked VerseAuthor(s): H. Mack HortonReviewed work(s):Source: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Dec., 1993), pp. 443-512Published by: Harvard-Yenching InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2719455 .Accessed: 19/02/2012 18:01

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Renga Unbound: Performative Aspects of Japanese Linked Verse

H. MACK HORTON University of California, Berkeley

L INKED verse, renga A*, was the most widely practiced literary genre in Japan throughout the medieval period (the thir-

teenth through the sixteenth centuries). It declined in popularity thereafter, and the orthodox form of the art has been for the last three hundred years essentially a defunct medium of literary expression.'

The author would like to thank Steven D. Carter, Lewis Cook, Christopher Drake, Ann Hotta, Kumakura Chiyuki, Okuda Isao, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Terashima Sh6ichi, Tsurusaki Hir6, Marian Ury, and in particular Kaneko Kinjir6 for their generous help in the preparation of this paper.

l Ceremonial linked-verse sessions at shrines to Sugawara Michizane (845-903), patron deity of poetry, continued to be held until the early Meiji period at Tenmangu shrines in Osa- ka, Kitano, Dazaifu, and elsewhere. Other religious institutions held linked-verse sessions later still, but the poetry composed therein was in general of the haikai renga (renku) variety. There have been recent attempts to resuscitate renga and renku at Kumata tI Shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture (see Shimazu Tadao , "H6raku renga no gendai" &AARO Nft, in No to renga [Osaka: Izumi shoin, 1990], pp. 265-68), at Afuri tFP4Ii Shrine on Mount Oyama in Kanagawa Prefecture, and elsewhere. The famous western experiment in multilingual linked verse, Renga: A Chain of Poems by Octavio Paz, Jacques Roubaud, Eduardo Sanguineti, and Charles Tomlinson (New York: Braziller, 1971), held in Paris in April, 1969, also helped renew Japanese interest in the genre, resulting in experimentation with linked poems in Japanese and western languages (see Ooka Makoto kJAR, Vanze renshi [Iwanami shoten, 1987] and idem, Yoroppa de renshi o maku [Iwanami shoten, 1987]). For more on modern attempts at renku, see Tokushil: Renku (haikai) e no shotai, Kokubungaku kaishaku to kansho (May, 1987) and Ohata Kenji $ '*ffii, "Gendai renkukai tenb6," Kokubungaku kaishaku to kyozai no kenkyui 34.4 (1986): 140-42.

443

444 H. MACK HORTON

Nearly all studies of the linked-verse genre today necessarily privilege the remaining written artifacts. But those written texts were based on an oral and performative composition process, and modern reader reception of the renga sequence is predicated on an awareness of what occurred at the locus of that performance, the ba

.2 With linked verse, as with other major performative art forms in medieval Japan such as the n6 drama and the tea ceremony, which developed hand in hand with renga, one "had to be there"; the surviving written records, while often of great aesthetic interest and scholarly value, are in one sense only the fossil imprint of the once living organism.

The written records on which the following discussion of the oral and performative aspects of the renga ba must ironically be based date by and large from the mature period of the genre, from the mid-fourteenth century to the beginning of the Edo period. The roots of linked verse, however, are at least as old as Japanese recorded literature itself, being traditionally traced to an exchange of seventeen-syllable katauta poems between Yamato Takeru no Miko- to and his Keeper of the Fires in Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720).' The earliest example of the genre involving a link between seventeen- and fourteen-syllable verses appears in Man'yjshzi }5?A (ca. 759), and the earliest reference to an actual linked-verse session appears in Mitsuneshii ;,k in which are recorded a group of ten verses linked into five waka poems that were probably composed at a gathering to view the autumn leaves in 918.4 These early linked verses were of the "short renga" (tanrenga VA*) variety, in which

2 The renga space is also referred to as the kaiseki fit or the za W. In his fine study of reading the written renga sequence, Steven D. Carter emphasizes that "The outcome of a classical reading is nothing less than an intellectual correlative to the jouissance of poets assembled in the za, where the first concern was always with art as a kind of performance." The Road To Komatsubara: A Classical Reading of the Renga Hyakuin (Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1987) [hereafter Komatsubara], pp. 75-76.

The exchange is related in Kojiki (Kurano Kenji *ftfJ and Takeda Yukichi tElXiA, eds., Kojiki, norito, NKBT 1.217) and Nihon shoki (Sakamoto Taro* tv*;1k,, et al., eds., Ni- hon shoki, NKBT 67.306). The exchange took place after the expedition had passed Mount Tsukuba, and linked verse became known as the "Way of Tsukuba" in consequence.

4 The seventeen-syllable verse, composed by a nun, and the fourteen-syllable reply, composed by Otomo Yakamochi, appear together as Man 'yJshk 8:1635. For the verses in Mitsu- neshiu, see Shinpen Kokka Taikan Henshfi Iinkai, ed., vol. 3 of Shinpen kokka taikan [Kadokawa shoten, 19851, pp. 31-37; linked verses p. 36.

PERFORMATIVE ASPECTS OF RENGA 445

two poems were linked into a single waka. Such sessions often took place during parties or after waka composition, and they were viewed by courtiers more as entertainments than as serious literary activities. Longer chains of verse appeared in the late Heian period, and the hundred-verse sequence (hyakuin) became the norm in about the time of Shinkokinshui at the turn of the thirteenth century.

These early courtly experiments in renga were accompanied by a rich popular linked-verse tradition, for which few records remain, that can be traced to ancient songs, some of which involved challenge-and-response courting matches. The high orthodox form of the art is generally considered to have reached early maturity in part through the work of Nijo Yoshimoto and his linked-verse advi- sor Kyuisei, who selectively combined the waka-style elegance of courtly linked verse and the transactional wit and vigor of the ple- beian form, with its stronger focus both on the construction of each independent verse and on close word associations between each verse pair.5 It was Yoshimoto who, with Kyuisei's help, compiled the first major anthology of linked verse (Tsukubashti MA,*, 1357), the first version of what would become the standard edition of the rules (Oan shinshiki Zr,,%fiTA, 1372, with later additions), and some of the first works on renga theory and practice, such as Renri hisho A 946;tP (A Secret Treatise on Renga Principles, ca. 1349).6 Their

5 Kido Saiz6 7*61R, "Renga no keisei to tenkai," in Nihon bungakushi, vol. 5 (Iwanami shoten, 1958), p. 26. For an account of the interaction between the courtly and popular linked-verse genres, see Christopher Drake, "The Collision of Traditions in Saikaku's Hai- kai," HJAS 52.1 (1992): 5-75.

6 Printed versions of Tsukubashti are available in Fukui Kyuz6 Mt:tI, ed., Tsukubashti, 2 vols., Nihon koten zensho (Asahi shinbunsha, 1969) and in Kaneko Kinjir6 i# ,T , Tsukubashui no kenkyui (Kazama shob6, 1965), pp. 773-890; Renri hisho is available in Kid6 Saiz6 and Imoto Noichi #*A-, eds., Rengaronshui haironshiu, NKBT 66.33-67; the standard shikimoku collection, which grew out of Oan shinshiki, is Nij6 Yoshimoto i.% (1320- 88), Ichij6 Kaneyoshi -+,* (1402-81), and Sh6haku AMt (1443-1527), Renga shinshiki tsuika narabi ni shinshiki kon 'an 0 ; in vol. 17 of Gunsho rujiju (Zoku gusho ruijfu kanseikai, 1978) [hereafter GSRJ], pp. 103-14. A better-organized text with an index may be found in Yamada Yoshio UI i3 and Hoshika S6ichi g hl1; , Renga hoshiki koyo 3&*MkMu (Iwanami shoten, 1985) [hereafter Renga shinshikil, pp. 1-11. Yoshimoto, with the advice of Kyiisei $Oa (also Kyuizei, Gusai, ca. 1281-ca. 1375), compiled his final version of the rules in ca. 1374-75. Yoshimoto's grandson Ichij6 Kaneyoshi added further emen- dations in 1452 in consultation with the renga master S6zei ' (d. 1455), and Sh6haku added even more in 1501. The Sh6haku version became the standard. There were a variety of other sets of rules which were used before Yoshimoto's version and which are thought to have

446 H. MACK HORTON

work laid the foundation for the efflorescence of the genre, which lasted from the mid-fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century. It was during that period, the "Age of the Country at War" (Sengoku jidai), when the political order of the Ashikaga Bakufu dissolved and Japan was rent by the constant struggle for power among rival warrior houses, that the great sequences and theoretical works by Shinkei b4i (1406-1475), Sogi ;A (1421-1502), and S6gi's disciples were created. Diaries and historical chronicles suggest that linked-verse sessions were ubiquitous during this period, not only among the court and warrior elite but also in clerical and bourgeois circles. Whether in the Imperial Palace in the capital or in a rustic dwelling in the provinces, an evening's entertainment often set aside time for guests to link seventeen- and fourteen-syllable verses into longer sequences, and it was a sorry person indeed who was incapable of framing a suitable rejoinder to a neighbor's poem ex- tolling the season or lamenting the brevity of life. Konishi Jin'ichi estimates that the total number of extant verses fills thousands of pages-dozens of times the number of all the waka in the twenty-

7 one imperial anthologies. We will focus here on the orthodox (ushin) form of the genre, as it

is described in medieval treatises on renga poetics and etiquette. But it is important to remember that together with orthodox renga, with its courtly elegance and waka-influenced aesthetic, unorthodox haikai renga was extremely popular among courtiers and commoners alike and continued to be composed and enjoyed throughout the heyday of the orthodox form, even by the great ushin-style poets themselves.8 Ijichi Tetsuo has argued therefore that it is not ushin but haikai renga that ought to be designated orthodox, since it retains more

borrowed concepts from hundred-waka sequences (hyakushu) and Chinese poetic treatises (see Konishi Jin'ichi, A History of Japanese Literature: Volume Three: The High Middle Ages, trans. Aileen Gatten and Mark Harbison, ed. Earl Miner [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 279-83). For an overview of Renga shinshiki, see Kaneko Kinjir6, Renga soron t

= (Ofuisha, 1987), pp. 189-271, and for an English translation of the rules, see Koma- tsubara, pp. 41-72.

7 Konishi Jin'ichi 'J'X , Sogi, vol. 16 of Nihon shijin sen El *#AX (Chikuma shob6, 1971), p. 63.

8 Linked verse in Chinese (renku tJ, not to be confused with renku 3, haikai renga) and in combined Chinese and Japanese (wakan renku TVWtJ) are also beyond the scope of this essay.


direct ties to the vigorous interpersonal repartee of the earliest examples of the art, before it was combined with elements of the courtly waka aesthetic.9 But it is equally essential to note that even the ushin form of linked verse is clearly differentiated from waka in elements of both its internal structure and its communal oral performance.

THE POETS, THE MASTER, AND THE SCRIBE

The typical renga session from Yoshimoto's time onward included about seven or eight participants (the renjtu or renju A*), a renga master (sosho VE), and a scribe (shuhitsu *k1).0 The session occasionally took place in a free-standing structure called a kaisho f (lit., "meeting place"), especially built for renga in specific or for a number of the arts and entertainments whose communal and performative nature characterizes so much the culture of the medieval period." More often than not, however, the session was held in one

I :jichi Tetsuo fi MO , "Waka, renga, haikai," 1953; reprinted in Ozaki Yfijir6 o%0 Jfii 1I, Shimazu Tadao, and Satake Akihiro fktMVJ&, Wago to kango no aida: Sogijoji hyakuin ka.idoku gfl ? - OI n _77A fflk (Chikuma shob6, 1985), pp. 277-94. For good introductions to haikai renga, see Howard Hibbett, "The Japanese Comic Linked- Verse Tradition," HJAS 23 (1960-61): 76-92 and Donald Keene, "The Comic Tradition in Renga, " in John Hall and Toyoda Takeshi, eds., Japan in the Muromachi Age (Berkeley: Uni- versity of California Press, 1977), pp. 241-77.

10 Women participated in linked-verse sessions early in the history of the genre. Among such female renga poets (nyobo rengashi) were Ben no naishi *tFf and her sister Shosho no naishi J14N 9{#, both of whom are mentioned by Nijo Yoshimoto in Tsukuba mondo XOMPT (Questions and Answers about the Way of Tsukuba, composed between 1357 and 1372), in NKBT 66.69-106 [hereafter Tsukuba mondo]; passages in question, pp. 74, 78). Other famous women who left examples of linked verse are Izumi Shikibu and Lady Nij6. But by the time of Yoshimoto, women were disappearing from the renga ba, as indicated by Yoshimoto's remark "How sad that these days there are no women composing renga" (Tsukuba mondo, p. 74). As the present discussion is limited to orthodox linked verse of the medieval period, the masculine pronoun is used throughout. But an entry dated 1431:11:5 in Kanmon gyoki IiJ 9E, diary of Gosuk6in *MIGE (1372-1456), does record an encounter with a female linked- verse master, the event being so rare as to elicit special mention (Kanmon gyoki, Zoku gunsho ruiju [hereafter ZGSRJ], supplement vol. 3 [Zoku gunsho ruijiu kanseikai, 1930], p. 616). And the kyogen play Mikazuki 2h>d t (The Winnow Hat) depicts a husband composing renga with his wife (Mikazuki, in Kyogenshui, ed. Koyama Hiroshi 'ILi, NKBT43.32-36). Fe- male poets participated more frequently in haikai sessions in the Edo period.

" For more on the uses of the kaisho in the medieval period, see Shimazu, "Kaisho no bungei to gein6, " in No to renga, pp. 26-41. Less formal outdoor sessions were also occasionally held, including "strolling composition" (shoyogin ) in which the poets composed verse while strolling through a garden or by a scenic spot.

448 H. MACK HORTON

part of a larger, multipurpose structure. In either case, locale itself stood to influence the artistic tenor of the sequence and, by extension, of the written text.

Yoshimoto stressed the integral relationship of poetry and the ba in his Hekirensho PIkJ/ (An Errant Treatise on Linked Verse, 1345):

If one wishes to hold a linked-verse session, one must first choose an appropriate time and location. When one observes in different seasons the snow and the moon, the grasses and the trees, one's heart is moved, and words take shape. One must search out a vista or elegant garden pavilion; nothing is more conducive to poetry than gazing upon mountains or a stream and thereby heightening one's sense of elegance. 12

Yoshimoto here identifies the locale of the ba as a source of poetic inspiration; it is the fountainhead of the affective-expressive poetic nexus wherein "one's heart is moved and words take shape," a formulation recalling the preface to Kokinshu.'3

The medium through which orally expressed poetic sentiments were transcribed as written words was the scribe, who sat behind a low writing table (bundai i?#i). The table was the textual locus of the ba, tangible like the paper on which the verses were recorded. 14 The poets sat before it without desks of their own, the empty space they occupied reflecting the intangible orality of their enterprise. The master, who helped to mediate the shift from the oral to the written word, sat to one side of the scribe, usually to the left of the writing table as viewed from the front."5

When one of the poets at a session composed a verse, he looked to the scribe and recited it when the scribe indicated he was ready. The scribe then repeated the seventeen- or fourteen-syllable verse from memory and checked it mentally for infractions against the shiki-

12 Nij6 Yoshimoto, Hekirensho, in Ijichi Tetsuo, Omote Akira * , and Kuriyama Riichi -[UJ-., eds., Rengaronshu, nogakuronshul, haironshu, NKBZ 51.29. Hekirensho is an earlier version of Renri hisho (see n. 6).

13 " Japanese poetry has the human heart as seed, and myriads of words as leaves." Helen McCullough, trans., Kokin Wakashu (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), p. 3.

14 I use the word "textual" here and elsewhere to refer to the written record of the sequence. The oral sequence is, of course, also "textual" in another sense.

15 For a list of extant early writing tables, see Kaneko, Renga soron, pp. 152-88. Renga soron is the best single guide to the mechanics of the ba, and this study is indebted to it. See also Ishimura Yasuko 6T#*T, "Chuisei ni okeru rengakai no un'ei ni tsuite", in Waka renga no kenkyuz (Musashino shoin, 1975), pp. 187-95.


moku A rules, which regulated the repetition, seriation, and intermission of topics and images in order to foster continual thematic development.'6 It was particularly important for the scribe to make sure that the sense and imagery of the proposed link referred only to the verse immediately preceding it and not to earlier verses in the sequence. If the scribe found the verse acceptable and the renga master concurred, the scribe wrote down the verse, chanted it, and awaited the next link. He could also compose a few verses himself during the hundred-verse sequence.

Various treatises enlarge upon these basic functions. One of the earliest and most detailed is Chotansho -PA?'P (A Treatise on the Long and the Short, 1390), by the renga poet Bont6 Mg (b. 1349), a disciple of Yoshimoto:

The scribe first kneels by his round mat, and then at a sign from the person of highest rank, he seats himself. Next he removes the lid of the box containing the inkstone, folds the paper, places it on the writing table, and rubs the ink stick on the inkstone.... The ink stick should not be rubbed too long. He then takes up a brush, examines it, then dips it in the ink and lays it with the handle on the brush rest. Next he writes the character for "title," and drawing up his left knee [in a posture of respect] he looks in the direction of the host and awaits the hokku.'7 When the hokku is given, from whatever quarter, he accepts it, and after confer- ring with the master at the session, he writes down the rest of the title of the sequence. He then recites the hokku and writes it down, then chants it, after which he inscribes the name of the person who composed it. At the pleasure of the host or

16 I have borrowed the terms "repetition, seriation, and intermission" from Konishi Jin'ichi, "The Art of Renga," translated with an introduction by Karen Brazell and Lewis Cook, JJS 2.1 (1975): 29-61.

17 The character for "title" isfusu ,, referring tofushimono Mt, the standard method for titling a sequence. The fushimono title, for example, of the Yashima Shorin 'an naniki hyakuin 93 Als'J4*J71iJAKM~ sequence, composed by S6ch6 'A (1448-1532) and his disciple S6boku gt (d. 1545) in 1527, is naniki 1J4A ("what kind of tree?"), which derives from the hokku of

the sequence:

ume ga ka o Is there a scent kieaenu yuki ya of plum blossoms

niouran in the lingering snow?

