Renku, Linked Verse, waka

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Renku, 連句、renga 連歌 : Linked Verse
chain-linked poetry

renga no za 連歌の座 group of friends writing renga
za no bungei 座の文芸 "the literature of a group activity"
literature of shared space, za literature and art
group literature

Please explore this LINK for all the details:

RENKU HOME
William J. Higginson


. LINK and SHIFT - Higginson .




Here I will just collect information as I find them.

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A first ku (hokku) that can stand alone, usually with a mention of a special area, an independent hokku, is called
jihokku 地発句（じほっく）

The last ku of a linked verse is "ageku　挙句", and there is a popular Japanese proverb, ageku no hate 挙句の果て, at the last ku, meaning "at last".

Oku no Hosomichi ... 2007. Gabi Greve

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question
what is matsuko ?
a friend asked without any further information.

answer
on first thought, the name of a girl, Pine Girl, Matsuko 松子.

on second thought, inputting the hiragana ma tsu ko まつこ in my wordprocesser, it came up with .. makko まっこ ... words .
The small TSU symbolized only the doubling of the following letter, K.

...//dic.yahoo.co.jp/ search まっこ

But none of these words made sense with respect to haiku or poetry.

Next my friend told me it was supposed to be the last stanza of a renga, a linked verse.

.............................................NOW

matsu 末 seemed to make sense, the end of something, like weekend, shuumatsu 週末.

still the KO 子　was a riddle, ... until it dawned on my, the old solution to many problems, *a spelling mistake * !!!

MA TSU KU　 まつく　... and here I was MAKKU まっく, 末句, the last verse.

まっく　【末句】―短歌などの、最後の句
.. www.geocities.jp/koterikotte/moji/


.. GOOGLE with "末句" !


This is the short story of a Word Detective.
Hope you enjoyed it. Next time, think . spelling mistake .. in the first place ... grin

Translating Haiku。Gabi Greve

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Question
If renga is written in an international context, what shall we do about the kigo, season words?

Answer
I think in case of RENKU, as the participants are friends and they can agree in advance which saijiki or kiyose to accept and follow, so that should not be a problem. For Renku or renga, you need a group, a ZA 連句座, a circle of friends with the same basic background and understanding of what you are going to write about.

Remember, kigo are conventions for writing traditional Japanese poetry, they are NOT the biology textbook or the local weather forecast.

As for the function of saijiki in general, I suggest to compile regional saijiki, as much as possible, to make local adjustments, if the haiku poets are interested in keeping the spirit of the Japanese traditional haiku.
Create your own regional kigo culture!
(and yes, it is a LooOooNG way to go ... )
We have some great attempts for India and Kenya, to name just two of them.


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Termini für die Renga/Renku-Dichtung in Deutschland

hokku - Startvers (Dreizeiler)
wakiku - Stützvers zum Hokku (Zweizeiler)
daisan - Strophe des thematischen Ausbruchs (Dreizeiler)
ageku - Abschluss oder Endvers (Zweizeiler)
chouku - jeder Dreizeiler außer Hokku und Daisan
tanku - jeder Zweizeiler außer wakiku und ageku

uchikoshi - Rückkehrstrophe
maeku - Mittelstrophe
tsukeku – Anschlussstrophe entweder an chouku oder an tanku

jeder Vers in einem Renga wird ein maeku (außer das ageku (Endvers)) und
jeder Vers in einem Renga ist ein tsukeku außer das hokku.


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External LINKS


GOOGLE with : renku japan poetry

Let me know your LINK !

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observance kigo for the New Year

Kumano renga hajime 熊野連歌始
beginning linked verse at Kumano
on the second day of the first lunar month
At the main shrine in Kumano.
A renku with 100 verses 百韻連歌 is written by the priests and parishoners.

