Everything about Kaky Hy Shiki totally explained
is a text on Japanese poetics written by
Fujiwara no Hamanari. One volume in length, it "is the oldest extant piece of poetic criticism in the Japanese canon".
Development
The text was commissioned by
Emperor Kōnin and completed in
772.
Title
The common title today is
Kakyō Hyōshiki and is in reference to
Chinese Book of Songs (
Japanese Shikyō). However, chronologically the name doesn't fit, and some manuscripts don't include this title at all. Alternative titles include, which is likely to have been the original title, as well as based on the compiler's name.
Contents
The main focus of the text is an attempt to apply phonetic rules of
Chinese poetry to
Japanese poetry. As the two languages are fundamentally different, the application is forced and unnatural.
The text defines seven types of, literally "poetic sicknesses" which are rhetoric faults that should be avoided when composing poetry.
- : the last character of the first and last verses are the same
- : the last character of the first verse is the same as the third or sixth character of the second verse
- : the last character of the other verses is homophonous with the last character of the third verse
- : the last character of the the third verse is used in the other verses
- : the second and final syllables in a single verse are the same
- : the final character of the third and fifth verses are the same
- : with the exception of the final syllable of the third verse, when two or more homophones are used consecuatively
The text also defines three types of poetic forms:
: chōka and tanka
: irregular
: mixed
Hamanari quotes 34 poems to illustrate the above points. Many of these poems are not found in poetry collections of the time such as Man'yōshū. These poems are quite valuable to historical linguists as they're written in Man'yōgana, a script which preserves a historical phonological distinction known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai that was soon lost afterwards.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Kaky Hy Shiki'.
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