The hokku shows that the answer to the fushimono question "what kind of tree" is "plum tree" (ume, more accurately "apricot"). Daiei 7 [1527]:1:18 Yashima Shorin'an naniki hyakuin, vol. 18 of Katsuranomiyabon sosho t19*0, eds. Shiba Katsumori ~X and Yamagishi Tokuhei [UW=#i (Y6tokusha, 1949-62) [hereafter Yashima], pp. 201-30. The scribe at Ya- shima, according to Bont6's counsel, would have written the character for fusu at the the right margin of the first page, awaited the hokku, then written naniki under the fusu character.

450 H. MACK HORTON

senior member, he may thereafter sit at his ease. After writing the title he may prepare as much ink as he wishes. The left-over folded paper should be placed on the lid of the inkstone box.

When the scribe composes a verse himself, he should lay down his brush, lightly place both hands on the writing paper, and then offer his verse after looking toward the host and the linked-verse master. When the verse is confirmed he should pick up his brush and write it down. In consequence, others should recognize that when he puts his brush down he has a verse of his own to present, and they should refrain from offering verses themselves. The scribe therefore must not lay down his brush [unless he wishes to provide a verse himself].

. . .With renga at night, or when the session is noisy, the scribe should chant the last several verses again from time to time.

. Regarding the posture of the scribe-he should sit up straight, and while ob- serving everything with his eyes, he should keep his mind on the recording paper. If he keeps his eyes on the paper and his mind elsewhere, he will misconstrue verses.

. . .At the end of the session, the scribe should write down the verse tally and tie the papers together."8

With the help of Chotansho and other texts, the scribal desiderata can be generalized as follows.'9 First, the scribe needed an excellent memory, not only for the shikimoku rules themselves (which occupy twelve dense pages in Gunsho ruiu) but for each verse of the sequence he was recording.20 Obviously that became progressively necessary and increasingly difficult as the sequence unfolded. For example, he had to be certain that none of the over a dozen words required by the rules to be separated by seven verses or more (nanaku o hedatsubeki mono -L4P4PM%t) had appeared too soon, or that none of nearly six dozen words limited to once per sequence (ichiza ikku mono

1W--fi$t) ever reappeared once employed. It was disruptive and time-consuming for the scribe to be continually hunting for such information in the written text; he ideally processed it mentally for instant recall.

18 Bont6, Chotansho, in Ijichi Tetsuo, ed., vol. 1 of Rengaronshu, (Iwanami shoten, 1985), pp. 194-95.

19 Other detailed descriptions of the duties of the scribe may be found in Shiyosho VAfTh (A Treatise for Private Use) by Shinkei 'C?R (in Kid6 Saiz6, ed., vol. 3 of Rengaronshui [Miyai shoten, 1985], pp. 331-66), Yojinshoi f'fl4.) (A Cautionary Treatise), anonymous (in Ijichi Tetsuo, ed., vol. 3 of Rengaron shinshu, vol. 191 of Koten bunko [Koten bunko, 1963], pp. 127- 37), and Renga shuhitsu shidai V *,M (Protocol for the Linked-Verse Scribe), anonymous (in ZGSRJ 17b. 1247-48). For a list of other apposite medieval works, see Kaneko, Ren- ga soron, pp. 118-19.

20 See n. 6.


Next, he needed a pleasing and effective voice to confirm his memorized version of each verse and to impress it on the minds of the poets, so that they might begin composing their rejoinders. Once he had heard the oral verse, recited it from memory, and confirmed it with the renga master, he then committed it to the recording paper, which required a skilled hand. This was particularly so when the recording paper, the kaishi JOf,, was highly decorat- ed and meant for subsequent dedication to a temple or shrine. A fair copy of the manuscript could, of course, be commissioned later as well. Four sheets of paper, of high-quality torinokogami AwIf when possible, were used for one hundred verses, each sheet folded lengthwise (Shinkei's Shiyosho cautions the scribe to fold it while holding it above the writing table, never directly on it, much less across the knee [Shiyosho, p. 357]).

The season in which the session took place might condition the color of the paper used. Bonto refers to this in Chotansho:

For colored papers, the usual combinations. Green is the basic color for spring, red for summer, white for autumn, and purple for winter.21 Yellow is always acceptable. Renga celebrating house construction or relocation should always use light blue paper, since it is the color of water. For sessions with blossoms or fall foliage, those colors should be used. (Chotansho, p. 195)

The scribe did not rest the recording paper on the writing table when he inscribed each verse; he instead held it in his left hand, laying it down only when finished. After writing the last verse (ageku), he counted the number of verses composed by each participant and inscribed the tally (kuage) at the end of the last page, then he bound the four kaishi pages with a string at the right margin.

Together with those basic qualities, the ideal scribe also possessed a number of more abstract virtues. He had of necessity a fine sense of ritualized behavior. The Chotansho passage demonstrates that in renga, as in the tea ceremony, the motions were choreographed and extraneous gestures were minimized. The scribe's role in addition required sensitivity to minute differences in rank and social station as well as diplomacy in order to return unsuccessful verses without

21 These are standard color-season correspondences according to five-phase (gogy6 EflT) tradition, save that winter is normally black.

452 H. MACK HORTON

giving offense. He was also responsible for the pace of the session. And finally, but perhaps most important of all, he was required to possess a good poetic sensibility. He might selectively apply the renga rules where he felt it was in the interest of the session to do so.

The manifold duties and talents required of the scribe made him the keystone of the renga edifice, a fact stressed by Bont6's remark that "The session is entirely in the hands of the scribe."22 He was often a young man in training to become one day a linked-verse master himself. Although medieval military and monastic tastes made youth and beauty an added attraction in a scribe, Shinkei cautioned that the position was too vital to the success of the session for someone overly young to be appointed:

Given the breadth of the Way of linked verse, deficiencies in knowledge or writing

on the part of the scribe are bound to result in many errors.... A beginner will find it difficult to rise to the task. (Shiyosho, p. 356)

The renga master S6cho '-A (1448-1532) wrote in his journal Socho shuki Af-W of being particularly impressed by the literary at- tainments of one young scribe he met on his travels:

Fujimasu, a lad of twelve or thirteen, writes with a truly accomplished hand. At the Ichikawa residence of his father we held an abbreviated renga session the day after the beginning of the eighth month, [1524].23 Fujimasu was the scribe.

hayashisomete Praise the bush clover iku soma no hana growing up like mountain timber,

hagi no tsuyu dew on its blossoms.

This was meant to praise the young scribe's accomplished hand and correct demeanor. ...24

But mistakes were indeed made, even in sequences that became classics of the genre. Yuyama sangin WiII:I34A (Three Poets at Yu-

22 Bont6, Bontoanshu hentosho XOMIM;N (Answers from the Master of Bont6an, 1417), ZGSRJ 17b. 1054. -

23 Ichikawa -itJI1, Ihara ,%g District, Shizuoka Prefecture. An "abbreviated renga session," or more literally, "single sheet" (hitoori -#i-), meant twenty-two verses, the number that fit on both sides of the first sheet of recording paper (see pp. 499-500).

24 S6cho, Sochi shuki, in Socho nikki, ed. Shimazu Tadao (Iwanami shoten, 1985) [hereafter SS], p. 50.


yama), composed by three of the greatest linked-verse masters, S6gi, Soch6, and Sh6haku Pi1 (1443-1527) in 1491, contains the following example:25

64. uramigatashi yo How hard to think ill of it! matsukaze no koe The sound of wind in the pines.

Shohaku

65. hana o nomi As I thought only omoeba kasumu of the blossoms, the moon above

tsuki no moto hid in the haze. S6cho

66. fuji saku koro no The sky in evening twilight tasogare no sora when wisteria are in bloom.

S6gi

In reference to this passage, one medieval commentator writes: "Three botanical verses continue here in succession. The poets attributed it to scribal error. X X26 The rules specify that verses containing botanical images (uemono) should not continue for more than two verses in a row (Renga shinshiki, p. 5). It was the responsibility of the scribe to identify such rote infractions, leaving the poets free to concentrate on the artistry of their verses.

But scribal etiquette was not entirely inflexible, and various authorities differ with regard to this or that point. Yojinsho begins its remarks by making special reference to this relativity: "The rules for the scribe are diverse; the teachings that have been handed down are not always in agreement, and styles have changed over the ages" (Yjjinsho, p. 127). For example, Bonto in the Chotansho passage quoted earlier specifies that the fushimono title be given after the hokku. Shinkei, however, states in Shiy6sho that it should be chosen by the maker of the hokku before he gives the verse itself (Shiyosho, p. 357). Even the shikimoku rules themselves were subject to several

25 Verses are not normally numbered on the recording paper; I do so here and in quota- tions from select renga treatises for ease in cross referencing.

26 Yuyama sangin, in Kaneko Kinjir6, ed., Sogi meisaku hyakuin chushaku (Offisha, 1985), p. 258. For an English translation of the entire sequence, see Steven D. Carter, Three Poets at Yuyama, Japan Research Monograph 4 (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies / Center for Japanese Studies, University of California, 1983).

454 H. MACK HORTON

revisions during their history, reflecting changes in taste. While it was the scribe who identified infractions in the rules, it

was the linked-verse master (s6sho) who orchestrated the artistic development of the entire sequence.27 He accomplished this function by first judging the artistic suitability of each verse as it was presented, appraising the depth of conception and elegance of diction. Sec- ond, he confirmed that the verse favorably contributed to the pattern of transitions, the yukiyoJ H, of the hundred-verse sequence. The success of a renga sequence depended on the balance between constant change, involving avoidance of imagistic or thematic repetition (rinne lIfI), and overall consistency of tone and development. That consistency was in part expressed through a gradual increase in pace from introduction (jo), through development (ha), to the conclusion (kyut), a concept renga shares with traditional Japanese music and no drama. The master might also decide that it was time for a "design" (mon) verse of particularly vibrant imagery or technique, or conversely that the moment was inappropriate for such a verse and that an unobtrusive "ground'" (ji) verse should be substituted. The renga master might at any time decide that a submitted verse, while free of literal infractions, lacked the appropriate tone for the current moment in the hundred-verse sequence. It was only with the approving nod of the master that the ephemeral, orally tendered verse was finally fixed in time and place on the recording paper.

The renga master accomplished those primary functions not only by judging the verses of others and on occasion suggesting changes, but also by contributing verses himself at critical junctures to nudge the sequence in the direction his experience and taste told him was the most appropriate. Unlike the scribe, who composed only a small number of verses, the renga master was not only a judge and a coach, but the premier poet at the ba.

The quality of the session thus depended to a large extent on the renga master. Not only could a master of the first rank correct and judge the verses with the greatest finesse, but his authority could help preserve the harmony of the group and keep its creative forces channeled. The Hekirensho:

27 The title s6sh6 simply means "master" and may denote a teacher of tea, flower arranging, etc.


Argument at the ba is pointless. It is imperative to bow to the judgment of the most skilled poet present and to work toward harmony. It is difficult for even the best poets to compose linked verse when there is no agreement on the good and the bad, the black and the white. In such cases, the excellent is criticized and the inferior ex- tolled. (Hekirensho, pp. 29-30)

The higher the reputation of the renga master, the greater the credibility of his judgments and the more likely he was to command the acquiescence of the often fractious poetic egos at the session. The renga master S6ch6, for example, expected such compliance; an entry in Nikonshui -1&R, a collection of poetic anecdotes center- ing around the Ise Shrines, records:

natsu no yo bakari There is nothing so fleeting hakanashi wa nashi as a summer night.

S6cho said that next a verse with "cuckoo" would be appropriate. But the verse submitted used "firefly" instead. Up- set, S6ch6 went out to a small building in the Outer Shrine. After some moments he regained his composure and returned.28

The renga master thus acted both as principal musician and as conductor, and his direction was in itself a kind of performance. The presence of a famous, skilled poet at a session could raise the session's creative pitch and motivate the participants to produce their best efforts, rather like a famous guest artist performing with a local ensemble. Through both his poetic direction and his less tangible but vital personal example, the master could make the difference between an average and a truly memorable session.

Renga masters like Soch6 were consequently in great demand. As the art grew in popularity in the later medieval era, growing numbers of poets began to make their livings as professional renga masters, or rengashi tij.2g Most of those professionals traveled

28 The anecdote appears on the back of one of the sheets of the Toshi kugatsu juisan 'ya fusunanimichi renga VL-A +_Ei-MOMR, quoted in Okuno Jun'ichi kLffH-, "Kai- setsu," in vol. 1 of Arakida Morihira *EH 2T, Nikonshiu -_ W, ed. Okuno, vol. 335 of Koten bunko (Koten bunko 1974) [hereafter Nikonshiu], p. 31.

29 The term rengashi has a long history and sometimes refers to renga poets in general, not only those who made a living at the art. Nakamura Yukihiko has called linked-verse masters Japan's first true literary professionals, for unlike court literati, they derived their main eco-

456 H. MACK HORTON

frequently in the pursuit of their art, often to officiate at the linked- verse sessions of wealthy provincial amateurs. The vast majority of those amateurs usually did without a professional at their sessions, deferring instead to the colleague with the most experience. The ar- rival of a professional rengashi was thus cause for considerable ex- citement in provincial poetic circles. But inviting a rengashi for a major linked-verse gathering and providing the venue, the ba, could entail considerable expense. Not only was an honorarium for the master necessary, but often gifts for the participants, elegant paper, and food and drink. The kyogen play Renga nusubito (The Renga Thieves) deals with poor but devoted renga enthusiasts who are driven to attempt a robbery to allow them to host a gathering.30 Sochoi in his journal mentions the sums paid for his services by one provincial patron:

Five hundred hiki as a gift.3' Last year too when I left for Kyoto, I received one

thousand hiki as a going-away present. Totaling these and other favors received from him to date, I find they reach ten thousand hiki. Overwhelming! Just overwhelming! (SS, p. 124-25).

We now turn to the sine qua non of the renga session, the poets themselves. Yoshimoto remarks in Tsukuba mondo on the relationship of the number of participants to the success of the gathering:

Question: The number of participants in kemari [court kickball] is fixed at eight at

most. Is the success or failure of a renga session related to the number of par-

ticipants? How many should there be?

Answer: In renga too, a session animated by seven or eight truly gifted poets gener- ates great interest as the session unfolds. Too few people will result in unfortunate

pauses between links. But if there are too many, the session will become chaotic

and nothing will proceed as it should. (Tsukuba mondo, p. 92)

nomic support from their calling (Nakamura Yukihiko @t4 , "Bunjin to s6sh6" IZA e

gE, Bungaku 31.5 11963]: 509-17). For more on the occupation of the linked-verse poet, see my "Saiokuken S6ch6 and the Linked-Verse Business," TASJ, fourth series, vol. 1 (1986): 45-78.

30 Renga nusubito SRAA, in Furukawa Hisashi iJIIX, ed., vol. 2 of Kyogenshu, Nihon koten zensho (Asahi shinbunsha, 1969), pp. 5-16.

31 The hiki XE was a theoretical unit of value equal to ten copper cash (mon) or, in this period, about 1.5 liters of rice (see T6ky6 Daigaku Shiry6 Hensanjo, ed., Dokushi biyo

[Daishind6, 1966]).


Some of the classic sequences of the linked-verse corpus, such as Yuyama sangin or Yashima Sholrin 'an naniki hyakuin, were composed by as few as two or three linked-verse masters, while others had far more than the usual number of seven or eight.32 Oei sanjunen Atsu- ta horaku hyakuin EtNJgk of 1423 involved thirty-six poets.33 Yoshimoto continues:

When the group is composed of skilled members, the verses will be well distributed no matter how many poets participate. Since no one will be singled out for lack of skill, the actual number of participants will be immaterial. (Tsukuba mondo, p. 92)

The seating order of the poets followed social rank, with the members of lowest status seated in back (sueza). Shinkei's Shiyosho gives particularly detailed advice on where the scribe should sit in courtly functions, where minute differences of rank were of major social importance.

Many linked-verse handbooks and theoretical treatises were written for aristocrats who participated in renga sessions of the highest level at court. Yoshimoto himself was one of those "court" (dojo 1L) poets. As mentioned earlier, however, his renga theory was deeply influenced by Kyuisei, a monk not of courtly but commoner (jige 1IT) background. As the Muromachi period went on, the number of those jige practitioners constantly increased, particularly among the warrior and merchant strata, giving rise to a wider variety of participants at sessions and to a concomitant need for more teachers and books of instruction. The opportunity for people of different social levels to meet at the renga ba was widely perceived as one of the art's greatest attractions. Kensai t (1452-1510), one of S6gi's contemporaries, included in his list of ten virtues of linked verse (Renga jittoku A$+tt) the fact that "Without being exalted, one mingles with the great" at the ba.34 The protagonist of the ky6gen play Mikazuki -R* (The Winnow Hat) was likewise drawn to the art of linked verse because one could take part regardless of social station, and even someone of as low degree as himself was able

32 Solitaire linked verse (dokugin RI4) was a separate category; see p. 498. 3 Oei sanjiunen Atsuta horaku hyakuin can be found in Shimazu Tadao, ed., Rengashui, vol. 33

of Shincho Nihon koten shuisei (Shinch6sha, 1979), pp. 75-103. 34 Kensai, Rengajittoku, in Fukui Kyuizo X#R, Renga no shitekikenkyui (Benseisha, 1981),

p. 126.

458 H. MACK HORTON

to serve as host.35 Shimazu Tadao has indicated that as the years passed, works meant for interested amateurs began appearing in greater numbers to augment more highly theoretical treatises on renga, of which Shinkei's Sasamegoto is the archetype.36 This development was paralleled in theoretical works on the n6 drama, where the abstract and even mystical observations of Konparu Zenchiku ! 1itg (b. 1405) were subsequently augmented by the more practical work of Konparu Zenp6 4*X (b. 1454).3

One of the most detailed examples of a renga treatise written for the growing class of provincial linked-verse amateurs is Renga kaiseki shiki AIRAWA (Rules for Renga Sessions, translated in Appendix One), by the Kant6 warrior poet Nitta Shojun VfTiMTh (n.d.).38 The work is one of the most graphic summaries available of what some provincial renga sessions must have been like. Shojun was a gifted and well-connected warrior literatus, far more steeped in matters of high culture than the provincial amateurs with whom he often composed verse. His father-in-law was Chiun W (d. 1448), one of the "Seven Sages" of renga, and he was a close friend of S6ch6. It was perhaps natural, therefore, that he devoted his Renga kaiseki shiki not only to inculcating what he took to be ideal attitudes, resembling those quoted above by Yoshimoto and Bont6, but also to chastising the habits of what he considered his uncouth contemporaries. His disgust at negligent personal hygiene or dress (RKS, nos. 10 and 14) gives telling evidence of how far removed the provincial ba could be from what he perceived to be the courtly poetic ideal.

