Waiting for the wind : thirty-six poets of Japan's late medieval age

Winner of the 1989 Donald Keene Center Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. The only collection in English of these works, \_Waiting for the Wind\_ presents more than four hundred poems by thirty-six poets of Japan’s late medieval age (1250—1500). The poems are all in the uta form (the thirty-one syllable lyric) that was the major genre of court poetry throughout the classical period in Japan. \_Waiting for the Wind\_ introduces this much neglected, yet very significant period through works of poets from the courtier Fujiwara No Teika, to the Monk Tonna, to Shotetsu. Most of the works are presented in English for the first time. In his historical introduction Steven Carter describes the period, especially the celebrated literary dispute lasting 250 years between the families of two sons of a court poet. This feud began over an inheritance and had lasting impact upon the poetry of the period. Each poet in the collection is introduced by a short biographical sketch that places him or her in historical context and offers a short critical evaluation. Steven D. Carter is Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of \_The Road to Komatsubara\_ and \_Three Poets at Yuvama\_. "Review by: Lawrence E. Marceau, \_Journal of Asian Studies\_, v.53:4 (Nov 1994), p.1263-1265 The paperback reissue of Steven D. Carter's award-winning collection of Kamakura and Muromachi period waka is a welcome addition to the small corpus of reasonably priced translations available for student purchase. Carter engages in his own brand of canon formation by providing us with a self-selected anthology of 447 poems by thirty-two men and four women who lived between 1158 (Fujiwara no letaka) and 1537 (Sanjonishi Sanetaka). The range of examples for each poet runs from one for To no Tsuneyori to forty-five for Fujiwara no Sadaie (=Teika), with an average of nearly twenty-five poems per individual. Drawing from both imperial and privately sponsored collections, Carter provides us with a surprisingly clear denotation of the stylistic and rhetorical boundaries that defined the "conservative" Nijo poetic line in contrast to the "unorthodox" rival Kyogoku and Reizei lines (Carter's terms). By including poets known for their accomplishments in other areas, such as Nijo Yoshimoto, Shinkei, and Sogi, Carter indicates the direction waka composition would take as renga-linked verse gained prominence. A minor regret regarding this work is that studies and translations completed between 1989, when the first edition appeared, and 1994 are not taken into account. Therefore, when we read of Kyogoku Tamekane (pp. 95-109), we find no reference, much less a response, to Robert N. Huey's 1989 monograph on Tamekane and his use of waka to buttress the position of his patrons in the late-Kamakura aristocracy. Similarly, in his discussion of the nun Abutsu (pp. 78-84), Carter directs us to read an English translation of her Izayoi nikki in Edwin 0. Reischauer and Joseph K. Yamagiwa's 1951 Translations from Early Japanese Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, second revised edition, 1972), without mentioning that it is also available in Helen C. McCullough's 1990 Classical Japanese Prose (Stanford: Stanford University Press). I expect that this problem is more a result of the publisher's interest in avoiding extra expense than of Carter's lack of desire to update this work." - PREFACE - INTRODUCTION - FOUNDERS -- Fujiwara no Teika -- Fujiwara no Ietaka -- Asukai Masatsune - CONTESTANTS -- Fujiwara no Tameie -- Fujiwara no Tameuji -- Kyogoku Tamenori -- Nun Abutsu -- Reizei Tamesuke - COMRADES -- Kyogoku Tamekane -- Kyogoku Tameko -- Jusammi Chikako -- Emperor Fushimi -- Empress Eifuku - DIVIDED RANKS -- Nijo Tameyo -- Tonna -- Yoshida no Kenko -- Joben -- Nijo Tamesada -- Keiun -- Emperor Hanazono -- Emperor Kogon -- Reizei Tamehide -- Nijo Tameshige -- Nijo Yoshimoto -- Prince Munenaga - DEFENDERS OF DIFFERENT FAITHS -- Kazan'in Nagachika -- Imagawa Ryoshun -- Reizei Tamemasa -- Asukai Masayori -- Gyoko -- Shotetsu -- To no Tsuneyori -- Shinkei -- Sogi -- Shohaku -- Sanjonishi Sanetaka - APPENDIX -- Genealogies -- On the Twenty-One Imperial Collections - ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY - INDEX OF FIRST LINES (JAPANESE) An English translation of 400 poems from Japan's late medieval period (1250-1500). These poems are all in the uta (31 syllable lyric) form, which was the major genre of court poetry throughout medieval Japan. The text includes the work of such poets as Shotetsu and Fujiwara No Teika. It would be difficult to introduce Fujiwara no Teika (sometimes called Sadaie) without saying something about his father, Shunzei (or Toshinari; 1114-1204). Presents over 400 poems by 36 poets of Japan's late medieval age (1250-1500), along with biographical sketches and critical evaluations of each.