The first verse reads

この山のあるじは花の木陰かな
kono yama no arujj wa hana no kokage kana

the owners of this mountain
are the flowers
in the shades of trees

or in another version

この山のあるじは花の梢かな
kono yama no arujj wa hana no kozue kana

the owners of this mountain
are the flowering
treetops


quote
The annual Kumano renga sequence is pretty famous and is also a kigo, though the custom is no longer followed. Kumano is a very revered spot and one of the most common destinations for pilgrims in Japan, and many people are believed to have received a vision from a god or buddha in a dream there. The renga sequence begins with the hokku which the head priest of the temple once received from the god of the shrine. Actually, the last line should be kozue kana (梢かな), or "limb tips":

this mountain
belongs to flowering
limb tips

The god seems to be asking the dreamer (the priest) to look at the blossoming cherries in order to witness the god's self-revelation, and each year the current head priest would write the wakiku in reply to the god, so the sequence was about affirming the god's existence and praising him/her.
This god-talk-and-human-reply structure continues the old shamanic tradition out of which long renga sequences emerged in the early medieval period. At temples and shrines around Kyoto and in other places, itinerant monks, mostly of the Ji Sect, who respected local gods, would lead sequences beneath certain drooping cherry trees that were believed to be gods. It was at these outdoor sequences that courtiers, often in disguise, learned renga's potential as a long form, and they proceeded to modify and codify what they had learned a more elegant courtly fashion.
Later the prestigious renga masters of the Kitano Shrine came to be called Under The Cherries Master, but originally long renga were actually written under the divine trees themselves.

This Kumano annual renga sequence typified the prototypical old structure of the god-guest visiting the group and offering a greeting -- here in the form of a hokku in a dream -- which was replied to by the host, here the Kumano head priest. In high, courtly-style renga, of course, the revered guest soon became a human, but the hokku always retained a special quality of coming from "beyond," with the rest of the sequence as the human response.
- dream-vision renga (musou no renga 夢想之連歌)
begin with a hokku "given" to the renga poet in a dream -
Chris Drake


. Kumano 熊野 in Wakayama.


. . . . .

Urajiro renga 裏白連歌 "Linked verse with white backside"
on the third day of the first lunar month.
At shrine Kitano jinja in Kyoto 北野神社.
Normaly the 100 verses are written on both sides of four sheets of kaishi paper.
In this case, eight pieces of paper where used, with half a side white.
If there was a mis-spelling it could be easily corrected.

秀吉もおどけ裏白連歌また　　
Hideyoshi mo odoke urajiro renga kana

even Hideyoshi
made a joke - "white backside"
renga meeting

Matsuda Hiromu
source : kamomeza


source :　www.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp
urajiro (urashiro) kaishi samples
上:賦何路連歌 永禄10(1567)年
下:賦白何連歌 元亀2(1571)年

quote
The Kitano Shrine is the Vatican of renga poets.
Renga isn't quite a religion, but in the medieval period many, many sequences were written to the god of the Kitano Tenjin Shrine, Sugawara Michizane (Tenjin), whose powerful soul was feared and venerated by the court for many centuries. It was the official shrine of the Ashikaga shoguns and patronized by them, and they often sponsored hooraku 法楽 or god-pleasing renga and hoonoo 奉納 or votive renga as well as all sorts of prayer renga and renga on the 25th of each month, since Michizane died on the 25th of the month.
They had a special room for renga meetings and a resident renga master, as did some of the bigger Tenjin-related Shinto shrines around the country. In Osaka the Tenjin shrine renga master when Basho and Saikaku were young happened to be Nishiyama Soin, who was also a pioneering renku poet who was able to give the young renku form prestige and protection due to his powerful position as master at a Tenjin Shrine.
The Kitano Shrine in Kyoto was at the apex of this network and represented orthodoxy itself. I mention this because the mentality of the leading renga poets in the late medieval period might have been highly focused on avoiding mistakes more than on creating great literature.