Shojun's desire to instill in provincial poets his notion of high orthodox poetic values led him to aggressively stress decorum and ritual at his ideal ba. But his emphasis on discipline and deportment, while particularly marked, was by no means unique. For ex-

3 Mikazuki, p. 32. 36 Shinkei, Sasamegoto b % ? , in NKBZ 51.63-160. For a partial English translation

see Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, "Shinkei: Poet-Priest of Medieval Japan," Diss. Har- vard University, 1983, and for a study of Shinkei's work, see idem, Heart's Flower: The Life and Poetry of Shinkei (Stanford: Stanford University Press), forthcoming.

37 Shimazu Tadao, Chtusei bungaku shi ron (Izumi shoin, 1987), p. 163. 38 There is a printed version of Renga kaiseki shiki, in Tsurusaki Hir6 1* , "K6zuke

no kuni kokujin ry6shu Iwamatsu Sh6jun no renga to sono shiry6" ?fIM At19 A-qCDA*L -E ;OR*4, Tezukayamagakuin tanki daigaku kenkyul nenpo 28 (1980) [hereafter RKS]: 1-36.


ample, Rengajtumuyaku A-t+-C1r (Ten Vexations of Linked Verse, translated in Appendix Two), attributed to the linked-verse master Socho, likewise finds fault with the tendency of some poets to lack dignity or to fail to show respect for others at the session, and it by and large agrees with Shojun's dicta on general rules of etiquette at the orthodox renga ba.39

THE PERFORMANCE GESTALT

The accounts of Shojun and S6cho show that there was great vari- ation in behavior at the renga ba, and for every elevated session such as the Yashima Shorin'an naniki hyakuin sequence by S6cho and Soboku, there were many that did not live up to the ideals of the cultivated practitioners of the high renga Way. But every group session, every communal ba, was characterized by a strong awareness of its extemporaneous performance quality (tozasei ?i1t), a gestalt composed of volatile systems that never combined in quite the same way twice. Richard Bauman has referred to the ever-changing essence of performance as its "emergent quality," which "resides in the interplay between communicative resources, individual compe- tence, and the goals of the participants, within the context of particular situations. "4 Identification of the various emergent structures at work in every renga session is essential for understanding the relationship between the performance at the ba and the shape of the final written text.

PREPARATION AND EXTEMPORANEITY

The list of performance paradigms begins at the point where a poet decides to participate in a session, where he sets out to strike a mental balance between spiritual and textual preparation beforehand and extemporaneous performance at the session itself. Renga

3 There is a printed version of Renga jiimuyaku in Matsuyama Shiritsu Shiki Kinen Hakubutsukan l ed., Renga: "za" no bungaku V rW67: (Matsuyama: Matsuyama Shiritsu Shiki Kinen Hakubutsukan, 1988) [hereafter RJM]: 28. For a discussion of the document, see Hoshika S6ichi fl1 -, "Den S6ch6 hitsu Renga no jimuyaku ni tsuite," Ehime kokubun kenkyi 3 (March, 1954): 137-42.

4 Richard Bauman, Verbal Art as Performance (Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, 1977), p. 38.

460 H. MACK HORTON

kaiseki shiki begins with advice on preparation for the session, counseling the poet to "put linked-verse composition before all else" (RKS, no. 1), to savor examples of Chinese and Japanese verse, and to elevate the mind "as though entering a state of meditation" (RKS, no. 2).

The single most conspicuous example of the relationship between preparation and performance is the composition of the hokku. It is in the hokku, created either at the ba or in anticipation of it, that the conditions at the ba are most immediately and concretely reflected in the written text. The hokku is required by linked-verse convention to reflect the season (ji 0), the physical locale (sho Mr), and the degree of formality of the session (i ft). The season is normally indicated by a "seasonal word" (kigo), one of dozens of words specifically linked by poetic convention to this or that season. Renga handbooks such as Ichij6 Kaneyoshi's Renju gappekishuz A *e

(Collection of Linked Pearls and Joined Jewels, 1476) devote many pages to listing those and other conventional associations. Locale is often evoked by a reference to a nearby poetic toponym (utamakura). Level of formality is related to the overall tone and purpose of the session: whether, for example, it was a votive (horaku i

) renga meant for eventual dedication to a temple or shrine, or one attempting high art, or one meant as a heuristic exercise for disciples, or one meant simply for pleasure, and so forth. Those levels were not, of course, necessarily mutually exclusive.

The hokku by convention reflects the actual conditions at the ba, and as such it ties into the subjective affective-expressive poetic nexus in a more concrete way than the verses that follow. To a certain extent, the hokku poet treats of life as experienced-or as it will be experienced-at the ba; the verse is in a limited sense literally true to fact, in that it evokes the actual season and the actual place of

composition. In this it is opposed to the succeeding verses, whose

topoi necessarily tend to become more fictional and to privilege truth to life as expressed through waka conventions and "basic es- sences" (hon'i) rather than immediate experience and truth to fact

41 Ichij6 Kaneyoshi, Renju gappekishu, eds. Kid6 Saiz6 and Shigematsu Hiromi A tIE, in vol. 1 of Rengaronshu, (Miyai shoten, 1972), pp. 25-202.


at the ba. Yoshimoto's advice quoted earlier from his Hekirensho about choosing "a good time and vista" at which to hold the session takes on added meaning in view of the direct and immediate impact those temporal and spatial elements stood to exert on the important hokku.

Socho in his journal demonstrates on occasion just how certain hokku related to conditions at the ba. He writes, for example, of a session held on his return to Suruga in 1527 as follows:

A day's stay at Utsuyama Castle.42 A renga session was planned, but I demurred, pleading old age. Composed the hokku only. Eight or nine people in the first round.

nami ya kore These breakers kazashioru hana are its crowning blossoms

natsu no umi the sea in summer.

This refers to the view at the castle. The foundation poem is "The God of the Sea / did not begrudge giving it / to you, my good lords, / this sea plant that he treasures / to crown his hair.' "' The phrase "its crowning blossoms" is in praise of this fortress, which will crown the surrounding provinces in per- petuity. By "the sea in summer," I was describing the cool waves, which are crowning blossoms now that spring has passed, and there are no flowers of any kind. (SS, pp. 126-27)

Often a hokku has two interpretations, a surface meaning of generalized artistic beauty to which the next verse (the waki a or wakiku J,'i) is linked, together with an underlying meaning referring to the occasion for which the ba was convened. Again, Socho:

That winter the Asahina built a Hachiman Shrine at Kakega- wa Castle.44 My hokku in celebration:

kore ya yo ni This is the rock-pent spring koranu nagare that flows on without freezing

42 The site of Utsuyama Castle is in Shizuoka Prefecture, Kosai i$^ City. 4 The foundation poem is from Ise monogatari pt. 87. 4 The Asahina Wtlr were retainers of the Imagawa 4I)I, daimy6 of Suruga; Kakegawa

WII, in Shizuoka Prefecture, was the site of a major Asahina castle.

462 H. MACK HORTON

iwashimizu in every season.

(SS, p. I1)

Though it does not figure in the surface meaning of the verse, iwashimizu, "rock-pent spring," is also the name of a famous Hachi- man shrine south of Kyoto, and S6cho uses the word to suggest the occasion for the poem and to suggest religious overtones.

The hokku could also reflect matters of patronage. As indicated earlier, a linked-verse gathering could entail considerable expense, and a patron might sponsor one not only because of an innate love of the art but also because he planned to dedicate the completed sequence to a religious institution as an expression of supplication or gratitude to the eponymous deity. The hokku of such votive sequences was often composed by the patron himself or by a famous linked-verse poet for the patron to submit as his own. His name, inscribed beneath the first verse on the page, was a token of his in- volvement, just as a patron in the Italian Renaissance might be portrayed kneeling at the foot of the cross in a scene of the Cruci- fixion that he had commissioned.

The hokku also frequently encoded a reference to the patron's identity or to the circumstances behind his sponsorship. One example is the hokku of the votive Ise senku f+#f'ij of 1522, which the warlord Hosokawa Takakuni hJIIWIIA (1484-1531) commissioned from the two poets Socho and S6seki vQ (1474-1533) in thanks for the defeat of his enemies in 1520:

asahikage The haze is aglow, yomo ni nioeru everywhere bathed in the light

kasumi kana of the morning sun !45

4 The foundation poem for the verse is Shinkokinshi 1:98, by Fujiwara Ariie:

asahikage The cherry blossoms nioeru yama no on the mountains aglow

sakurabana in the morning sun tsurenaku kienu might be mistaken for snow yuki ka to zo miru that does not deign to melt.

This is in turn based on Man yoshi 4:495. The passage in question is reproduced in Kaneko Kinjir6, Renga kochuishaku no kenkyui P19f,' (Kadokawa shoten, 1974), p. 123; for one version of the entire Ise senku, see ibid., pp. 340-422.


A commentary on the manuscript in the collection of the National Diet Library explains the background of the verse as follows:

The sun is included in the hokku because Ise is the shrine of the Sun Goddess. The haze spreads in all directions, glowing in the light of the morning sun. The underlying meaning refers to Takakuni's authority over the realm.46

The very title of the text reflects the intimate relationship between the hokku and time and place. We have already seen that the work of the scribe began by brushing the date of the sequence on the paper. That date became part of the sequence's title together with the fushimono, which was usually based on an image that itself would relate by convention to the season. The relationship between the title and fushimono, the hokku, and the season, locale, and level was so well understood by the participants at the session that the scribe could, by tradition, abridge the date he brushed at the right margin of the piece if the hokku itself made the date clear.47

Since the hokku was the only verse that would initially stand alone, it was also the only verse that could be prepared ahead of time, before the session actually convened. Poets often practiced composing isolated hokku, and hokku conventionally occupied a separate category in linked-verse anthologies. There were also anthologies entirely dedicated to hokku, such as Sogi hokkushu- Ji,a'1

t or Hokku Sjchj ;hJA.48 In this respect the hokku may reflect less of the actual emotion of the session than the subsequent verses, even while it demonstrates a closer connection to the locus of the ba.

Subsequent verses are of course more completely "fictional" in that they are not required to respond in any concrete way to the ba. But in that they react immediately to a preceding verse, they necessarily incorporate something of the intangible ambience of the session. And a few verses may go still further and make reference to immediate events or to aspects of the poet's life. It is for this reason that over two hundred of the linked pairs of verses in Tsukubashui are

46 Kaneko, Renga kochufshaku no kenkyti, p. 122. 47 See, for example, Renga shuhitsu shidai, p. 1247. 48 Sogi hokkushi, ed. Hoshika S6ichi (Iwanami shoten, 1985); Hokku Socho (Hiroshima

Daigaku ms.), facsimile in Kokubungaku Kenkyiu Shiry6kan, bound with other works under the collective title Shinkei Sozu hyakku ta CAkJ$ jfft. It is briefly mentioned in Ijichi Te- tsuo, "S6ch6 no kushui Kabekusa sono ta ni tsuite no oboegaki" 7-O)Ao_UPvrw j o-1 t r -DL C O);:, Kokubungaku kenkyi 7 (Oct., 1952): 79.

464 H. MACK HORTON

accompanied by prefaces explaining the conditions out of which the verses arose.49 Where specific prefaces are not available, as in the case of hundred-verse sequences as opposed to isolated verse pairs in anthologies, it is difficult to determine which verses have some concrete relationship to the ba itself and which are more purely works of imagination. Steven D. Carter has drawn attention to the various fictional "masks of linked verse" that the poets selectively don at the session and that complicate an autobiographical reading of the sequence (Komatsubara, pp. 100-104). But commentators both ancient and modern occasionally draw parallels between this or that verse in a sequence and the actual circumstances of the poet at the ba, especially in view of the traditional affective-expressive notion which holds that the poet is always on some level expressing his own emotions. This was particularly true of the second verse, which in responding to the concrete referentiality of the hokku might itself likewise reflect in its imagery or theme conditions at the ba.

A case in point appears in Socho shuki, where Socho is composing with Seki Kajisai MIfJ?1J (also called Sotetsu v, n.d.), a warrior literatus who journeyed far through the snow to visit him in Omi province in 1526:

At the hearth, sake cups in hand, we composed the first eight verses of a renga:

furu ga uchi no An Omi hut yuki Omiji no where we meet one another

yadori kana in the falling snow.50 [Socho]

This refers to one who has come from another province through the snow to visit. His rejoinder:

tabine wasururu By the smoldering embers, uzumibi no moto forgetting nights on the road.

Sotetsu (SS, pp. 109-10)

49 See Kaneko Kinjir6, "Hass6 ni okeru ba no mondai, " in Tsukubashi no kenkyi (Kazama shob6, 1965), pp. 678-82.

50 There are kakekotoba pivoting between yuki (snow) and yukiau (meet) and then on yukiau and Omi.


The hokku and waki were often perceived as a greeting between the guest, who was traditionally afforded the honor of composing the hokku, and the host, who responded with the link. This convention of "guest, first verse; host, second verse" (kyaku hokku, teishu waki) was another way in which the hokku addressed actual conditions at the ba.5' The greeting aspect of the verses above is very clear.

Apposite references to actual conditions at the ba might also appear in the generic verses (hiraku T'4i), numbers four through ninety-nine in a hundred-verse sequence. In a sequence composed by Sogi and several disciples, S6cho at one point contributes this verse: "How fleeting, the fifty years / of dreams on my pillow!" (yume ni isoji no / makura hakana ya).52 The verse bears a concrete relationship to conditions at the ba, since Socho was exactly fifty years old when he composed it.

Nor was the hokku always the only verse prepared before the session. As will be discussed in greater detail further on, renga was in essence communal, and convention insisted that each member of the session be represented by at least one verse. The difficulty for beginners was sometimes overcome by establishing ahead of time the order in which the poets would present their first verses at the session, then circulating the hokku beforehand to the composer of the next verse, who sent his verse to the next, and so on, until the "first round" (ichijun -JlIM, -A() was prepared. Soboku describes the process in Tofu renga hiji fiFIRVA (Secret Matters Concerning Contemporary Linked Verse, 1542):

In Kyoto, from the time of Kensai down through that of S6ch6 and S6seki to the present, the order of the first round has been established after the hokku is composed. Thereafter, verses are sent around to the participants one after another by letter box three to five days in advance. During that time, each person takes his verse to a skilled poet for consultation.53

Convention held that spring and autumn verses had to continue

51 An example of this formulation is found in Renga kyokun jIRIl (Lessons in Linked- Verse, ca. 1582) by SatomuraJ6ha 4lLE (1525?-1602) (Ijichi, Rengaronshi 2.267). See also Yakame Norikatsu Qt , "Kyaku hokku, teishu waki," Kokubungaku kaishaku to kyozai no kenkyi 28.1 (Jan., 1983): 58-62.

52 The verse appears in Mei6 7 [1498] Intercalary 10:11 Genseitaku tfEt hyakuin. 5 S6boku, Tofu renga hiji, in NKBZ 51.163.

466 H. MACK HORTON

for three to five verses, which meant that the composers of at least the waki and the third verse (the daisan V=i) would also necessarily include spring or autumn in their poems if the hokku did. But the verse of the sixth poet would be required by the rules to leave the current season, thus distancing that poem from the time of the ba.

Such was the importance of the hokku in establishing the tenor of the rest of the sequence that only a skilled poet was expected to compose one. This basic tenet of renga is recognized in Yakumo mishoJ A WOW,J (Imperial Treatise on the Myriad Clouds, after 1235) byJun- tokuin J10I0 (1197-1242), a work containing some of the earliest comments on the renga art: "The hokku for a session must be composed by someone competent. An unskilled poet must not be allowed to compose it."54 Yoshimoto concurs: "The hokku is the most important element of the Way of linked verse. If the hokku is poor, the entire session is ruined. One should therefore defer to experienced, skillful poets" (Tsukuba mondo, p. 88).

Provincial amateurs often felt the need for an inspiring hokku beyond the talents of any of their number at this or that session, and they might accordingly commission one from a renga master who lived in the vicinity or happened by. Such requests brought rengashi like Socho a substantial income, but the pressure to compose them could become onerous. The strain of repeatedly composing opening verses that responded to the situation at the ba and set the appropriate tone is nicely demonstrated by a passage in Socho shuki:

A night in Otsu. Jok6in AtI from the temple attended.55 I could not refuse their request to compose:

akenu to ya Does it think dawn has come? yo fukaki tsuki no Beneath the late night moon,

kuina kana the water rail!

My host in Otsu, Sokei i, also wanted to hold a session. Again, I could not refuse, but my ideas for hokku were nearly exhausted. I took for my subject the nearby rocks and trees:

54 Juntokuin, Yakumo misho, in Kyuisojin Hitaku 4* , ed., Nihon kagaku taikei, bekkan vol. 3 (Kazama shob6, 1964), p. 203.

" Jok6in was master of the subtemple of that name, located within Kitain jLM at Miidera z)1, in Otsu.


natsu no ame In the summer rains koke no mao naru rocks and trees covered with moss

iwaki kana like ramie fabric! (SS, p. 87)

The impact that a fine "hokku by request" could have on the evo- lution of the rest of the sequence was felt by poets even as skilled as Soch6 and S6boku, as indicated when they requested a hokku for the Yashima Shorin 'an naniki hyakuin sequence from Sanjonishi Saneta- ka 1 (1455-1537), doyen of the court literary world at the time. Socho recorded the event in Socho shuki:

Soboku requested a hokku from Lord Sanetaka. At my travel lodging we added to it a second and then a third verse. Our determination to complete a hundred links was sustained by the deep impression made by the hokku, and we finally reached the hundredth verse.

ume ga ka o Is there a scent kieaenu yuki ya of plum blossoms

niouramu in the lingering snow? (SS, pp. 113-14)56

S6cho's remarks about the deep impression Sanetaka's poem made on the two poets at the session were not simply conventional flattery meant for a court noble. Nikonshui relates the following anecdote about the trouble Soch6 and Soboku subsequently took to compose a suitable link for Sanetaka's verse:

They composed twenty waki for the hokku, and S6cho said all were poor.

akebono samumi As the dawn is cold, kiiru uguisu a warbler comes and alights.

