KKS Kanajo
The kana preface is one of the more difficult parts of the KKS to interpret; exactly what Tsurayuki was trying to do with the preface is not completely certain, nor is it clear what status it had at the time. There are words, phrases, and sentences that do not have a clear interpretation. Nevertheless, it is a part of the KKS and an important work in the history of Japanese poetics. My translation and commentary here should be regarded as provisional -- I have mostly relied on the commentaries of Takeoka and Katagiri, and there is a great deal of writing about the preface outside of those works (both ancient and modern). None of the descriptions of things like Tsurayuki's "six styles" should be regarded as authoritative, even if the explanations are not marked as tentative.
This translation and commentary is mostly oriented towards the role of the preface in the context of the KKS itself, rather than its role in the history of Japanese (or wider East Asian) poetic theory. With a few exceptions, I have not addressed issues of what prior poetic writings (Chinese or Japanese) may have influenced Tsurayuki, or how he advances on the writings of his predecessors.
Contents
- Part 1 (Introduction)
- Part 2 (The genesis of waka)
- Part 3 (The early development of waka)
- Part 4 (The six poetic styles)
- Part 5 (The current decline and prior glory of waka)
- Part 6 (The Man'yoshu era)
- Part 7 (The six sages of poetry)
- Part 8 (The compilation of the Kokinshu)
- Part 9 (Conclusion)
Introduction
All complete manuscripts of the KKS contain a preface written in Japanese, which we now label the "Kana preface." A minority of manuscripts also contain a preface written in literary Chinese (the "Mana preface"), but a number of these texts place the Chinese preface at the end of the manuscript. These prefaces have had an enormous influence on Japanese poetry and poetic theory, but they have also raised a number of questions that have not been satisfactorily answered. My purpose here is not to give a complete accounting of the entire history of scholarship on the KKS prefaces, but simply to indicate some of the major interpretive issues -- additional issues of interpretation will also be covered in the translation itself.
Who wrote the prefaces?
The kana preface is attributed to Ki no Tsurayuki -- tradition is unanimous on this, and only a few modern scholars have tried to suggest it was a later pseudonymous work. The authorship of the Chinese preface is more debatable; tradition attributes it to Ki no Yoshimochi, but there have been theories that it was written entirely by Tsurayuki.
What is the relationship between the two prefaces?
This is a far more uncertain question than the issue of authorship.
How important are the prefaces to interpreting the KKS?
This links to a related question: what is the value of the preface as a whole? Opinions are divided. Takeoka Masao takes the preface as a serious, well written work that reflects Tsurayuki's own poetic sensibility and provides a key to unlocking the interpretation of the KKS as a whole as well as that of individual poems.