These Kitano renga masters were no doubt under great pressure from many powerful people, but their level of fastidiousness is amazing. The practice of using 8 sheets on the front side only instead of 4 sheets so that the scribe could correct any mistake on the back of the same sheet continued from 1557 to 1644.
Perhaps in the era of Tokugawa peace the Kitano Shrine was no longer were supported by great warlords, and the Tokugawas were away in Edo and more interested in Buddhism. And their big Shinto shrine was not Kitano but up north in Nikko. At any rate, the practice ended under the Tokugawas.

As far as the slang meaning of urajiro, a brief trawl didn't turn up anything. But ura, back, behind, of course is often used to talk about human anatomy, and Hideyoshi is famous for loving many of his pages (pun unintended). Machida is a modern haijin, so anything is possible, but I doubt that renga meetings at the august Kitano Shrine in the 16th and 17th centuries would have allowed for such humor.

Chris Drake


. Kitano Tenmangu in Kyoto 北野天満宮 .



. New Year Observance SAIJIKI .


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From the WKD library

Rensaku .. Gunsaku
From Renga to Haiku Sequences


Haikai and Renku
by Mark Jewel, Waseda University

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Renga Terminology

quote
These words are presented as a shikimoku and variations of rule may exist.

hokku (発句):
The first stanza of renga with a 5-7-5 sound unit count. This stanza should be created by a special guest when present, and is considered a part of the greeting in a renga gathering. It must include a kigo (季語, "seasonal word"), as well as a kireji (切字, "cutting word" - a break in the text, usually, but not always, at the end of a line). The kigo usually references the season the renga was created in. Hokku, removed from the context of renga, eventually became the haiku poetry form.

waki (脇):
The second stanza of a renga with a 7-7 sound unit count. The one who helped to organize the gathering is honored with creating it.

daisan (第三):
The third stanza of a renga with a 5-7-5 mora count. It must end with the -te form of a verb to allow the next poet greater freedom in creating the stanza.

hiraku (平句): Refers to all verses other than the hokku, waki, daisan, and ageku.

ageku (挙句): The last stanza of a renga. Care should be taken to wrap up the renga.

kuage (句上げ): A note made after the ageku to indicate how many ku each poet read.

kōgyō (興行): To hold a renga gathering. May also be called chōgyō (張行).

wakiokori (脇起り, waki-okori : To start with the hokku of a famous poet such as Bashō and make a new waki verse to follow on from there.

tsukeai (付合): May also be called tsukekata (付け方) or tsukeaji (付け味). Refers to the mixing and matching of unlikely word combinations to spur imagination or evoke an image. One of the interesting features of renga.

maeku (前句: The verse in which tsukeai happens.

uchikoshi (打越): The verse before the maeku.

shikimoku (式目): A set of rules to lay out the stylistic requirements for change throughout the poem and to prevent a renga from falling apart.

renku (連句): Modern renga in the style of Matsuo Bashō.

kukazu (句数): Literally, "the number of verses".
When the theme of a section is a popular topic such as "Love", "Spring", or "Fall", the renga must continue on that theme for at least two verses but not more than five verses. This theme may then be dropped with one verse on any other topic.

sarikirai (去嫌): A rule to prevent loops repeating the same image or a similar verse.

rinne (輪廻): The name for a loop where the same theme, image, or word is repeated.
Term taken from Buddhism.
(The cycle of birth and rebirth; the world as commonly experienced.)


kannonbiraki (観音開き):
A type of loop where the uchikoshi and tsukeku have an identical image or theme.

haramiku (孕み句): A stanza prepared beforehand. Should be avoided as stanzas should be created on the spot.

asaru (求食る): To make two stanzas in a row. Happens frequently when the dashigachi rule is used. Should be avoided to let others join.

dashigachi (出勝ち): A rule to use the stanza of the first poet to create one.

hizaokuri (膝送り): A rule whereby each poet takes a turn to make a stanza.

renju (連衆): The members of a renga gathering.