Soboku

56 Sanetaka uses as his foundation poem Kokinshui 1:7:

kokorozashi Was it since my heart fukaku someteshi was so deeply colored by

orikereba the desire for them kieaenu yuki no that I mistook for blossoms hana to miyuran the lingering snow?

468 H. MACK HORTON

This, S6cho said, was more or less acceptable.57

But though preparations, including study, meditation, and the composition of the hokku, were required before the session began, the essence of the genre was extemporaneous versifying at the ba. The pace was too fast and the poetic moment too fleeting to consult reference matter at the ba, and the poet was required not simply to present a fine verse in its own right but also one that responded to the preceding composition. In Yoshimoto's time, the poet Shuia )N1I tI (d. ca. 1377) was known for his brilliant individual links, but he was criticized by Yoshimoto for viewing them as an end in themselves and for even preparing impressive verses ahead of time, to be insert- ed at opportune moments. Yoshimoto's comments appear in a letter he wrote to a famous warrior poet, Imagawa Ryoshun -I-)IT

(1325-1420), in 1376:

Question: Many of Shula's verses appear to have been prepared ahead of time rather than composed at the session. Is this the correct way to practice renga?

Answer: Tsurayuki spent twenty days composing one waka poem, and therefore there is nothing wrong with making good preparations ahead of time in linked verse as well. But if one composes the entire verse beforehand, it will deviate from the syntax of the previous verse and not fit in. I believe that Shuia generally pre- pares his verses ahead of time, but then he adjusts their syntax. This practice is much inferior to composing verses at the session. To be sure, minute preparation beforehand makes a great impression on the other participants. But since the verses prepared that way will not vary stylistically, they will gradually begin to sound flat and will not measure up to ones that developed out of real inspiration at the session.58

Much of the renga aesthetic is immanent in the ba; a poet is inspired by others at the session, as well as by his private muse. This is one of the major differences between renga and waka, which itself had a long history of communal practice that continued through the heyday of linked verse.59 The protocols of poetry competitions (utaawase) and poem parties (kakai) might require the participants to pre-

5 Arakida, Nikonshiu 1.191. 58 Nij6 Yoshimoto, Kyuishui mondo iA rMJC (Answers to Questions from Kyiishii), in Ijichi,

Rengaronshui 1.85. 5 For more on this neglected period of waka history, see Steven D. Carter, " Waka in the

Age of Renga," MN 36.4 (1981): 425-44, and idem, Waitingfor the Wind: Thirty-Six Poets of

Japan's Late Medieval Age (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989).


pare their poems ahead of time on pre-established topics (kenjitsu a

H or shukudai MM sessions), but often the topics were distributed at the session itself, and the poets were then required to compose their verses on the spot. The poetry of those toza or sokudai ME sessions was composed and presented in the company of others. In the case of tsugiuta Mk, one type of poem party, each poet would compose a certain number of verses on set themes, and then the compositions would be pooled and presented as a group. At competitions, the poems were judged by how well they responded to the essence of the topic, in much the same way that the worth of a renga link inhered in large part in how well it responded to the maeku. The waka judge (hanja tIJ) thus functioned in some respects like the renga master, who likewise determined the suitability of each verse. And like renga, the poetic contest and poem party involved communal enjoyment, for the reciter (koji XNii) chanted each verse aloud for the delectation of all present. At poem parties, where the focus was less on poetic competition than on public appreciation of all the poems written for the session, the participants might all chant each poem several times after the koji did.60

But the waka poet even at extemporaneous sessions perforce responded to an inorganic and pre-established stimulus-the poem topic-and not to the immediate poetic inspiration of his fellows. The tension of the waka session derived from the time constraints on composition and, in the case of poetry contests, from the final de- cisions of the judge, and not from the common effort to be first to the link. The poem contest approached the atmosphere of the renga session the most closely in those extemporaneous sessions where the topics were distributed and the poems were composed at the ba and then immediately judged, often on the basis of general discussion among the poets involved (shu-gihan *VIJ) rather than by a single designated authority.61 The difference between the two poetic genres was greatest when the poets composed days in advance, gave their work to stand-ins who presented them at the session, and then awaited the opinion of the judge, which in the case of "later judgments"

60 On the locus of utaawase and kakai, see Kikuchi Hitoshi ii;$fi, "Utaawase, kakai no ba" -St 'C*, Kokubungaku kaishaku to kyozai no kenkyti 32.7 (1987): 112-16.

61 On shuigihan in waka contests, see Ishimura, "Utaawase no shiigihan ni tsuite," in Waka renga no kenkyui, pp. 82-111.

470 H. MACK HORTON

(kojitsuhan & H+ ?II) might take days or longer to appear. The greater immediacy and communality of renga was recog-

nized and prized by its practitioners. One handbook attributed to S6cho, Renga hikyoshui AkJti5R (Linked-Verse Through Compari- sons, ca. 1508-09?), expresses the difference with a martial meta- phor appropriate to a time of nearly continuous warfare:

What are the relative difficulties of waka and renga? In waka, one receives the poem topics and reflects on them from rising in the morning to retiring at night, making use of handbooks. In renga, one takes one's place at the session and links one's poem to another's, then has one's own linked to in turn. There is no time to refer to anything. One lapse of attention and the moment is lost. In a word, waka is like assaulting a castle.... One awaits the right opportunity, then attacks. Ren- ga, by contrast, is like sallying out and doing battle on the field.62

ORALITY AND MEMORY

A second dynamic accompanying that between preparation and extemporaneity that helped to establish the unique character of each session and to affect the nature of the final written text was the oral economy of the ba. The voice was the primary mode of reception at the session, and the vocalization of the verse by the poet and the chant by the scribe were an integral part of the performance. Shinkei is eloquent on this point in his instructions to the scribe:

First concentrate your thoughts on the poet designated to compose the hokku, then glance at him, settle your mind, and wait. When he gives his verse, listen intently and fix it in your memory. Next glance at the ranking participant, look for a moment at the others, then recite the verse in a calm, relaxed, and tranquil manner. If you repeat it as quickly as the poet gives it, you will almost always err. You must do the same for the waki, the daisan, and the rest of the hundred verses.

The tone of voice with which you recite the offered verses is the most critical aspect of the session. . . You must concentrate so that your voice reaches everyone, even in the back. The quality of the voice can make even a fine verse sound un- affecting and unpleasant. (Shiyjsho, pp. 357-58)

Shinkei's instructions underscore Walter Ong's observation that "Sight isolates, sound incorporates."63 Note that Shinkei empha-

62 Renga hikyoshiu, in vol. 4 of Rengaronshiu, ed. Kid6 Saiz6 (Miyai shoten, 1990) [hereafter Renga hikyoshiu], p. 191.

63 Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London: Routledge, 1989) [hereafter Ong], p. 72.


sizes that the scribe must make a special effort to glance first at the hokku poet, then establish eye contact with the ranking personage, then look around at the audience. But all members of the session took in the voice simultaneously; the orality was all-encompassing, and it drew the poets into a shared poetic experience. While Shinkei addressed his advice to the scribe, Nitta Shojun directed his remarks on orality to the poets themselves, in particular to the amateur members of provincial sessions. But his admonitions, including the way to convey the verse to the scribe (RKS, no. 5) and the way to praise the verses of others (RKS, no. 17), likewise stress the importance of oral communication and the centrality of aural effects. Shojun was also aware that disciplined silence at the ba mag- nified the effect of poetic words when spoken, and he warned poets to avoid extraneous chatter between verses (RKS, no. 3).

The spoken word is also dynamic; the verses offered by the poets were volatile, disappearing as soon as they were uttered unless fixed to the page. Thus composition at the medieval ba was animated and ephemeral-a verse would be orally proposed, recited back by the scribe, discussed, then altered, abandoned, or accepted, and only then written down. This quickened the tempo and the tension at the ba, since all the other poets began mentally composing a complement to the verse the moment it passed its maker's lips, rather than when the scribe finally committed it to paper.

Ong adds that "sound exists only when it is going out of existence" (Ong, p. 71), and the constant change implicit in oral delivery at the ba nicely underscored the relationship between renga and Buddhist mutability that Yoshimoto puts forth in Tsukuba mondo:

Renga does not link past and future thoughts. Verses pass through the realms of maturity and decline, pleasure and pain one after the next, just as the affairs of this changing world. The poet thinks of yesterday and already today arrives; he thinks of spring and already it is autumn; he thinks of the.blossoms and already the colored foliage has appeared-is this different from the way the blossoms scatter and leaves fall in life itself? (Tsukuba mondo, p. 82).

Again, some of the famous recorded sequences were copied and studied, and commentated on over and over, but many others were made more as a pro forma concomitant to an event whose greater significance-oral performance-was finished the moment the words were fixed on the page.

472 H. MACK HORTON

The dynamism inherent in oral performance also invited episodicity, a fact that Yoshimoto acknowledges in his remark just quoted that "renga does not connect past and future thoughts." Different psychodynamics are at work in oral and written composition. Ex- tended narratives of the kind found in modern novels can only develop in a written environment that allows what Jack Goody calls "backward scanning, " the ability to review at will what has gone before so as to subject it to analysis.64 The renga rules make a virtue of the episodicity implicit in the oral enterprise, actively prohibiting the poets at the oral ba from referring back to any penultimate verse and instead encouraging constant variety and development.

The episodicity and constant change that characterize the renga ba are of course also related to that inevitable concomitant of orality, memory. Renga masters encouraged devotees to read as much as possible in preparation for a session, but once at the ba the poets as a rule had recourse to their memories alone. Shojun speaks of it being "disruptive to see people writing or reading" (RKS, no. 3), which implies both that some poets did indeed refresh their memories at the ba or write things down and that he considered such activities unacceptable. To be sure, hanging scrolls bearing the renga rules were occasionally displayed at the ba to remind the novice whether the word "garden" might appear twice in a hundred verses or only once, or whether "path" had to be separated by seven verses or only five. But the work of a skilled renga poet required a cultivated memory, not only for the renga rules but for the hun- dreds of word associations and foundation poems that informed the verses and effected the links. Soboku recalled Soch6's prodigious memory in his commentary on two verses in the Yashima Shorin 'an naniki hyakuin:

S6ch6's link relates to the preface of the Goshulishui imperial anthology, where it

speaks of the various aspects of poetry.... The Master quoted the passage at eigh- ty years of age without referring to a single scroll or taking out a single chapter of a reference work. He said that thanks to having once committed it to memory, it had remained with him as if a dream. I think beginners should take this to heart, according to their level. (Yashima, p. 227)

64 Jack Goody, The Domestication of the Savage Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp. 49-50.


Writing, cautions Plato in Phaedrus, destroys memory, but the orality of the ba encouraged memory's partial recovery.65 Mnemosnye was also the mother of the renga muse.

The influence of orality on the final written text was immediate and concrete through its effect on word choice. Inkhorn words and complex constructions were hard to comprehend by ear; thus Shojun insisted that "One should avoid difficult verses, names of distant places, Chinese words, and vulgarity" (RKS, no. 15). Such locutions were more difficult to recognize aurally and hence more difficult to link.

The question of word choice, however, recalls the fact that the orality of the ba was not the primary orality of the unlettered bard but the secondary orality of a group of avidly literate poets, most of whom had studied renga treatises and handbooks as well as imperial poetic anthologies and classic works of Heian prose. Each renga session was in fact only the oral mid-point of a loop that began in the written textuality of study and ended in the written textuality of the recording paper, which might then serve as the starting point for further textual study in preparation for the next oral session.

The oral language of the ba, moreover, become more and more an artificial literary construct as the Muromachi period waned. It was a "grapholect," to borrow a term defined by E. D. Hirsch as "a national written language" that is "transdialectal in character, an artificial construct that belongs to no group or place in particular, though of course it has greatest currency among those who have been most intensively trained in its use."66 During the period of greatest efflorescence of orthodox linked verse from the mid- fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries, the time of Shinkei, Sogi, and Socho, the language of linked verse had become significantly removed from that of most daily speech. Though the linked-verse lexi- con is somewhat larger than that of orthodox waka (which itself differs among waka schools), the poetic dictum of "old words, new

65 Plato, Phaedrus, translated, with an introduction by W. G. Helmbold and W. G. Rabinowitz (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1956), p. 68.

66 E. D. Hirsch, The Philosophy of Composition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. 44. Hirsch adopts the term from Einar Haugen, "Linguistics and Language Plan- ning," Sociolinguistics: Proceedings of the UCLA Sociolinguistics Conference, 1964, ed. William Bright (The Hague: Mouton, 1966), pp. 50-71.

474 H. MACK HORTON

meaning" pronounced by the waka authorities Shunzei and Teika continued to be the dominant rule for renga diction. Senjun WBIfl (1411-1476), for example, writes in Katahashi )44 (Fragments) that "Your meaning should be new; your words, old.',67 Part of Sogi's Chorokubumi -A/A, written in 1466 for a warrior poet in the east, catalogues poetic words whose meanings were no longer familiar without special study.68 The linked-verse poet, therefore, recited his verses in part in his own daily vocabulary but also in part in an ancient poetic language that overcame to a large extent the various regional dialects a traveling renga master would encounter; ideally, it could join diverse participants into a shared aesthetic. The oral language of the late-medieval ba was no one's mother tongue; it was an artificially oralized form of written language capable of returning its users for a few hours to an idealized and stable classical world. The oralization of the grapholect at the ba allowed the poets at once to enjoy the sensual benefits provided by the spoken medium and also to introduce into the poetic matrix the analytic qualities that ob- tain in a written textual environment.

The poets at the renga ba as envisioned by such orthodox masters as Shinkei and Sogi borrowed not only the language of the past but also the entire poetic noesis of the waka tradition. The renga grapholect was predicated on the waka pretext. Perhaps the most sig- nificant contribution Yoshimoto made to the art was to insist that linked verse, while of different character than the waka, could be of equal aesthetic value. His compilation of the first renga anthology, Tsukubashuz, which he modeled on imperially sponsored waka anthologies, was meant as a demonstration of that conviction.

The most famous practitioners of orthodox renga were also accomplished composers of waka, and as with Yoshimoto, they counseled would-be linked-verse poets to study Kokinshuz and other major waka collections in addition to the other canonical works of the classical past. In Renri hisho, for example, Yoshimoto instructs the reader to consult the first three imperial waka anthologies (Kokinshiu, Gosenshui, and Shu-ishui), Genji monogatari, Ise monogatari, and poems composed about poetic places (Renri hisho, p. 37). Later, in Tsukuba

67 Senjun, Katahashi, in Ijichi, Rengaronshul 1.274. 68 Sogi, ChMrokubumi, in Kid6, Rengaronshui 2.109-30.


mondo, he adds Man yjshui, Nihon shoki, Fudoki (for place names), and all the imperial poetic anthologies (Tsukuba mondo, p. 93). The books on renga theory and etiquette written by Yoshimoto and his successors demonstrate a great debt to earlier works on waka, and many deal extensively with waka material.69

The written textuality of waka was of course itself strongly imbued with an oral element. Origuchi Shinobu's classic assertion that Japanese literature began with incantations to the gods will be recalled in this connection.70 Those incantations possessed kotodama, word mana which according to Ki no Tsurayuki in his preface to Kokinshui had the power to move heaven and earth and to stir the emotions of invisible spirits and gods. But Konishi Jin'ichi stresses that "The only medium through which the kotodama could be communicated was the human voice."7' Even after waka became a primarily written enterprise, its oral quality was consistently emphasized by theoreticians such as Shunzei, who observed that "A waka poem, whether simply recited aloud or formally chanted, must sound somehow elegant (en) and moving (aware). A poem may sound good or bad depending on the way it is chanted. "7

The relationship between chant and style was likewise emphasized in treatises on linked verse. Yoshimoto:

The Way of poetry can change the customs of a nation when it is easy for the simple folk to comprehend by ear. The passage in The Book of Songs that reads "When sounds are artistically combined" refers to this oral quality, and the observation in the same work that "When sighs and exclamations are insufficient, recourse is had

69 The etiquette of the ba was likewise adapted in part from that of waka parties and competitions, communal genres that matured before renga but that continued to be avidly practiced during the period of renga's highest popularity. The era of greatest utaawase activity was the mid-Heian through the Kamakura period, but smaller-scale competitions continued to be held throughout the middle ages (Iwatsu Motoo ,iW, Utaawase no karonshi kenkyu [Waseda Daigaku shuppanbu, 1963], p. 492). Among the chief guides to the etiquette of the poem competition and the poem party are Fukurozoshi AIV# (in or before 1159) by Fujiwara Kiyosuke ?1*h (1 104-77) (Sasaki Nobutsuna t W 4 A, ed., Nihon kagaku taikei, vol. 2 [Kazama shob6, 1956], pp. 1-171) and Yakumo misho (see n. 54).

70 Origuchi Shinobu 4:f 13 Origuchi Shinobu zenshu, vol. 1 (Chui6k6ronsha, 1954), pp. 124ff.

71 Konishi Jin'ichi, A History ofJapanese Literature: Volume One: The Archaic and Ancient Ages, trans. Aileen Gatten and Nicholas Teele, ed. Earl Miner (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 211.

