Honkadori

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Contents 1 Type of Poetic Trope 2 Examples of Location 3 Context 4 Use in Uta-awase 5 Fujiwara no Teika and his Interpretation 6 Source 6.1 Comparative Example from Western Literature

[edit] Type of Poetic Trope

In Japanese poetry, honkadori (本歌取り, honkadori^?) is an allusion to another older poem that would be generally recognized by its potential readers. The honkadori possesses qualities of yūgen and ushin in Japanese art. The concept emerged in the 12th century during the Kamakura period. Honkadori is one of the many terms in Japanese poetry used to describe allusion, another being honzetsu.

[edit] Examples of Location

This style of quoting is a common trope in many ancient Japanese works of literature including stories such as the Tale of Genji and poems such as those found in the Kokinshū and the Shin Kokinshū.

[edit] Context

In a narrative story, honkadori are often found in the form of a poem spoken by one of the characters. In a waka poem, this is usually the first line of the poem. A honkadori is not merely a reference to another poem even though lines are sometimes copied word for word. The use of honkadori attempts to affect the reader in the same way as the original poem and the only difference being in the meaning and the atmosphere. Debates occur while interpreting poems over the difference between honkadori and seishi, lines from poetry which have already been used and are not allowed to be repeated).

[edit] Use in Uta-awase

Because poetry in Japan was usually written for uta-awase, or poetry competitions, a “good” poem was not merely one that expressed emotions in a unique and beautiful way. Instead, poets were judged on their mastery of using their knowledge of existing poems and the way in which they placed honkadori and other poetic tropes into their poems. For this reason, the use of honkadori added depth to the poem because the poet displayed his mastery of Japanese poetic troops, which then meant a mastery of Japanese poetry.

[edit] Fujiwara no Teika and his Interpretation

Among Japanese poets, Fujiwara no Teika defined the use of the honkadori. Fujiwara no Teika's interpretation of the honkadori only applied to a selective audience of aristocrats and members of the Japanese court who were well versed on all Japanese poetry and tropes. Therefore, for Fujiwara no Teika the honkadori’s context and use were dependent on the reader. The skillful use of the honkadori is then found in the balance between not being plagiarism, and still evoking the context of the original poem.

[edit] Source

Tsukamoto, Akiko Modes of Quoting: Parody and Honkadori 'Frontiers of Transculturality in Contemporary Aesthetics', University of Bologna, Italy, October 2000. [Editor of the Website Raisfeld , Carol Simply Haiku, 2003/2004 ] http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv2n4/features/Akiko_Tsukamoto.html

Brower, Robert H. Fujiwara Teika's Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shoji EraMonumenta Nipponica, Vol. 31, No. 3. (Autumn, 1976), pp. 223-249. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-0741%28197623%2931%3A3%3C223%3AFTHSOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S

Examples from Shin Kokinshū

36.
Gazing out over
Mist-shrouded foothills
Beyond the river Minare,
Who could have thought
Evenings are autumn?
Retired Emperor Go-Toba

Allusion to Sei Shōnagon's assertion in The Pillow Book that evening is the most beautiful moment of an autumn day.

1035:
Another evening’s sighs:
Have I forgotten
This hidden longing
Is mine alone to suffer
As days become months?
Princess Shokushi

An allusion to Tsurayuki’s poem below.

Kokinshū: 606
Keeping this longing
Hidden within is what hurts –
With only me to hear my sighs
Ki no Tsurayuki

Source: Traditional Japanese Literature Trans. Shirane et al. Columbia University Press. New York, 1893-2007. (pp. 612, 621)

[edit] Comparative Example from Western Literature

From the introduction to Medea:

"Nurse: If only the Argo's hollow hull had never flown
to the land of Colchis, through the dark-blue Clashing Rocks."

It is referencing the myth of the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece. As described in the Odyssey, Jason's ship the Argo is "known to all" (12.69-70)

The metaphor of sailing as flying is common, for example Hellen (147, 667)

The Argo was traditionally the first ship, and seafaring is considered a transgression of human boundaries and sign of moral decline. (Hesiod, Works and Days 236-37, 618-94) (Helen 229-32)

from "Women on the Edge, Four plays by Euripides". Trans. Blondell, Gamel, Rabainowitz, Zweig. Routledge. NY, 1999.