ichiza (一座): Literally, "one seating".
Describes the group when the renju are seated and the renga has begun.

sōshō (宗匠, sooshoo): May also be called sabaki (捌き).
The coordinator of an ichiza, he or she is responsible for the completion of a renga. Has the authority to dismiss an improper verse. The most experienced of the renju should be the sōshō to keep the renga interesting.

kyaku (客): The main guest of the ichiza and responsible for creating the hokku.

teishu (亭主): The patron of a renga gathering, who provides the place.

shuhitsu (執筆): The "secretary" of the renga, as it were, who is responsible for writing down renga verses and for the proceedings of the renga.

bunnin (文音, bun-in): Using letters (i.e. the post), telegraph, telephone, or even fax machines for making a renga. Using the internet is also considered a form of bunnin.
((on)): Sounds, or syllables

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


fushimono ふしもの【賦し物】 "set topics"
technique to place a name into a ku in two different places, later developed into the hokku.
sequences brought together through hidden words and images. Fushimono could also be riddles.

shikimoku しきもく【式目】 rules books
stating the rules to be observed when writing renga.
For example 応安新式 for renga.


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kannonbiraki 観音開き (かんのんびらき)
lit. this is a door that opens to both sides of a cupboard, displaying the cupboard interior in the middle. This is in contrast to the sliding doors which are usual in a Japanese home.
The Buddha Shelf for the Ancestors (butsudan) in a home opens like this too, and usually shows the statue of a little Kannon Bosatsu, hence the name.
biraki ... hiraki 開き... hiraku ... to open
Flügeltür

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External LINKS

John Carley
http://www.renkureckoner.co.uk/

Ferris Gilli
http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv7n4/renku/GilliGrammar.html

Meter in Renku
http://www.haijinx.org/columns/notes-on-renku/do-metrics-matter/

Renku Group . Journal of Renga & Renku
http://renkugroup.proboards.com/

Tanaka Yuko (Hosei University in Tokyo)
http://littleonion.posterous.com/ren-the-mechanism-of-linking-in-japanese-cult

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Rengay
by J. Zimmerman

The Rengay is a North American variation on the Japanese linked verse form. It was invented in 1992 as a synthesis of:

Ren ("linked"), the syllable at the start of renga ("linked verse") and renku (originally "linked verse" in China; now a modern term for renga).
Gay, the last name of its inventor, poet Garry Gay. Also signifies the relatively light-hearted approach (as in senryu) that is often present in rengay.

History.
The original form of rengay, a 6-link collaborative poem by 2 poets, was invented in August 1992 by Garry Gay.

Gay was the first president (1989-1990) and co-founder of the Haiku Poets of Northern California and former president of the Haiku Society of American. He felt that many rules of the Japanese renku ("linked verse") were rather too complex and culturally irrelevant to North Americans.

To allow collaboration among three poets, the 6-link form was soon adapted to support the 3-person form of rengay.

The rengay differs from the renku
(and the historic renga) in:
and
Here are some steps to take in creating a Rengay:
READ the rest here
source : J. Zimmerman

waka renga

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Yotsumono
hokku, wakiku, daisan and ageku
Mr J. E. Carley

Yotsumono is an exercise devised by the present author. It extends the historic Mitsumono exercise elsewhere on these pages by the addition of ageku as a closing verse.

The structure of the resultant four verse sequence is similar to that of the Chinese Jueju (Wade-Giles: Chue Chu), known in Japanese as the Zekku. It may be that the Yotsumono comes to be viewed as having some merit as a distinct form in its own right.
http://www.renkureckoner.co.uk/Yotsumono_exercise.htm


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Waka　和歌　・Tanka　短歌


Waka (和歌 literally "Japanese poem") or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. The term was coined during the Heian period, and was used to distinguish Japanese-language poetry from kanshi 漢詩 (poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets), and later from renga.