72 Fujiwara Shunzei, Koraifuiteisho ; in Sasaki, Nihon kagaku taikei 2.304.

476 H. MACK HORTON

to the prolonged utterances of song" likewise refers precisely to the interest gener- ated by words intoned aloud.73 (Tsukuba mondo, p. 80)

Yoshimoto's disciple Bont6 writes that his teacher had also applied this observation about poetic orality specifically to questions of linked-verse style: "[Yoshimoto] stated that the verse is immanent in the chant (gin 947). . . . In renga, phrasing (kakari) is primary. And phrasing is chant. Chant is phrasing. Those were his words. "74

Waka contests and waka parties, as already mentioned, derived some of their appeal from the oral delivery of the verses, and waka treatises gave instructions on how a waka was to be chanted.75 Judg- ments on the quality of verses presented in those environments likewise concentrated in large part on melopoetic effects.76 Renga theorists too gave ample advice on chanting style. YJjinsho, for example, specifies that a seventeen-syllable verse be chanted in three breaths of five, seven, and five syllables or in two breaths of five and seven-five in a smaller room where less volume of sound was necessary (Yjjinsho, pp. 130-31). The renga master Kensai t (1452- 1510), in his Shuhitsu no omomuki A*OiX (The Work of the Scribe), counsels three breaths for three-unit verses and two breaths for those of two units, with no rising or falling of the voice at the end.77

But while the waka delivered at contests and parties were shaped with attention to their oral qualities and were presented in an oral environment, the hierarchy between text and voice was finally di- ametrically opposed to that of renga. At the waka ba the poem be-

7 The translations from The Book of Songs (Shyjing) are taken from James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 4, pt. 1 (Hong Kong, 1871), p. 34.

74 Bont6, Bontoanshu hentosho, in ZGSRJ, 17b. 1049. I have used the word "phrasing" in both its musical and its literary senses to imply the syntactical, rhythmic, and sonic effects the term kakari incorporates. Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen translates the term as "sequence of words" in "The Essential Parameters of Linked Poetry," HJAS 41.2 (1981): 587. There she points out that "Kakari is the shape or design described by the sequence of words in the verse. It would correspond to sugata in waka poetics, except for the crucial fact that Yoshimoto emphasized the aural rather than the spatial quality of the words, their diction and rhythm as ap- prehended in recitation." See also Yunoue Sanae ; "Kakari k6," htit h2 Chuisei bungei 7 (Jan., 1956): 9-33.

75 Fukurozoshi, for example, specifies that the waka be chanted with a break between each of the poem's five constituent units (Fujiwara Kiyosuke, Fukurozoshi, in Nihon kagaku taikei 2.2).

76 For a discussion of the relationship between orality and utaawase, see Clifton Royston, "Utaawase Judgments as Poetry Criticism," JAS 34.1 (1974): 99-108.

77 Kensai, Shuhitsu no omomuki, in Kaneko, Renga soron, p. 128.


gan in written text, then was recited; at the renga ba, the verses were conceived and delivered orally, then later inscribed. While Yoshimoto and later linked-verse masters acknowledged the debt renga owed to waka in its oral aspects, its vocabulary and tropes, and its critical treatises, and while they emphasized the comparable aesthetic value of the two genres, they also insisted that their art was fundamentally different from that out of which it grew. While all might not have agreed with S6ch6 that "Renga developed from waka but has greater depth of feeling" (Renga hikyoshui, p. 171), the remark demonstrates the conviction that the two verse forms, though related, catered to different artistic requirements.

Those differences inhered in the ba. In waka, each verse, be it a single composition or part of a hundred-verse sequence, was a single, unilateral statement.78 To be sure, the poet might well be responding to the emotions of another and expressing personal emotions to another, but each statement stood by itself. It might be composed in private and written on paper before it was ever enunciated by the voice. Waka contests and waka parties were likewise unilateral; poems might be written on the same topic and then communally compared or appreciated, but each remained a single, closed statement, complete in itself. Waka composition most closely approxi- mated the renga art in oral exchanges, where one poet elicited an answer from another, whose return verse conventionally responded to the theme and diction of the original. But even there, both verses remained individual statements. Renga, by contrast, began in the ba, with one poet responding immediately and orally to the sentiments of another. Each verse was both complete in itself and linked to the previous composition. Linking was the key, linking made spon- taneously, communally, and orally at the ba. Only the hokku initially stood alone, but as we have seen, it too was required to respond to temporal, spatial, and tonal criteria at the ba. Private and non- spontaneous renga contests (rengaawase AR-A-) and solitaire sessions

78 This is true despite the characteristics of "association and progression" in imperial anthologies, where the constituent independent poems are arranged to artificially constitute longer narrative units. See Konishi Jin'ichi, "Association and Progression: Principles of In- tegration in Anthologies and Sequences of Japanese Court Poetry, A.D. 900-1350," trans. Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner, HJAS 21 (1958): 67-127.

478 H. MACK HORTON

(dokugin) were sub-genres of the renga medium; its essence lay in the poetic interaction of the ba.

COMMUNALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY; HARMONY AND COMPETITION

That interaction has thus far been discussed here in terms of the balance between preparation and spontaneity, and between the spoken and written word, with passing references to cognate waka paradigms. Orality and spontaneity in turn lead to a third critical dynamic which has already been frequently alluded to here, one in- hering in communality and individuality. Renga was a "focused gathering," a term Erving Goffman defines as a social unit of or- ganization involving "a single visual and cognitive focus of attention; a mutual and preferential openness to verbal communication; a heightened mutual relevance of acts; an eye-to-eye ecological hud- dle that maximizes each participant's opportunity to perceive the other participants' monitoring of him."79 As a "focused gathering, " renga heightened both the sense of solidarity and the sense of individuality of each participant.

The group consciousness of the genre was one of its most frequently cited virtues, one that Yoshimoto worked to perpetuate through his dictum "You must work to preserve the spirit of communality [doshin]" (Renri hisho, p. 44). Renga masters were at pains to establish and perpetuate group solidarity among the members and to sup- press to a degree their individual egos. In renga it was imperative to get to the heart of the preceding verse before attempting to produce a response, and the effort could contribute to the formation of bonds between the participants. That spiritual communion was no doubt particularly appreciated in times of strife, and it is instructive that orthodox renga reached its period of greatest efflorescence during the Age of the Country at War. A number of Shojun's entries in his Renga kaiseki shiki deal with the subordination of individuality and the formation of group spirit; he exhorts beginners and experts alike

79 Erving Goffman, Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1961), p. 18. In renga there is certainly a greater single aural focus than a visual one, but the scribe and the writing desk do constitute a visual focus of sorts, as demonstrated, for example, by Shinkei's admonition to the scribe to establish eye contact with all the participants (see p. 470).


to do their share of verses at the sequence (RKS, no. 1 1) and to treat others as they themselves would wish to be treated (RKS, no. 6). S6gi's description of the bonding principle of linked verse in Yodo no watari V (The Yodo Crossing, 1495) is particularly vivid: "Friends in linked verse are as close as cousins.""

The emphasis on group harmony was also part of reason for Shojun's insistence, mentioned earlier, on the avoidance of distant places and Chinese words (RKS, no. 15). Pedantry was alienating, and more important, it was obfuscatory. What could not be understood aurally could not be linked, and it was the links that drew the disparate members of the gathering together.

The balance of group and self relates to the question of orality and written textuality. Ong remarks that "Spoken utterance is addressed by a real, living person to another real, living person or real, living persons, at a specific time in a real setting . . . 9 (Ong, p. 101). Song in non-literate communities is ipso facto oral, and it tends to be related to ritual or social occasions. Konishi theorizes that

As members of a community that generally numbers few inhabitants, the composers of such songs are nevertheless well aware of the mutual feelings of the community, and because all its members lead the same kind of life, they have common interests and concerns. . . . Individual emotions of course exist, but they are expressed as collective emotions.81

Writing, by contrast, is at least initially solipsistic. When a person writes, or composes written poetry, he or she writes first of all by himself or herself, regardless of the subject and the intended recipient. Eric Havelock, though writing not ofJapan but of Greece in the fifth century B.C.E., has speculated that it was the the development of writing that afforded each person a technology for ex- tended self analysis, by separating the self from the group and from its natural surroundings and thereby allowing a more complex notion of the self to emerge:

Refreshment of memory through written signs enabled a reader to dispense with most of that emotional identification by which alone the acoustic record was sure of recall. This could release psychic energy, for a review and rearrangement of what

80 S6gi, Yodo no watari, in Kid6, Rengaronshu (Miyai shoten, 1982) 2.294. 81 Konishi, A History ofJapanese Literature: Volume One: The Archaic and Ancient Ages, p. 112.

480 H. MACK HORTON

had now been written down, and of what could be seen as an object and not just heard and felt. You could as it were take a second look at it. . . [resulting in a] sepa- ration of yourself from the remembered word.82

Many renga poets were highly literate, and they obviously brought to the ba a sense of self influenced by written textuality. As Ong has pointed out, "once the chirographically initiated feel for precision and analytic exactitude is internalized, it can feed back into speech, and does" (Ong, p. 105). The orality of the ba might therefore more strictly be referred to as " semi-orality. " But the par- ticipatory economy of the session nevertheless encouraged, and indeed required, a different social consciousness influenced by the spoken word. Again, the vast majority of waka exchanges were written exchanges; both parties initially inscribed their poems by themselves then sent them back and forth. In linked verse, the maeku and tsukeku at once remained two individualized statements, but they also immediately formed an amalgam, joined yet distinct, that pulled both poets back from solipsistic written textuality and nudged them toward a measure of group consciousness. During the renga session, then, each poet was poised between orthographically conditioned private imagination and orally influenced group composition.

Communality of composition and appreciation was perhaps the most unique aspect of the renga art. The makers of verse at the ba were also the receptors of verse at the ba. The poets at a renga session were perhaps as close to "ideal readers" as one may imagine, since they composed at the same place, at the same time, and under the same basic rules and literary conventions. It is axiomatic that all readers to some extent construct meaning, and at the ba this was literally so, for each poet's reading of the previous verse directly informed his own. Each verse became at once an interpretation of the one before, and a text to be interpreted by the next poet. The subject became the object, and each decoding became a new encoding to be subsequently decoded. This was true despite the unavoidable fact that at any one session the more skilled poets more often tended to be the composers of verses, and the less skilled, more often the receptors.

82 Eric Havelock, Preface to Plato (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963), p. 208.


Far more than waka, then, linked verse demonstrates what Mik- hail Bakhtin refers to as the "novelistic," the quality that capital- izes on and revels in the multiplicity of levels and meanings, the het- eroglossia inherent in any exchange, only some of which can be gathered by the parties involved.83 As opposed to the unitary point of view and the closure of the waka, the renga is by its very nature "dialogic" and open-ended, containing within its compass both a centripetal and self-contained statement and a centrifugal element that invites polyphonic reinterpretation.

But the sense of community that ideally characterized the ba was accompanied by the spirit of individual competition. This too is a partial concomitant of the orality of the ba, for orality is agonistic: "When all verbal communication must be by direct word of mouth, involved in the give-and-take dynamics of sound, interpersonal relations are kept high-both attractions and, even more, antag- onisms" (Ong, p. 45). Each poet at the session was motivated not only by the desire to preserve group harmony and produce links that responded effectively to the maeku, but to compose their link first and have it be the one accepted by the master and written down by the scribe. No doubt warrior poets were particularly attracted to this aspect of the art, for Renga hikyoshui relates it to another favorite warrior pastime: "Linked verse is no different from sending a number of hawks after a bird; the best one seizes the prey, and the rest return without" (Renga hikyJshui, p. 178).

Competition increased tension; like the discipline and dedication Shojun advocated, it doubtless kept the poets on their mettle and encouraged their best efforts. But both Shojun and S6ch6 were at pains to keep the competitive instinct and personal egos of the participants in balance with the harmony necessary for a successful session. We have already observed Sh6jun's counsel about accepting

83 For a particularly cogent introduction to Bakhtin's concepts of "novelistic," "heter- oglossia," and "dialogic," see "Epic and Novel: Toward a Methodology for the Study of the Novel," in The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, ed. Michael Holquist, trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), pp. 3-40. Bakhtin contrasts the "poetic" with the "novelistic" in part because the poetic tends toward a unity of language rather than toward a heteroglossic diversity of voices. But his use of the term poetic is stylistic rather than generic, and he acknowledges that individual poems may include novelistic elements. See Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson, Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), pp. 319-25.

482 H. MACK HORTON

one's own rebuffs with good grace and those of others with tolerance (RKS, no. 6). Socho, too, writes: "It is vexing when someone other than the renga master or the scribe criticizes the verses of poets at the session" (RJM, no. 2). S6cho also inveighs against exploiting the oral nature of the ba to fend off competition and gain time: "It is vexing when someone gives the first five syllables of a verse, thereby blocking out the other poets, then dawdles with the rest" (RJM, no.

7). The balance between harmony and competition was complicated

by various social elements inherent in every ba, each of which could have eventual textual ramifications. One was the inevitable dis- crepancy in age and experience on the part of the participating poets. Shojun reminds his readers that excessive competition could have a deleterious effect on youthful participants just starting out on the poetic Way. In such cases, Shojun counsels, the others should restrain their competitive urges in the spirit of group harmony: "When a young person commits an infraction, one should not take it as a chance to immediately give a verse oneself; rather one should first ask him if he wishes to change it" (RKS, no. 6).

Related to the issue of varied experience was that of differences in literary ability. Certain of S6cho's ten vexations refer to unskilled poets who hold up the proceedings by asking for help (RJM, no. 8) or by continually questioning the scribe (RJM, no. 5). Literary ability was of primary importance at the ba since, as Yoshimoto cautions, the quality of each verse had immediate repercussions:

In general, when a superlative verse is given, the next two or three will profit. When a poor verse is given, the next two or three will inevitably suffer. Plan so that the very best poets are selected for the session. . . (Tsukuba mondo, p. 92).

Different levels of skill affected not only the atmosphere of the ba but also the final text; obviously the better the poets, the better the final result stood to be. There was, however, a place for even the beginner at the ba. Nij6 Yoshimoto addresses the matter of novices in Renri hisho:

It is essential to choose skilled poets for the session. If there are two or three present with no ability, things will become extremely difficult. Even a beginner, however, will pose no obstacle to the group if he works for delicacy of expression and avoids complex word associations. But if he attempts bold verses with many grand im-


ages, and they are continually rejected, the elegance of the session will be com- promised and the train of associations forgotten. This kind of person is a detriment to the group. (Renri hisho, p. 44)

Yoshimoto's advice shows that differences in skill, while problematic, could be rationalized through the use of artistic discretion. And a good renga master to orchestrate the session could make a marked difference in bringing out the best in novices and also in otherwise indifferent poets."

Nor was skill constant for any poet. A day of composing renga was mentally taxing, and a poet's final verses on the recording paper might not compare to the quality of those made when he was fresh. During evening sessions the poets naturally might become drowsy, hence Bonto's admonition that the scribe should under those conditions occasionally repeat the last several verses (Chotan- sho, p. 195). Shinkei also counsels the scribe to chant more loudly and with more force at night for the same reason (Shiyosho, p. 362). And as shown by S6cho's remark in his journal that at one point his "ideas for hokku were nearly exhausted" (see p. 466), the rig- ors of the road could affect the verses of even the best poets.

Complicating the balance between group harmony and competition still further was the issue of relative social standing among the participants. Though poets of different status could indeed compose poetry together at the ba, the highborn were still paid deference.85 The order of seating at the session, for example, was determined by rank. The social hierarchy at the ba posed a particular problem for the scribe, who had at once to apply the renga rules and to defer to his social betters. One could not treat ranking personages in the same way one treated less elevated participants. Both Shinkei and Shojun were considerably exercised by this delicate question and its various ramifications at the ba. Shinkei, for example, writes with

84 One example is Ch6ky6 2 [1488]:3:17 nanibito hyakuin, composed by S6gi and a number of warrior poets at Omi. In Kaneko, Renga soron, pp. 300-36.

85 There were limits to the degree of social interaction permitted at the ba. Though Em- peror Gotsuchimikado esteemed the poetic counsel of S6gi, the renga master was never actually allowed to meet the sovereign. They communicated through court intermediaries. See Kaneko Kinjiro, "S6gi and the Imperial House: One Model of Medieval Literary Patronage, " trans. H. Mack Horton, in Literary Patronage in Late MedievalJapan, ed. Steven D. Carter, Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan), forthcoming.

484 H. MACK HORTON

regard to precedence that "There will be occasions when two verses are presented at the same time. The scribe must without fail choose that of the guest of honor or the expert at the session" (Shiyoshol, p. 359). Shojun likewise warns that a poet's manner of composition must reflect his relative social position: "You should exercise caution when it is the place for the guest of honor to compose. Conflict with the ranking participants will be the worst fault of the day" (RKS, no. 12).

The matter of infractions was particularly sensitive. Shinkei writes at length about how to reject the verses of people due deference without causing offense:

11. In the case of infractions against the rules. . . if the verse is by a noble, a revered elder, or a minor, one must not reject the offending verse peremptorily after its first five syllables are offered. Instead, the scribe should chant it, and if the infraction is a small one, he should record the verse if the expert at the session concurs. There will be occasions when the verse of a revered elder or a ranking personage will be written down and the earlier verse with which it clashed be changed.

14. . . . One must never reject verses by great personages or revered elders brusquely and tactlessly. When there is an infraction, one may glance at the expert, who will understand and deal with it.... (Shiyosho, pp. 359-60)

Shinkei's advice is predicated on the view that the shikimoku rules were not immutable and could be selectively applied in view of conditions at the ba. He later spells this out succinctly: "The rules about clashing are not inviolate. They depend on conditions at the session" (ShiyJsho, p. 360).

Obviously the difference in treatment accorded the highborn at the ba had major textual repercussions. The literary quality of the text no doubt suffered when a ranking person's poem was given precedence over that of a more gifted social inferior. Mistakes by nabobs could be overlooked, and as Shinkei's remarks above indi- cate, the recording paper might even be amended ex post facto to ac- commodate a verse by a great personage that clashed with an earlier composition. Shojun too seems to imply that the recording paper might be altered in the case of an infraction. His injunction that "one should not alter a verse with no infractions after it has been entered on the recording paper" (RKS, no. 6) may suggest that he too felt that verses with infractions could indeed be corrected later.

Relative differences in social standing could also affect literary in-


terpretation of the verses, both by the participants at the ba and by later readers of the finished sequence. Consider, for example, verses no. 10 and no. 11 from Minase sangin * a classic sequence composed by Sogi, Socho, and Shohaku in 1488:

narenu sumai zo In an unfamiliar dwelling sabishisa mo uki the loneliness is painful.

