Dec. 12, 2009
Exhibition on Classical Poetry Shows Future Cultural Model for Japan
Visitors were gazing at two 800-year-old manuscripts by a noted ancient waka poet and his father displayed as part of about 500 items at a much publicized exhibition in Tokyo. The documents were among the five National Treasures from the late Heian to early Kamakura periods provided at the exhibition, “The Reizei Family: Keepers of Classical Poetic Tradition,” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. The two manuscripts, placed side by side in a glass case, were the three-volume poem anthology “Shui Guso” personally compiled by Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241) and the “Korai Futeisho,” the notes written by Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114-1204) about poetic style since the old times.
Waka poetry, a purely Japanese poetic form dating back to the sixth or seventh centuries, basically consists of a total of 31 syllables in five lines.
Also on display were three other National Treasures—the hand scrolls of the diary Meigetsuki kept by Teika from his young age to just before his death and two manuscripts of different Imperial waka poem anthologies. The two-month-long exhibition provides a rare opportunity for ordinary Japanese people to take a firsthand look at valuable literary assets amassed and preserved by the noble Reizei house over the past eight centuries. The Reizei family, which still lives in Kyoto, originates from a grandson of Teika
Imperial poem anthologies were assembled in the names of emperors or retired emperors since the early 10th century. In a preface to the first Imperial poem anthology, one of the compilers wrote, “The seeds of Yamato (Japanese) poetry lies in the human heart and from it, grows a myriad of leaves of word.” This amounted to a declaration that the true expression of the human nature of Japanese is to be found in waka poems composed in the native Japanese language, not in Chinese poetic writing, says a brochure provided at the exhibition. For poets in the Heian period, to be named editors of Imperial poem anthologies was a great honor. They were even willing to risk their lives just to have a single poem included in those collections. The Reizei family and its predecessor provided three editors of Imperial waka anthologies.
In a spring night sky, the floating bridge of dreams vanishes
as a peak separates horizontally lingering clouds.
(A personal translation)
This is one of many famous poems composed by Teika in his turbulent years amid a transition of power from the nobles to samurai warlords. His poems feature elegant and alluring words with suggested feelings and lingering imagery. The poem about the spring night is a descriptive one on the surface, but it contains subtle, inspiring implications for readers. “The floating bridge of dreams,” which forms the second line in the original, derives from the title of the 54th and last volume of the Tale of Genji, which is known as the world’s oldest long novel. The volume depicts a broken love between Kaoru, the son of a princess who married Genji, the hero of the saga, and a young unfortunate woman named Ukifune. The title was so used as to expand on the romantic but sad atmosphere surrounding the two figures in the novel.
His poems were initially criticized as being excessively elaborate and polished, but Teika’s reputation was eventually established and his name was remembered as a great master of waka poetry.
The exhibition, which is under way from Oct. 24, is relatively academic with only a few visibly colorful items on display, but it has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors. This may be an indication that many Japanese are looking for something that helps them to reconfirm their roots in Japan’s history and culture. A similar euphoric move was seen last year when various events took place across the country to mark the millennial anniversary of the presumed completion of the Tale of Genji.
The history of the Reizei family has not been smooth at all. They had to undergone many periods of war. Faced with the danger of having its historically important assets scattered and lost from time to time, the family continued hard efforts to preserve and hand down its collection through the generations. War was not the sole thing that threatened the family and its cultural assets. They had to live in the days of misfortune from the Meiji era to until after the last war, when the waka poems of the Heian period came under criticism as anachronistic products made by aristocrats just to amuse themselves.
A fresh light is being shed, however, on the importance of the collection of literary assets kept by the family. The manuscripts left by Teika and his descendants have come to be widely known as the texts of many ancient literary works which are publicly available to today’s readers. The Reizei family transferred its secretly preserved assets to a new nonprofit corporation in the 1980s to make them available to the public. The exhibition was held on the occasion of the completion of a series of books to be published from their archives since then.
Japan has so far established itself as the world’s No. 2 economic power, but it is expected to be outranked by China in the not too distant future. What should be supporting Japan from now on? Will Japan be able to find a new supporting base in the current era of slow economic growth?
Calls are growing that Japan should beef up its “soft power” in order to explore a way for its future. Japan’s valuable, centuries-old cultural assets cannot be imitated by any other country. Cultural power backed by such property should become an important element that will help enhance Japan in the years or centuries to come. The ongoing exhibition may also provide a model for Japan to demonstrate itself as a leading country in the cultural field in the world.