The term waka originally encompassed a number of differing forms, principally tanka (短歌, "short poem") and chōka (長歌, "long poem"), but also including bussokusekika, sedōka (旋頭歌, "whirling head poem") and katauta (片歌, "poem fragment").
These last three forms, however, fell into disuse at the beginning of the Heian period, and chōka vanished soon afterwards.
Thus, the term waka came in time to refer only to tanka.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


quote
James Kirkup:
A final word of advice:
when making tanka, do not forget that poetry must obey its own laws of logic. That is, the "argument" or "plot" of a tanka must proceed logically and in a natural manner, taking care to preserve the sequence of the tenses, and not change from present to past in the same poem. Poetry demands strong control, and airy, dreamy nothings, however picturesque, are absurd when ungrammatically presented. Even the most romantic and emotional poems depend for their existence upon a cool, logical mind in the poet.
For this reason, some of the tanka, though touching, were an emotional mess, and embarrassing to read. In future, poets, keep a cool head and a firm grip upon syntax when you compose even the most passionate of love poems!
source : littleonion.posterous.com, August 2010



quote
Nomori no kagami and the Perils of Poetic Heresy
By R. Keller Kimbrough
Introduction

Poetic composition was extremely serious business in Kamakura-period Japan (1185-1333). The era boasts the Shinkokin wakashû 新古今和歌集, possibly the greatest of all Japanese poetic anthologies, as well as many sophisticated and highly theoretical works of poetry criticism, most of which have yet to be translated or adequately researched in or outside of Japan. The following article, written for an academic conference at Purdue University in October 2002 and previously published in the 2003 conference proceedings,1 concerns one such late thirteenth-century poetic treatise: Nomori no kagami 野守鏡, an angry polemic directed at the new poetic style of Kyôgoku Tamekane 京極為兼 (1254-1332), a great-grandson of the eminent Fujiwara no Teika 藤原定家 (1162-1241) and a poet who would achieve fame in his own and later generations for the stylistic innovations of his verse. As one of many contentious Kamakura-period commentaries, Nomori no kagami offers us insights today into the rich, unsettled, and sometimes menacing world of early-medieval poetics.

Nomori no kagami and the Perils of Poetic Heresy

In the ninth month of the third year of Einin 永仁 (1295), an anonymous critic composed a Buddhist poetic commentary by the name of
Nomori no kagami, “Mirror of the Watchman of the Fields.”
The work is both a vitriolic attack upon the new poetic style of Kyôgoku Tamekane, who had recently been chosen to edit the imperial anthology Gyokuyô wakashû 玉葉和歌集, and an angry denunciation of the fledgling Pure Land and Zen sects of Kamakura Buddhism. In the twentieth century, scholars have been largely concerned with establishing the identity of the author and the circumstances of the work’s composition. Fukuda Hideichi has argued that it was written by a Tendai priest affiliated with both the Enryakuji Eastern Tower at Sakuramoto (Mount Hiei), and the Gyôzan 魚山 school of shômyô 声明 sutra chanting.3 Ogawa Toyo’o has more recently suggested that the author was a priest by the name of Kujin 公尋, a disciple of Kôkaku 光覚 in the Gyôzan shômyô lineage.4 Other than such biographical or essentially religious inquiries, Nomori no kagami has received little attention in the modern period. Nevertheless, from the perspectives of Buddhist literary studies and early-medieval poetics, it is an important work because of its unique and radical extensions of prevailing theories of Buddhism and waka 和歌 (Japanese poetry).
MORE
source : simplyhaiku.com 2007

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hachidaishuu soosakuin 八代集総索引 Halchidaishu Sosakuin
Index of Shin Koten Nihon Bungaku Taikei.
- reference -

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. Shrine Sakaori no Miya 酒折宮 　
and Yamato Takeru 日本武尊, first Deity of Renku


. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


. . . . . BACK TO
My Haiku Theory Archives 　

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