S6gi

imasara ni It is too late now hitori aru o for you to give a second thought

omou na yo to solitude.86 Sh6haku

The second verse can be grammatically construed as an admonition by Shohaku to himself or toward the composer of the previous verse, his teacher S6gi. In his modern commentary on the sequence, Kaneko Kinjir6 acknowledges both interpretations, but he rejects the latter one on the grounds of social considerations at the ba, arguing that "since the composer of the previous verse was the Master, S6gi, it is unthinkable that Shohaku would have presumed to lecture him, even in a fictional environment."87

RITUAL, ART, AND PLAY

Another balance related to that between competition and harmony involved enthusiastic entertainment and ritualistic decorum.88 It will be recalled that Yoshimoto and subsequent authorities on

86 Minase sangin, in Kaneko, Sogi meisaku hyakuin chiushaku, pp. 99-100. For English transla-

tions of the entire sequence, see Steven D. Carter, trans., TraditionalJapanese Poetry: An An- thology (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), pp. 303-26; Earl Miner, Japanese Linked Poetry (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), pp. 171-225; and Kenneth Yasuda, Minase sangin hyakuin: A Poem of One Hundred Links Composed by Three Poets at Minase (The Tosho Insatsu Printing Co, 1956).

87 Kaneko, Sogi meisaku hyakuin chuishaku, p. 100. 88 Ritual and entertainment are not, of course, antithetical. Johan Huizinga asserts that

ritual, like simpler entertainments, can in fact be subsumed under the rubric of play in part because it involves performative aspects that contribute to an illusion collectively shared by the participants: "The ritual act has all the formal and essential characteristics of play . . . particularly in so far as it transports the participants to another world" (Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture [Boston: Beacon Press, 1955], p. 18).

486 H. MACK HORTON

linked verse stressed that the art was the equal of waka and therefore imbued with the same spiritual potency. But the art never lost the sense of repartee out of which it was born centuries before. That ratio, to be sure, varied according to the level of the session; a gathering for "throw-away" (iisute) links over food and drink was obviously situated far closer to the amusement end of the axis than was a votive session for dedication to a religious institution. But the ratio was always operative, and every ba was to varying degree a sacral and a secular space.

The ritualistic aspect of renga is natural, given the religious effica- cy traditionally attributed to Japanese poetry in general and the increasing emphasis on religion and ritualization that accompanied the development of waka in the medieval period. Among the most important annual events in the early history of renga were the public sessions held beneath the cherry blossoms (hananomoto 1TI) each spring, in part to pacify the falling blossoms.89 In Tsukuba mondo, Yoshimoto insists that like waka, renga could serve not only as an aid to national government but also as an impetus to Buddhist enlightenment (Tsukuba mondo, pp. 81-84). Shinkei too stresses that "The Way of poetry is our land's mystic spell (dharani)" (Sasamego- to, p. 183), and he speaks of the study of both waka and renga in terms of the "three bodies of the Buddha" (sanshin 4) and the "three stages of Buddhist truth" (santai 4) (Sasamegoto, p. 201). Votive sessions of linked verse were accordingly often conducted before portraits of Kakinomoto Hitomaro or Sugawara Michizane, patrons of Japanese poetry. Most renga masters were Buddhist priests, and while many donned religious garb pro forma, others pursued an ardent religious life together with their poetic one. So- ch6, for example, considered himself at least as much a disciple of the Zen prelate Ikkyuf (1394-1481) as of the renga master Sogi, and Sogi himself was a Zen priest knowledgeable enough to lecture the court literatus Sanjonishi Sanetaka on the subject.90

89 On the ritual aspects of hananomoto renga, see Okami Masao 1IQ!IE, "Mono: demono, monogi, hananomoto renga" t e)-1?I4J t4* t Kokugo kokubun (Feb., 1955): 3 1-36.

90 See the entries for 1495:11:16 and 1496:10:6 in vol. 3 of Sanetaka's kanbun diary Sanetakak5ki %*X.g, eds. Shiba Katsumori , Sanj6nishi Kin'masa _ and Korezawa Ky6z6 jR;, (Taiy6sha, 1933), pp. 132 and 299.


In keeping with the conviction that the Way of poetry and the Way of religion were one and the same, some renga authorities cautioned poets to act with deep seriousness at the ba. Shojun's injunctions at the beginning of Renga kaiseki shiki, it will be recalled, are particularly ritualistic, instructing the reader to "elevate and purify" his mind, "as though entering a state of meditation" (RKS, no. 2). Shojun subsequently enlarges on this religious attitude, reminding the reader that "the Way of poetry conforms with the Buddhist Truth of Ultimate Reality," and that he should "revere the Bud- dhas and gods" (RKS, no. 9). The sacral quality of ritual renga lay less in the semantic content of the verses (though explicitly religious verses could be included) than in their performance at the ba, which might at times be conceived of as equivalent to meditation or to sutra recitation.91

The ideal renga session for Shojun was therefore first of all characterized by gravity, sincerity, and sense of purpose. It did not admit frivolity, and the resulting text therefore did not include unorthodox haikai verse. Underlying this attitude was the conviction that every verse was a direct expression of its maker's personality and character. Shojun writes that "He who possesses a cultivated exterior but a disordered heart will find that his words, no matter how golden, are useless" (RKS, no. 9).

But together with the attraction of religion and concomitant high poetic purpose lay the drive toward the sheer pleasure of communal composition. Yoshimoto is quick to point out that while linked verse can have the same high purpose as waka, it also derives part of its value from pure enjoyment at the ba, which paradoxically may bring it closer to the essence of Buddhistic non-attachment than its waka forebear:

Some men of old became so devoted to the Way of waka poetry that one offered his life in exchange for a single verse and another died of criticism his waka received. This is not so in renga. It is meant only to give pleasure at the session and does not inspire that degree of attachment. (Tsukuba mondo, pp. 82-83).

Yoshimoto reemphasized the pleasure principle late in his life in a treatise entitled Juimon saihishl- +tMMI444 (A Top-Secret Treatise on

91 On ritual linked verse, see Gary L. Ebersole, "The Buddhist Ritual Use of Linked Poet- ry in Medieval Japan, " The Eastern Buddhist 16.2 (1983): 50-71.

488 H. MACK HORTON

Ten Queries), written in 1388 for a warrior aristocrat:

If all present do not find the session interesting, even the most orthodox poetry will be worthless. This is just the same as in dengaku and sarugaku plays. Since renga is composed for the enjoyment of all at the session, only interesting verses can be called skilled.92

Of course, high poetic purpose was by no means incompatible with enjoyment at the ba; pleasure could lie not simply in group competition but in a shared sense of discipline and literary accom- plishment. This ratio between communal fun and high literary achievement is another of the dynamic paradigms that animated some renga ba. Yoshimoto explains this relationship in a comment on composing renga for points, a poetic entertainment in which the holder of the most points at the end won the game and sometimes prizes:

The novice should by no means concentrate on points. He should instead work to imbue his verses with ineffable elegance (yugen). Each skilled poet at the session will naturally want to score points as well. But when that happens his verses will inevitably miss their mark. . . . The novice should never be disappointed by losing points. Poetic form is the key. When one inquires about the Way of archery, one is told, "If you concentrate on your form, your arrows will hit the target by themselves." How very true that is. Linked verse is just the same. (Tsukuba mondo, p. 90-91)

Nor was the ratio between fun and high literary purpose a constant during each session. In view of the extemporaneous quality of renga and the quicksilver changes of mood that one verse might inspire in the next, the tone of each session was to a certain extent variable. A sequence such as Yuyama sangin, composed by three of the finest linked-verse masters then alive and meant to serve as a beacon for the poetic Way, was of much higher literary level than impromptu sessions by provincial amateurs. But even Yuyama sangin incorporates patterns of tension and relaxation, of seriousness and humor, that were inevitable given the organic quality of the ba. The sequence contains this link by Soch6:

saku hana mo Can the blossoms too omowazarame ya help but give thought to it?

92 Nij6 Yoshimoto, Jiumon saihisho, in NKBT 66.113.


haru no yume The dream of spring. Sh6haku

sakura to ieba Cherries-no sooner said yamaarashi zo fuku then mountain winds blow.

Soch6

The overall seriousness and literary orthodoxy of the sequence is unquestionable. But Socho's link includes a touch of light, haikai- like humor in the conception of the cherries lamenting the gusts of wind that at the very mention of their name start to blow the blossoms away, reminding them that they are as dream-like and evanes- cent as the spring.

Another aspect of the balance between art and play is the use of the ba not only as a place of competition but of communal learning. As already mentioned, authors of renga treatises reminded their readers to prepare for a session by studying earlier examples of poetry and prose in private. Socho had no patience for someone who did not do his homework, as shown by his first injunction in Renga juimuyaku: "It is vexing when someone fails to study in private then must squirm in agony when the session begins." But while one could study at home, one could only hone one's linked-verse skill at the ba itself, in the company of experienced poets. Yoshimoto:

You must seek the company of talented poets. If you do not associate with men of skill, you will never improve. Always attending sessions with the untalented and practicing with them is worse than never practicing at all. Beginners must be particularly careful about this. And skilled poets who sequester themselves in the provinces even temporarily find that their renga suffers for this reason. Devote yourself to poetry day and night; study the styles of contemporary masters by reading and memorizing their verses, then adopt their words and use them to new effect. There is no other way than to practice in the company of accomplished poets and gain experience at the ba. (Renri hisho, p. 37)

Even the awarding of points for good verses and the accompanying criticism by the renga master not only increased the gaming quality of the ba but also might foster individual artistic improvement.

The question of practice at the ba, however, is again relative; some sessions were more explicitly designed for the purpose of teach- ing and learning than others. One of the best examples of the heuristic ba is Yashima Shirin'an naniki hyakuin, where S6ch6 and S6boku

490 H. MACK HORTON

actively discussed the merits of each verse as they composed, in the interest both of composing a hundred-verse sequence of the finest possible literary quality and of indulging in a pedagogical exercise. The session was held in front of an audience of the two poets' disciples, at least one of whom produced his own commentary on the final text.93 At sessions such as this, competition was far less important than cooperation, and some of the verses, though they bear S6boku's name on the final text, were actually joint compositions. The spirit of learning and truly communal composition that prevailed at the Yashima Shorin'an naniki hyakuin session is demonstrated in several of the passages in S6boku's commentary to the sequence, such as that for verse no. 77. The foregoing verse reads:

76. aogu ni tsuki wa Looking up, I saw the moon kuma nakarikeri shining bright and clear!

To that verse of Socho's, S6boku linked:

77. Otokoyama Otoko Mountain: mine no matsukaze wind in the pines on the peak

aki fukete as autumn deepens.94

Soboku then explains:

. . .Before I made that verse, I had composed:

Otokoyama Otoko Mountain: mine no sugimura a stand of cedars on the peak

ake fukete as autumn deepens.

But when I asked S6ch6's opinion, he did not reply. Seeing his skeptical expression, I asked, "What if I changed it to "wind in the pines" [matsukaze]? He replied that that would in-

9 The untitled commentary is in the collection of Ota Takeo IEHAk 94 Otokoyama 9 [LI is an utamakura in Yamashiro Province (Kyoto Prefecture, Yawata A

*1 City). This is the mountain on which Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine is located. The link is accomplished via a foundation poem, Shokugosensha 9:545, by Gokuga Daijo Daijin:

nao terase 0 moon now rising yoyo ni kawaranu over the peak on which I gaze,

Otokoyama may your light ever aogu mine yori shine on Otoko Mountain, izuru tsukikage unchanged for all the ages.


deed evoke the feeling required here. He explained that while "stand of cedars" [sugimura] was more elegant, "wind in the pines" made a purer link with "moon shining bright and clear." He stressed that the composition of each verse must show this deep consideration. (Yashima, p. 223)

In another instance in the same sequence, S6boku knew the effect he wanted to achieve, but he could not accomplish it to his satisfac- tion. At that point Soch6 suggested a rewording that exactly caught the nuance for which S6boku had been searching. Soboku later wrote in his commentary that Socho's alteration of the verse (which appears under S6boku's name on the recording paper) "was divine- ly inspired. .. . S6ch6 himselfjoked that it was quite a correction" (Yashima, p. 208). Socho's advice to his talented younger colleague suggests by extension the magnitude of the effect traveling renga masters might have on provincial renga sessions involving amateurs and novices, and one reason why they were welcomed so warmly.

The dynamic between competitive play and artistic purpose is directly related to variables of performance pace. Too quick a pace and the artistic quality of the verses suffered; too slow a pace and momentum was lost. A hundred-verse sequence with a normal complement of about seven or eight poets ideally lasted from dawn to dusk. The fewer the poets participating, the more difficult it was to finish in time. A thousand-verse sequence conventionally required three days, usually with four hundred, three hundred, and three hundred verses per day.95 Even faster composition was possible-for a famous dedicatory sequence at Kitano Shrine, the Kitanosha horaku ichinichi ichimanku renga ILhfW*-t H -i5lJAA of 1433, for exam. ple, twenty groups of twenty poets composed ten thousand verses in one day, each group doing five hundred-verse sequences.96 The

A schedule of 300-300-400 was also used, though less often. 96 The first three verses of each hundred-verse sequence in the Kitanosha horanku ichinichi

ichimanku renga are preserved as Kitanosha ichimanku mitsumono ,LE J -0 . They ap-

pear with a long preface by Ichij6 Kaneyoshi in Katsuranomiyabon sosho 18.315-46. Even this pace does not approach that of some poets in the haikai linked-verse tradition; Saikaku is famous for solitaire yakazu 6 sequences in which the speed of composition was itself one focus of the performance. His first such public performance in 1677 produced 1,600 verses in one day. Later occasions produced sequences of many times that number. See Inui Hiro- yuki *, "Dokugin haikai to yakazu haikai," in Bashi to Saikaku no bungaku (S6jusha, 1983), pp. 149-60.

492 H. MACK HORTON

artistic success of the final text of such a sequence was unlikely to be as great as that of, for example, the Yashima Shorin 'an naniki hyakuin sequence, in which we have already seen that S6cho and S6boku discarded twenty verses before hitting upon one suitable to follow the hokku (see pp. 467-68). S6cho and his disciple Soseki chose to take two extra days to compose their votive Ise senku in 1522 because it was of great religious as well as artistic importance, and in S6seki's words, "We had earlier agreed to proceed at a deliberate pace to ensure that the sequence would be all it should be."97

Pace was also required to vary within a single session. In Renga kaiseki shiki, Shojun indicates that the second and third verses were to be composed with care but that the rest of the first round was to be composed quickly, in the nature of an introduction. Toward the end of the first page and the beginning of the second, however, Sh6- jun counsels the poets to slow the pace and to give more thought to their verses, working toward more exciting and novel effects (RKS, no. 4). The variable pace recommended by these injunctions clearly demonstrates the relationship between the speed of composition and the difficulty or depth of the verses composed.

Experts recognized the importance of momentum in retaining the creative and enjoyable tension of the ba, and they counseled beginners in particular to make easy verses rather than to attempt more difficult ones at the expense of communal pace. Wit lay as much in speed as in insight. Yoshimoto: "No matter how skilled the poet, he should keep his verses for the hundred-verse session light and avoid repetitiveness . . ." (Tsukuba mondo, p. 89). Bont6 is even more in- sistent that it was far better to submit a quick and unobjectionable verse or even one lacking originality than to cause a break in the pace of the session or lose the initiative to another poet:

In waka there are various forbidden words.98 In renga one need not necessarily observe such strictures. . ..

97 Soseki, Sano no watari VtJ:I 4 ftIflJ, in ZGSRJ 18b. 1284. 98 "Forbidden words" (sei no kotoba SAJMI) are locutions prohibited in waka poetry. The no-

tion began in nushi aru kotoba t2 ; SJ, phrases earlier poets had made so famous as to render any subsequent use seem hopelessly derivative. Bont6 is not suggesting that all lexical items from daily speech are available to the renga poet, but rather that verses that might sound trite in waka are sometimes acceptable in renga since they preserve the momentum of the session.


naku to dani Beneath the moon that omowanu tsuki ni I never thought would cause tears,

sode nurete my sleeves grow moist.

naku to dani Before even thinking omowanu saki ni I will never give way to tears,

sode nurete my sleeves grow moist.

. . . only one character has been altered. Renga involves a number of people sitting down together, each concentrating on thinking faster than the others. . . . The man who composes verses slowly will be bypassed every time. (Bontoanshu hentosho, p. 1044)

In a communal setting, submitting a simple or unoriginal verse not only kept the poet from obstructing the flow at the ba, but it also protected him from paralysis by analysis, a psychological stumbling block that Emperor Gotoba had recognized earlier in his advice for participants at waka poetry parties:

At an impromptu poetry gathering, the poet will be better able to produce good poems without becoming nervous or flustered if he first composes his poems on each topic without any great concern for their quality, and then works them over to see whether a few particularly apt or happy revisions may suggest themselves. If a person starts out with the first topic intent on producing a good poem, the later it grows, the more nervous and upset he will become, and he may even treat the topic incorrectly or commit other blunders.99

The obverse of such advice, however, was the likelihood that a quicker, more facile verse would be chosen over others, which had they been completed might have been more profound or have encouraged the sequence in more profitable directions. Shojun points out that in egregious cases such superficiality should be avoided in the best interest of the session: "there will be cases when a person who has already given a number of mediocre verses will have his next attempt sent back . . . " (RKS, no. 6). S6ch6 too points out that "It is vexing when everyone is stuck for a good verse and someone submits a hurried one" (RJM, no. 4). The ideal participant at a session, then, recognized the balance between the competitive and the

99 Robert H. Brower, trans., with an introduction and notes, " 'Ex-Emperor Go-Toba's Secret Teachings': Go-Toba no In gokuden," HJAS 32 (1972): 34.

