Japanese Literature Vocab Quiz A

Modern author who used a fiction about the poet Komachi to craft a play

Mishima Yukio

Female poet besides Komachi who was called a femme fatale

Izumi Shikibu

Poet credited with compiling One Hundred Poets, One Hundred Poems

Fujiwara no Teika

What form is chōka in the Man'yōshū?

A form with an unlimited number of lines, alternating 5 and 7 syllables

What is kakekotoba

"Pivot word" — a word with two or more meanings or syntactical functions

What is makura kotoba?

A fixed epithet — a 5-syllable phrase that anticipates a given word

What is utamakura?

A poetic place name (the place may not actually exist)

Mid-9th century female poet, only woman among the Six Poetic Geniuses named in the kanajo

Ono no Komachi

Subject of Mishima's Nō play Sotoba Komachi, known for kakekotoba

Ono no Komachi

Poet with 18 poems in the Kokinshū, only 21 of ~65 attributed poems considered authentic

Ono no Komachi

Modern author of Confessions of a Mask and founder of the "Shield Society"

Mishima Yukio

Author whose two key ideas were Death and Beauty, and who committed seppuku in 1970

Mishima Yukio

Nō play by Mishima, translated by Donald Keene, partly set in the Rokumeikan

Sotoba Komachi

Term for a gravestone from a stupa containing relics (title of Mishima's play)

Sotoba

Anthology from c. 905, first official imperial anthology of vernacular waka

Kokinshū

Anthology containing the kanajo, compiled by six male courtiers

Kokinshū

Term for the preface to the Kokinshū, the first major vernacular Japanese prose work

kanajo (Japanese Preface)

Text naming six "poetic geniuses," including Komachi as the only woman

kanajo

Compiler of the Kokinshū who also wrote its Japanese Preface

Ki no Tsurayuki (family name: Ki; personal name: Tsurayuki)

Tanka

31-syllable poem in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern, often rendered as 5 lines

First extant piece of Japanese literature, compiled 712, written in man'yōgana

Kojiki

Song (kayō)

simple folk song found in the Kojiki, attributed to characters in its narrative, with irregular line lengths

Chōka

form with an unlimited number of lines, alternating 5 and 7 syllables, ending in a 7-syllable couplet

Anthology from c. 750 containing 4,500+ poems, most famous poet Hitomaro

Man'yōshū

Yamato court poet posted to Iwami, most famous poet of the Man'yōshū

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Female poet, b. c. 974, minor nobility, reputation for many lovers, loved two brothers who both died

Izumi Shikibu

Poet (825–880) whose poems were incorporated into the Tales of Ise

Ariwara no Narihira

Anthology of 100 poets/100 poems, c. 1220, source of the karuta card game:

Ogura Hyakunin Isshu

Poet credited with compiling the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, known for idiosyncratic handwriting

Fujiwara no Teika

What does the story of Lady Blooming Tree Blossoms in Kojiki tell us about early beliefs?

a. Japanese loved gardens

b. Japanese sought a reason for the shortness of life

c. younger sisters make better wives

b. Japanese sought a reason for the shortness of life

What theme does Ono no Komachi’s poem express?

Mujōkan, the evanescence of all things

What Buddhist concept did Mishima strip out of Kan'ami's original, and what did he replace it with?

Ichinyokan ("oneness of opposites"), replaced with an unresolved Apollonian/Dionysian dualism

Per kotodama belief, why does saying "you are beautiful" kill the Poet?

Kotodama holds that spoken words carry real causal power, not just meaning

Why was Lady Lasting Rock rejected, and what was the mythic result?

Considered too unattractive; her rejection is why royal/human lives became short and fleeting like blossoms instead of eternal like rock

What utamakura (poetic place name) runs through Hitomaro's parting chōka?

Iwami

What contrast does Tsurayuki's Hyakunin Isshu poem draw?

Changeable human feeling vs. the unchanging scent of plum blossoms

Which poet is called the "god of Japanese poetry"?

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro