The Importance of Textual Interpretation in Classic          Japanese Poetry

KIMPARA Tadashi

doi:10.20613/hikaku.33.0_91

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Other Title

注釈の意味
注釈の意味--<言葉あそび>の詩をめぐって
チュウシャクノイミコトバアソビノシオメグッテ
―〈言葉あそび〉の詩をめぐって―

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One of the basic critical approaches of literary interpretation is consolidating textual meanings, especially in relation to the historical meanings of words and details about the author and her/ his time period. I will demonstrate the importance of this approach by examining two types of poem. One was called butsumeishi by Shimada Tadaomi (828—892), and the other was called kaibun-shi by Tachibanano Aritsura (? —953).　Both of the authors realized their own unique world in the limited world of the genre, kanshi, which came from China. Butsumeishi is produced by using a technique of kakekotoba, which is a kind of pun. Kaibunshi uses a style in which the poem may be read either from the beginning or the end, and the meaning and the meter are the same.　Shimada Tadaomi created the archetype of butsumeika in Kokinwakashu. Tachibanano Aritsura established the style of kaibunshi in the Japanese world, and although the Japanese are not so much influenced by meter in writing poems, we should notice his outstanding sense for meter.

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