494 H. MACK HORTON

artistic impulses. But it was the scribe and the linked-verse master who were the

final arbiters between speed and literary grace. They did so in part by determining how strictly the rules would be applied. The rules were meant to serve the needs of both the ba and the final text, and they contributed to renga both as game and as art. They served the ends of entertainment by providing guidelines for competition; they are believed, in fact, to have originally developed in part to provide standards for judging verses when points and prizes were riding on the outcome."'0 In terms of literary art, they helped assure that the train of imagery in the sequence would constantly develop in new directions but always at a measured pace and within regulated limits. The scribe and renga master were expected to apply the rules with strictness or leniency according to conditions at the ba or when the artistry of a verse simply made it too good to refuse despite its infractions. The renga master Bontoan made a summation of this variability in Chotansho:

The scribe should be lenient with regard to infractions in the verses of persons of rank, guests, and children. But it is gauche when too many errors are allowed to remain in the verses of elevated persons, since the final text of the sequence is apt to

be circulated among others who did not attend the session, and such sequences are

not fit to be seen. If a verse is particularly interesting, or if it is presented by a person who has not offered one in a long time, be somewhat lenient regarding infractions. But do not forgive lapses on verses dealing with the seasons, love, or lamentation. Also, depending on the time and the person, be lenient when turning to the back of a page or starting a new one. (Chotansho, p. 195)

Shinkei too admonishes the scribe to develop good artistic sensibility in order to avoid dogmatic application of the rules and to realize when a mechanical infraction is offset by the literary qualities of a verse: "Even in the case of a verse from someone in the back, it is offensive to reject it for an infraction after it has already been ad- mired by everyone at the session" (Shiyo6shoI, p. 361).

To the minds of theoreticians of orthodox renga, then, the successful linked-verse performance struck a balance between control and extemporaneity. Renga, therefore, was a good example of "play" in Huizinga's sense of the word; it created a "magic circle" whose inhabitants experienced "a stepping out of common reality into a

i Shimazu, Rengashiu, p. 382.


higher order" through the operation of both rules and "tension" or chance."'0 Huizinga continues that play

creates order, is order. Into an imperfect world and into the confusion of life it brings a temporary, limited perfection. Play demands order absolute and supreme. The least deviation from it "spoils the game," robs it of its character and makes it worthless. (Huizinga, p. 10)

The "temporary, limited perfection" at the renga "play- ground" was perhaps particularly attractive in an age of constant social disruption. In orthodox renga sessions, order and the concomitant illusion were maintained in part through the shikimoku, the overlaid waka conventions, and the guidelines on deportment and etiquette. Shojun and S6ch6 took great pains to delineate "the rules of the game" perhaps in part because they recognized the fragility of the illusion the rules created. They, like Huizinga, may have sensed that

At any moment ordinary life may reassert its rights either by an impact from without, which interrupts the game, or by an offense against the rules, or else from within, by a collapse of the play spirit, a sobering, a disenchantment. (Huizinga, p. 21)

Both poets very likely cautioned against extraneous elements such as talking or fidgeting in part because those actions were apt to destroy the illusion of the session.

But the order of the session was itself relative; too doctrinaire an approach to the rules or too premeditated and inflexible the composition, and the atmosphere grew strained and creativity was stifled. This is in part what Yoshimoto was getting at when he wrote:

Linked verse should not be chaotic, but animated. The Nanba Lay Priest of the Third Rank always said, "Kemari should be like the current of the Yodo River. , v 102

It is quiet on the surface, and fast beneath. Renga is like that as well. (Tsukuba mondo, p. 92).

With renga as with kemari, surprise was an essential concomitant

101 Huizinga, Homo Ludens, p. 13. The author briefly mentions haikai later in the same work.

102 The Nanba Lay Priest of the Third Rank 2i36-BAA may have been Nanba Munetsugu M g,4 head of a hereditary court family of kemari specialists.

496 H. MACK HORTON

to predictability and decorum. Linked verse therefore displayed in microcosm the interplay between the "reglementation" and "indeterminacy" that Sally Falk Moore has shown to characterize social interaction in general, where "established rules, customs, and symbolic frameworks exist, but they operate in the presence of areas of indeterminacy, of ambiguity, or uncertainty and manipulabil- ity. 103

The rules of renga, both the shikimoku themselves and the waka conventions on which they are partially based, helped steer poetic interpretation, focusing the horizon of expectations of each succeeding poet at the ba and then of later generations of commentators who would read the resultant text "according to the rules" to approach what Carter has quite rightly called a "classical" reading of the sequence (Komatsubara, pp. 7ff). But the indeterminacies were as critical to composition as the reglementation; they animated the renga links with elements of the unexpected, particularly in the case of torinashi, paronomastic shifts in which the second poet deliberately exploited the ambiguities of the meaning of the previous verse, creat- ing a particularly "writerly" moment that actively foregrounded semiotic difference.

The history of linked verse itself follows a trajectory through ex- tremes, from the gaming quality of Heian and Kamakura sessions to the ritualized focus of late Edo gatherings. The high age of orthodox renga might be characterized as that period in which the centripetal and centrifugal forces at the ba approached a dynamic equipoise.

FROM PERFORMANCE TO TEXT

Each session attained its own unique blend of the various interrelated factors we have seen to characterize the emergent quality of the ba performance, including fluid application of rules, harmony versus competition, high purpose versus entertainment, artistry versus speed, and so forth. But the t6zasei of the ba itself was relative to

103 Sally Falk Moore, Law as Process; An Anthropological Approach (London: Routledge and

Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 39. For a discussion of Moore's work, see Victor Turner, "The An- thropology of Performance, " in The Anthropology of Performance (New York: PAJ Publications, 1988), pp. 72-98.


the degree of ultimate written textuality anticipated by the session's participants. The "unbound" qualities of the renga session can no more be understood in isolation from the final written text than the bound qualities can be understood separate from the genre's performative aspects. The existence of the recording paper represented ipso facto a textual imperative. The purpose of this study has been to explore the oral performative aspects of linked verse and not to engage in a "phonocentric" argument that privileges speech over material inscription. Jacques Derrida has shown how problematic it is to posit such a hierarchy.'04

The degree of written textuality available to the ba ran from the nearly completely oral "throw away" sessions to the nearly completely textual sub-genres of solitaire linked verse and paper linked- verse competitions. The oral sessions, which by definition included no scribe or recording paper, still retained the residual textuality of the literate mind. Other oral sessions might be maekuzuke fl{ types where the poets tried their hands at linking to isolated maeku without trying to meld the results into a single sequence. Often those maekuzuke gatherings were for training and used maeku that posed a particular challenge.'05

The only sequences that remain today are perforce ones that were written down, and again, they reflect relative degrees of emphasis on the spoken and the written word. Many were still primarily oriented toward the pleasure of the ba itself, where the culture, con- viviality, and competition of the gathering was the main reason for convocation, rather than the expectation of producing a lasting monument to the Way of linked verse. Diaries show that linked

104 See, for example, Jacques Derrida, "Writing Before the Letter" in Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), pp. 1-93, where he sets out to deconstruct Saussure's assertion of the primacy of speech and to assert instead that speech itself can be understood as a form of inscription. Derrida's position has led Jonathan Culler to suggest that writing might be divided into "subspecies" of vo- cal writing and graphic writing (Jonathan Culler, On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982], p. 101). Both operations would relate to the economy of the renga ba. Predictably, Walter Ong takes issue with Derrida's position in Orality and Literacy, pp. 75-77 and 165-70.

105 This is not to suggest all maekuzuke sessions were entirely oral; Shichinin tsukeku hanshi -LA ffPlt-IMP, an often-studied renga text, consists of links (tsukeku) by S6gi, S6ch6, and five other poets for the same sixteen difficult maeku. The tsukeku were then judged by S6gi. See Shichinin tsukeku hanshi, in Kid6, Rengaronshiu 2.297-314.

498 H. MACK HORTON

verse was frequently practiced in concert with other medieval arts such as tea, flower arranging, incense judging, and even Heike recitation.106 In such cases, the recording paper might be an important yet incidental by-product, perhaps regarded more as a commemoration than an objective of the session. Most of the surviving recorded sequences from such sessions are still in unannotated manuscript form.

The sequences that were copied, annotated, and later printed and anthologized generally were composed by renga masters, each of whom was intent on producing the best verses possible through the mutual stimulation of artistic minds, and with the communal as- sumption that a major "literary" (in the sense of "written") element would accompany the oral composition at the ba. Votive sequences for dedication to shrines and temples involved this written aspect as did sequences of heuristic purpose such as Yashima Shorin'an naniki hyakuin. The tone of the sequence and the corre- sponding tone of the ba was therefore intimately related to the anticipated written textuality of the sequence; the more seriously the final text was likely to be regarded, the more serious would be the atmosphere at the session.

The purely written forms of renga that developed over history are more accurately classed as sub-genres of the renga art, since the communality of the ba was only imitated, not experienced. The ''solitaire sequence" was composed by one person. Such sequences could, of course, be composed over time; Sogi spent four months working on his Sogi dokugin nanibito hyakuin of 1499.107 Waka demonstrated a similar development when poem contests eventually gener- ated jikaawase ("paper contests" or "solitaire contests"), such as Saigyo's Mimosusogawa utaawase MAlTk6 (ca. 1187), in which he paired seventy-two of his finest verses under two elegant pseudo- nyms then gave the result to Shunzei to judge.'08 Renga itself fol-

106 The interrelated quality of linked verse and other forms of medieval artistic expression is underscored by the facts that the n6 playwright Zeami (1363-1443) was an accomplished linked-verse poet and that TakenoJ66 Aff CO (1502-55) was a rengashi before becoming a tea master.

107 Translated as "A Hundred Stanzas Related to 'Person' by S6gi Alone," in Miner, Japanese Linked Poetry, pp. 234-71.

108 Mimosusogawa utaawase, in Minegishi Yoshiaki OWA#, ed., Utaawaseshui, Nihon koten


lowed this path and developed rengaawase, in which pairs of linked maeku and tsukeku were collected into paper contests for grading.'09 These could be assembled from the verses of a single poet, as for example Socho hyakuban rengaawase 'A.f;JMfkE, which S6ch6 composed in 1508 and sent to Sanj6nishi Sanetaka and Sh6haku for grading, or they might involve several poets, as in the case of Kyuisei Shiia Shinkei rengaawase tgMY IXCkA (before 1376) that includes pairs of verses by Kyiisei and Shiia (d. 1377?), judgments by Nij6 Yoshimoto, and an additional hundred links added in 1468 by Shinkei."? Such chirographic sub-genres preserved the form of the linked-verse session but only imitated its performative elements, and they tended to be viewed as either study devices or as necessary expedients when a full complement of poets could not be assembled. But just as the oral throw-away genre inevitably retained an element of textuality in the underlying psychodynamics of the participants, so did the personal linked-verse contest demonstrate residual orality in that the paired verses often had been originally linked viva voce at an earlier ba.

Regardless of the degree of anticipated textuality of the session, the physical nature of the recording paper itself imposed certain requirements on the performance. It will be recalled that a one- hundred-verse sequence was recorded on four sheets of paper, each folded once lengthwise. The verses were inscribed on the front and back of each sheet in the following manner:

1. First Page (Shoori VIJ) Front (omote ) 8 verses Frontur 14 verses

2. Second Page (Ninoori Fro) ackt 14 verses

Braocnt 14 verses 3. Third Page (Sannoori HE Backt 14 verses

zensho (Asahi shinbunsha, 1952), pp. 337-58. The work was paired with another jikaawase in the same format that Saigy6 sent for judgment to Shunzei's son Teika, entitled Miyagawa utaawase TRJR (ibid., pp. 359-80).

109 See Steven D. Carter, "A Lesson in Failure: Linked-Verse Contests in Medieval Japan," JOAS 104.4 (1984): 727-37.

110 Socho hyakuban rengaawase, in Katsuranomiyabon sosho 18.21-73 and Hyakuban rengaawase Kyusei, Shua, Shinkei hyoshaku WiAXtft9., ^W , CAUNW, ed. Yunoue Sanae (Osaka: T-jvir chke 19 . QQ

500 H. MACK HORTON

4. Last Page (Nagorinoori AN) Back 8 verses

The four pages represented a textual closure that imposed itself on the oral composition process, which if the recording paper did not exist could be open-ended. S6cho writes of his "determination to complete a hundred links" with S6boku at Yashima (see p. 467) not just because it was a round number, but because of the textual economy of the recording paper.

In sequences involving a small number of more or less equally talented participants, the order of composition was at times directly related to the four pages on which the sequence was recorded. In Minase sangin, for example, the order of composition was predetermined as follows:

S6gi-Sh6haku-Soch6 1-22 (front and back of page 1) Shohaku-Sogi-Socho 23-50 (front and back of page 2) Sogi-Shohaku-Soch6 51-78 (front and back of page 3) Soch6-Shohaku-S6gi 79-100 (front and back of page 4)

Three years later the three poets used a different order, but one also predetermined on the basis of the four sheets of recording paper, for Yuyama sangin."' Though such arrangements sacrificed some of the usual spontaneity of the ba, they ensured that each poet would be equally represented and could link to verses by not one but both other poets over the course of the session.

The notion of the "first round" likewise has both performative and textual overtones. As mentioned, the term referred at the ba itself to the introductory part of the proceedings, where each poet gave a verse, occasionally in a fixed order. But from the point of view of the text, the ichijun most commonly refers to the first eight verses, the number that appear on the first page of the recording paper. 112 The verses in the ichijun were construed as prefatory, and

... See Miner, Japanese Linked Poetry, p. 173. 112 There are, however, occasions where the ichijun may be construed to be the first eight

to ten verses, possibly reflecting the notion that the first verse or two after a page is turned are of a transitory nature (recall Bont6's advice to the scribe to be lenient with regard to infractions when pages are turned [see p. 494]) Kaneyoshi writes in Renga shogakusho ArJA4qjJ' (A Beginner's Treatise on Linked Verse, 1447-56) that "In recent times one does not compose verses on love, lamentation, or famous places on the first page or the first two verses of the sec-


their themes and tropes were accordingly sedate and conservative. Verses dealing with love or lamentation, therefore, were conventionally excluded from the first round."3 Yoshimoto's opinion that the ideal ba should include seven or eight poets was doubtless derived in part through trial and error, but it coincided very nicely with the number of verses on the first page of the recording paper.

The recording paper also had an immediate impact on the pattern of introduction, development, and conclusion the sequence was expected to follow. Various renga theorists defined the tripartite format differently, but generally in terms of pages of recording paper. Yoshimoto, for example, identifies them in Tsukuba mondo as follows:

In a normal hundred-verse sequence, the front of the first sheet should have gentle verses whose syntax does not draw attention to itself; from the second sheet the verses may be livelier, and on the third and fourth sheets they should be particularly interesting. This is as in music. In renga the first sheet of the recording paper constitutes the introduction; the second, the development; and the third and fourth, the conclusion. Masters of kemari say that it is the same in their art. (Tsuku- ba mondo, p. 86).

Soboku expands the introduction and development sections and makes further distinctions about the internal breakdown of the sides with fourteen verses:

The first round (ichijun), second round (saihen WA) and the front of the second sheet are the introduction. The back of the second sheet and the third sheet are the development, and the fourth is the conclusion. In addition, on each [fourteen- verse] sheet the first five verses constitute an introduction, the second five a development, and the final four a conclusion. (Tofu renga hiji, p. 164)

Though conceptions of the jo-ha-kyut divisions therefore differed over time, their definition in terms of the recording paper provides another clear case of written textuality influencing the nature and pace of composition at the session.

ond" (Renga shogakusho, in Ijichi, Rengaronshiu 1.298). Kaneyoshi's remark suggests that he construed the ichijun as comprising the first ten verses. But the general correlation between the "first round" and the "first eight verses" (omote hachi ku *ApJU) of the recording paper is nevertheless clear.

113 Kaneyoshi's dictum stresses this (see previous note), as does Kensai's Baikunsho NW' (Plum Fragrance Treatise, ca. 1492-1501), in Ijichi, vol. 1 of Rengaron shinshuf, vol. 113 of Ko- ten bunko (Koten bunko 1956), p. 200.

502 H. MACK HORTON

Soboku further teaches that poets who generally compose two verses a side should do so at the beginning and end of each page, those who do three may do so in the introduction, development, and conclusion sections of each page, and those those who do only one per side should compose early on, since they will tend to be squeezed out by better poets in the hurly-burly of competition when the quick conclusion of each page is reached (Tofui renga hiji, p. 164). This suggests that textual considerations as dictated by the four sheets of recording paper could also to some extent affect the order of composition at the ba. Shojun too remarks in Renga kaiseki shiki that "When the back of the final page is reached, those who have only composed three to five verses or so in the sequence should abstain" (RKS, no. 4). His advice likewise establishes a connection between written textuality and composition at the ba.

Note too that the rules for the placement of verses on the blossoms and on the moon often relate to the sheets of recording paper. Though again strictures differ according to source and era, by the Edo period "blossoms" in general appeared once per sheet and "moon," once per side."14 And since such verses were considered special and were not to be composed by just anyone at the ba, the point the sequence had reached on the pages of recording paper could determine not only the moment at which a blossom or moon verse was to appear, but which poets were likely to attempt to compose it.

The pattern of introduction, development, and conclusion helps forge the individually linked verses into larger and more analytical groupings that require a more textual imagination than do the individual verses composed by the poets in oral performance. It is natural, then, that the final determination of the suitability of each

114 The correlation between the images of the blossoms and the moon and sheets of recording paper is only a general one. See Shimazu, Rengashuf, pp. 384-89. In Oan shinshiki, for example, Yoshimoto states that "blossoms" may appear three times per hundred verses (Renga shinshiki, p. 4), while in Hekirensho he says that common practice allows them to appear once per page (Hekirensho, p. 49). Sh6haku, in his additions to Yoshimoto's rules, says "Whether the word appears in three or four verses is a matter of little consequence" (translation from Komatsubara, p. 48). Occurrences of the word "moon" were required by the rules to be separated by seven verses, but there was no technical stipulation regarding the relationship between that word and pages. Still, the "four blossoms, eight moons" convention was widely practiced.


verse for its place in the sequence was ultimately the responsibility of the scribe and master, who occupied the more written end of the spectrum at the ba. To be sure, the poet composing orally likewise possessed a textual, literate imagination, and he, too, kept in mind the rules of repetition, seriation, and intermission that arrange the sequence into larger segments, but his primary responsibility lay in the atomic units of the sequence, which were composed with no reference to the penultimate verses, in the episodic and aggregate way characteristic of oral composition. The scribe, by contrast, could pay more attention to the sequence's linear overview. The oral poet works episodically; the textual poet operates with a more clearly defined overall pattern. Both elements were at work simultaneously in the production of the "oral literature" of linked verse.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the episodic maekuzuke exercise, which stopped at the first link and exhibited no larger, more analytical pattern, was more suited to the completely oral session. Conversely the greatest difficulty in the completely written sub- genre of solitaire linked verse was to avoid (much as a Zen adept must) the literate, analytical pattern of thought that in the absence of conflicting consciousnesses at the ba tended to connect the topics of three or more verses, resulting in clashing (uchikoshi). Socho remarked on this problem in the introduction to one of his own solitaire sequences, Yamaga dokugin 151 1):

In winter seclusion at my mountain dwelling, I observed that passers-by had withered away to nothing, just as the winter grasses. I made a hokku on this, then continued adding verses, each one on life in my cottage. The many infractions of the rule against repetition made for a most displeasing result.'15

Writing alone in a winter hut caused his thought patterns to over- lap, resulting in too frequent references to the same theme.

