Shinsen Man'yōshū
The Shinsen Man'yōshū (新撰万葉集, "Newly Compiled Man'yōshū"[1]), also called the Kanke Man'yōshū (菅家万葉集, "Sugawara no Michizane's Man'yōshū"),[2][3][4] is a privately compiled anthology of waka and kanshi compiled between 893 and 913.
Compilation and date[edit]
The work is in two volumes, the first having been compiled in 893 and the second being added in 913.[2][3][4] Its compilation is traditionally attributed to the great scholar and kanshi poet Sugawara no Michizane, but other theories have been proposed.[2][3] The attribution was first made in the eleventh century, and is today accepted by most scholars.[5][i] Even if Michizane wrote the poetry himself, he could not have composed the preface to the second volume, which is dated 913, ten years after Michizane's death.[5]
Style[edit]
The text consists of alternating waka and kanshi on the same theme.[1] The waka are written in Man'yōgana, similarly to the Man'yōshū.[1]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Hitaku Kyūsojin, Taira Takano and Hiroshi Yamaguchi accept the attribution, but Tōru Asami said it was a baseless tradition, with Helen Craig McCullough stating that the poetry's impersonality makes verification impossible.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Keene 1999 : 221.
- ^ a b c Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten article "Shinsen Man'yōshū". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.
- ^ a b c MyPedia article "Shinsen Man'yōshū". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services.
- ^ a b Digital Daijisen entry "Shinsen Man'yōshū". Shogakukan.
- ^ a b Keene 1999 : 222.
- ^ Keene 1999 : 239, note 15.
Bibliography[edit]
- Keene, Donald (1999). A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1: Seeds in the Heart — Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11441-7.
External links[edit]
- Scanned copy of full text available from the National Institute of Japanese Literature.