These synchronic effects of textuality on the ba were accompanied by diachronic effects, both in the short and long term. It has already been pointed out that while the recording paper was theo- retically inviolate, it could on occasion be changed if a ranking participant's verse clashed with an earlier verse, which needed subsequently to be changed (Shiyosho, p. 359). Later copyists of the

115 Yamaga hyakuin has yet to be published in printed form, but manuscripts may be found in Kokkai Toshokan (Renga gasshi f ) Osaka Tenmangii, and other collections.

504 H. MACK HORTON

recorded sequence too were perhaps tempted to "improve" this or that verse, especially if those verses were the copyist's own. S6boku's version of Yashima Shorin'an naniki hyakuin accompanies a commentary he made a decade after the session, and several of the verses differ to varying degree from a separate recension by another hand, probably that of a disciple at the session. These may have been mistakes by the disciple who transcribed the sequence, or S6boku may have embellished his own copy prefatory to presenting it to the warrior patron who commissioned his commentary for it.

The act of commentating itself is a profoundly textual aspect of the linked verse experience. A master might comment on this or that verse while the session was underway, and he might indeed do so orally. This was the case at the Yashima Shorin'an naniki hyakuin session. But commentaries were also frequently written on the texts after the fact, and the Yashima sequence also includes S6boku's advice of a decade later. Where an audience of disciples was present, many might be writing down the verses as they were composed, along with snippets of conversation or explanation by the principals. Ise senku, by Soch6 and S6seki, was composed in Yamada (now part of Ise City), a locale that boasted a large and devoted poetic coterie. Numerous commentaries on the sequence exist, thanks in part to the assiduous annotations made both at the ba and afterward by disciples. 116

Many recorded sequences, then, were read, studied, copied, and annotated after the session by the principals involved, by interested disciples, and by later generations of devotees and scholars. There the sequence was subjected to the analysis and backward scanning possible with a completely written artifact, and public orality gave way to private textual study. Again, writing isolates. The student would peruse the text by himself, "study the styles of current masters" as Yoshimoto had dictated, then, freshly armed with an array of new tropes and vocabulary, again enter the oral lists at the next linked-verse session.

116 At least nineteen annotated manuscripts of Ise senku exist. See Kaneko, Renga kochuishaku no kenkyu-, pp. 119-43. S6ch6 recorded a large number of the Ise senku verses in his personal poetry collection Oi no mimi (79 f,, ed., Shigematsu Hiromi, vol. 362 of Koten bunko [Koten bunko, 1976]). Such personal linked-verse collections (not to mention the two main anthologies, Tsukuba- shul and Shinsen tsukubashti) were another textual by-product of the ba.


As amateur interest in linked verse increased, greater numbers of renga masters appeared to cater to the demand, and with them came more copies of earlier sequences and commentaries on them. Each time a poet reread or memorized a sequence or studied a commentary, his performance at the next oral ba stood to be more literate and textual than the last. Over time, the focus of the individual session turned more and more toward the production of a written literary artifact, and the attention of rengashi turned progressively to textual exegesis. Soboku is one of the earliest examples of this tex- tualizing trend; much of his motivation for writing was to prepare study material for his son, who would succeed him as the renga master Soyo6 (1526-1563). At this point the ontogeny of renga began to recapitulate its phylogeny, and orthodox linked verse began to demonstrate the same emphasis on textual study and hereditary succession as its orthodox waka ancestor had come to do.

But the written element of linked verse, which varied by session and by historical period, could never be more than part of the totali- ty of the renga experience. Unlike the text of a no play, the text of the renga session was initially inscribed during the performance and at the place of performance; it was an outgrowth of the ba, and though study of it might change the character of the next ba, the session that created it was sui generis. No text could reflect in its entirety the progression of the sequence at the ba as it moved in fits, in un- recorded false starts, and with constant feedback between the poets, the scribe, and the renga master. And no text could recreate the sen- sation at the ba of immediately responding personally to the sentiments and imagery in someone else's verse, then seeing one's own idea sympathetically interpreted by another, or watching it be deconstructed before one's eyes and taken in a direction one never anticipated. Bonto recognized this as the heart of the linked-verse experience:

When an interesting verse is composed and the participants are moved by it, the verse should not be linked immediately. It should be read aloud four or five times and savored for a while before a new verse is presented. To link to it immediately is the height of vulgarity. (Chltanshol, p. 195)

Linked-verse texts preserve some of the most impressive products of the Japanese poetic tradition. Those written texts may assume

506 H. MACK HORTON

even larger dimensions when they are considered in light of what they cannot preserve, the moment of their performance at the renga ba.

Appendix One

RULES FOR LINKED-VERSE SESSIONS (RENGA KAISEKI SHIKI)

1. The day before you take part in a linked-verse session, put your public and private affairs in order. Next cleanse yourself and see to your appearance. Then consider the nature of the next day's session and determine the ranks of those scheduled to attend in order that you make no mistakes.1"7 Put linked-verse composition before all else. If you have extra time and energy, consult writings on the subject.

2. The morning of the session chant Chinese and Japanese poems, savor them, and elevate and purify your mind as though entering a state of meditation.

3. When you take your place at a session, avoid odd stories and such, since they will give rise to laughter on recollection and unset- tle the mind. Moreover, if there is a hiatus between verses during the first round, it is unpleasant to hear chitchat, whispering to one's neighbors, and shouting for servants.1"8 In addition, it is disruptive to see people reading or writing. Nor should the host constantly scold people.

4. It is acceptable to linger over the waki and daisan verses but tedious to spend too much time on them. From the fourth verse onward, composition should proceed quickly and involve nothing that sounds unusual. When the second round starts, the person who made the waki should compose the first verse, and the one who did

117 "Ranks" (hito no kootsu \,kY1FPZ,) may refer to social station or to degree of literary skill.

118 Since the order of the first round (ichijun) was established beforehand, there was no pressure on the poets who were not at the moment composing, and they might chat and dis- tract the one who was.


the hokku, the second."9 Those who made the daisan and subsequent verses may then compose quickly, in any order. The poets who made the waki and daisan should compose particularly quickly in the second round.'20 When the third round arrives, more thought can be given to the verses, and it is enjoyable if something interesting develops.'2' When the back of the final page is reached, those who have only composed three to five verses or so in the sequence should abstain. But if the guests of honor have all composed verses, then beginners may make some.'22 For votive or congratulatory sequences the verses on the last side must not be melancholy or un- felicitous.

5. It does not do to recite one's verse in a manner unintelligible to the scribe. Nor should one recite it in too loud a voice, fail to wait for the scribe to be ready, or be insensitive to the most elevated in at- tendance.'23 One should pick up one's fan and recite one's verse with clarity and composure. And it is very rude to look smug after giving one's verse or to show disapproval after hearing another's. Well-bred people do not act clever or superior.

119 The second round (saihen) conventionally began once all the members of the group had composed. When eight poets were involved, the second round began on the back of the first sheet of recording paper. In that case, the first verse of the second round, the ninth, would contain seventeen syllables, and it would be composed by the poet who had had only fourteen syllables to work with when he composed the second verse (waki) earlier. Though few fourteen-syllable verses were singled out as remarkable tsukeku in anthologies, they were often more difficult to compose than those of seventeen syllables.

120 The second and third verses were critical and required more time, thus the poets responsible for them had to make a special effort to be quick when they composed again.

121 The definition of "third round" (saisaihen) is problematic, since there is no longer any fixed order of composition. A rule of thumb is to fix it at about the beginning of the second page. Konishi Jin'ichi, in "The Art of Renga, " indicates that there were sessions in which the order of composition was fixed throughout: ". . . the scribe places the poem paper on a low table. This action indicates that the verse has been accepted and also serves as a signal to the next participant to compose the succeeding verse. If that person has difficulty producing a verse, the scribe waits a short while and then recites the previous verse a second time. He will recite it a third time if necessary, but after that any poet who does not produce a verse must yield his turn to the next member" (Konishi, "The Art of Renga," p. 34). In such cases the meaning of saisaihen is obvious. But this practice was not usual during the medieval period, except for sequences of two or three poets (see p. 500).

122 The guests of honor were those of highest rank or skill. They were seated on a dais (joza

?). The last verse, however, was customarily reserved for someone with experience. 123 A lower-ranking poet customarily glanced at the most elevated member of the session as

a mark of respect before giving his verse.

508 H. MACK HORTON

6. It is very unpleasant to see someone taking umbrage if his verse is refused or smirking at another's mistakes. One should be gentle and patient, make no distinctions between oneself and others, and compose with deep feeling. There will be times when a person of rank will have his verse rejected for this or that reason. And there will be cases when a person who has already given a number of mediocre verses will have his next attempt sent back. It depends not only on the rules but on the moment. One must always defer to the scribe. It does not do to turn to neighbors and question infractions, much less to take the recording paper and examine it. Nor should one express dissent when the scribe has chosen to be lenient and overlook an infraction. And one should not alter a verse with no infractions after it has been entered on the recording paper. When a young person commits an infraction, one should not take it as a chance to immediately offer a verse oneself; rather one should first ask him if he wishes to change it.'24

7. Do not gawk at the water and rocks in the garden or at the pic- tures on walls and standing screens. But do not stare at the faces of the others either. It is also uncouth to noisily open a neighbor's fan and examine it.

8. It is unpleasant to see someone who while thinking glances from side to side, twists about, leans over, or puts his fan to his face. When you are working on a verse, do not let the others see. It is particularly good to lean a bit forward while thinking.

9. It is rude to endlessly finger one's rosary or loudly intone sutras at a session. The Way of poetry conforms with the Buddhist Truth of Ultimate Reality, and it is in accord as well with the principle of Inner Enlightenment through the Compassionate Vow of Another. One ought therefore to compose frequently on the Buddhas and Bod- hisattvas. But on a day when one is to participate in linked verse, one should meditate and refrain from even good works-not to mention wrongdoing!'25 All those who would enter into the virtuous Way of linked verse must not waste time in worthless acts, kill birds

124 A somewhat less plausible reading of this problematic last line is, "It will not do for a young poet to offer a verse quickly, assuming an infraction will be overlooked; he should offer it and ask if it ought to be corrected."

125 A variant text gives the second sentence as, "The way of poetry conforms with the Bud-


and animals, do violence to grasses and trees, play go, backgam- mon, or pranks, or spend their days emulating Zaiwo.'26 One must be constantly aware of the evanescence of all life, observe the changes of the seasons, be moved by the snow, moon, and blossoms, revere the Buddhas and gods, keep benevolence and compas- sion in the heart, respect parents and elder siblings, value ritual, and keep to the right path, for then one will be in accord with the will of the deities, find happiness, and gain honor and fame. He who possesses a cultivated exterior but a disordered heart will find that his words, no matter how golden, are useless.

10. It is disgusting when someone starts fanning himself ostenta- tiously, or loudly blows his nose, or spits right and left, or pulls open his collar and exposes his chest, or rolls up his sleeves, or lets his shins show, or wiggles his toes, or props his head in his hands, or leans against something, or strokes his beard, or waves his fan about, or wipes his eyes and nose with his fingers, or fidgets with his hands.

11. The session should begin at dawn at the latest and should end as dusk deepens. In the provinces, though, people spend the morning babbling about trivialities, begin composition when the sun is high, and hurry to go home before it begins to grow dark. Who, no matter how skilled, could manage under such circumstances? Then there are those who have previous engagements and finally do arrive, but in a desultory way. If you agree to participate, you should not relin- quish your turn but do your share; even a beginner should produce a verse. It is written in a book on military strategy that no one man makes an army; the army makes the army.'27 Those at a linked- verse session should feel this way as well.

dhist Truth of Ultimate Reality as well as with the gods and Confucius. On a day when one is

to participate in linked verse, one should postpone everything avoidable, even good works, not to mention wrongdoing!"

126 Zaiwo I-M, otherwise known as Zaiyu ; was a disciple of Confucius who at one point was berated by the Master for laziness: "Tsai Yui [Zaiyu] being asleep during the day- time, the Master said, 'Rotten wood cannot be carved; a wall of dirty earth will not receive the trowel. This Yu!-what is the use of my reproving him?"' ("Gongzhizhang" &Xik chapter of the Confucian Analects, in The Four Books, trans. James Legge [Taipei, 1979], p. 175). The anecdote became a synecdoche for sleeping late.

127 The quotation may be a corruption of a passage in Liutao /'NI, a Chinese military classic

510 H. MACK HORTON

12. If you are at a session with men of rank or with experts, do not attempt fine verses; instead you should do your share in a simple manner. Moreover you should exercise caution when it is the place for the guest of honor to compose. Conflict with the ranking participants will be the worst fault of the day; always try to avoid it. It is also tedious when one gives the first part of a verse then waits and ponders the rest.

13. When you join a session already underway, move to your place on your hands and knees then seat yourself sedately, without dis- turbing the dress or fans of those about you. Let all your actions be graceful and considerate.

14. It is despicable to wear one's formal cap at an angle, to let one's hair be unkempt, to have one's robe twisted at the waist or the seams askew or coming apart, or to draw one's sword. And it is disgraceful for a priest to let his hair grow out, his beard go unshaven, his ears and nose become hairy, or his fingernails and toenails grow long and filthy. Nor should he wear his monk's cap or stole inside the room. Those who are ill or elderly should not participate save with the consent of the group.

15. One should avoid difficult verses, names of distant places, Chinese words, and vulgarity.

16. When you take your place at a session or if you arrive late, do not dawdle or draw out your greetings. Follow the indications of the ranking person or elder present. With the wine cup as well, be brief when the situqtion warrants.

17. Loudly reciting one's own verse or loudly praising another's is unpleasant to hear. No matter how much one is taken by a verse, one's praise should be thoughtful and quiet. Nor should one recite a verse in too soft a voice. And it is disagreeable always to be repeat- ing one's own verses to the people nearby. If one refuses to mix with

attributed to Lu Shang gS Ii of the Zhou, which reads "The empire is not solely the sovereign's empire; it is the empire's empire." Shojun replaces "empire" with "army." See Okada Osamu N EW{I, Rikuto, Sanryaku AIM , vol. 52 of Chuigoku koten shinsho (Meitoku Thuppansha, 1979), pp. 22-23.


the others, or if someone nods off, the atmosphere of the session will be dampened.

18. One should not keep getting up at a session. It is acceptable to get up once or so to refresh oneself, rinse out the mouth, and so forth. But one should not leave in the middle. Nor should one arrive in the middle.

19. It is deplorable to gorge oneself, grow scarlet with intoxication, noisily crunch one's food, or imbibe like a dragon. And it is rude to monopolize the savories and scatter them about.

20. At a session before a holy name or image, one should not par- take of meat or fish before the hundred verses are completed.128 For a votive sequence in particular, one should avoid ritual pollution the day before and refrain from sexual congress. These rules do not apply to "throw-away" verses or sessions composed of beginners.

21. At a hundred- or thousand-verse sequence, one should sit quietly until the end. It is disconcerting to make noise talking to a neighbor before it is completed. Thereafter one should make a quiet exit after remarking on how much one enjoyed the session. On the way home and after retiring one should reflect on the virtues and shortcomings of the verses one composed. And it is disgraceful not to write a thank-you note to the host the next day.

These are the teachings of Sozei, Shinkei, S6gi, Kensai, and others. I have mentioned in addition some of the unseemly things I myself have witnessed lately which are unheard of at sessions of quality in the capital. Thanks to the ever-increasing blessing of the god [Sugawara Michizane], sequences of one hundred or one thousand verses now fill storehouses in the barbaric hinterlands where "frogs in the well who know nothing of the sea" take their places at linked- verse sessions, each with consummate disregard for the rest.129 I have written this for those few of temperance and consideration who have received instruction from me or shown me their verses. They

128 Scrolls bearing a portrait of the God of Kitano (Sugawara Michizane) or Kakinomoto Hitomaro (patron deities of poetry) or the characters for Amida Buddha or Holy Law (myoho) were customarily displayed at formal or votive linked-verse sessions.

129 "A frog in a well knows nothing of the sea," a proverb about parochial ignorance, is found in the "Qiushui" #kA( chapter of Zhuangzi.

512 H. MACK HORTON

were of course misguided to have done so-it was like admiring a bat on an island where there are no birds!"30

Shojun (seal)

Appendix Two

TEN VEXATIONS OF LINKED VERSE (RENGA JUMUYAKU)

1. It is vexing when someone fails to study in private and then squirms in agony when the session begins.

2. It is vexing when someone other than the renga master or the scribe criticizes the verses of poets at the session.

3. It is vexing when someone resubmits someone else's verse returned earlier for infractions on the moon, blossoms, etc.

4. It is vexing when everyone is at a loss for a good verse and someone submits a hurried one.

5. It is vexing when someone keeps asking questions of the scribe and never presents his own verse.

6. It is vexing when someone fidgets, waves his fan about, or raps on the floor, beside himself in his effort to compose a link.

7. It is vexing when someone gives the first five syllables of a verse, thereby blocking out the other poets, and then dawdles with the rest.

8. It is vexing when someone at a session must ask for help in the first round and then cannot produce a single verse thereafter.

9. It is vexing when a session is not completed by dark and someone calls for a lamp.

10. It is vexing when one has distaste for linked verse, for our land came into being out of this poetic Way.131

130 Sh6jun uses this proverb, akin to "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," in self-deprecation.

131 Soch6 refers to the question-and-answer courtship of the gods Izanagi and Izanami, out of whose union the Japanese islands were believed to have been formed. See Tsukuba mondiT, p. 76.

h. mack horton - renga unbound: performative aspects of japanese linked verse

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