In order for us to find our way home, the plum blossoms still smell the same.
人はいさ 心も知らず ふるさとは 花ぞ昔の 香ににほひける | hito wa isa kokoro mo shirazu furusato wa hana zo mukashi no ka ni nioikeru |
Ki no Tsurayuki
Perhaps the most difficult, or perhaps the very best place to be is at the very beginning of something. And in Japanese literature too, there were a people who stood at the forefront of a long and fascinating tradition. One of them, Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之 (866 or 872–945?), was the leading figure during the age of the first imperial collection of Japanese poetry, the Kokinshū 古今集(Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern; 905). His bright and enchanting poetry surpassed his official ranks, while his work as the principal compiler of the first imperial collection and author of its Japanese Preface (仮名序 Kanajo) cemented his place as not only one of the greats of waka but also the Japanese literary tradition as a whole.
Tsurayuki was son of Ki no Mochiyuki 紀望行 (dates uncertain) and a lady, who is thought to have been an entertainer from the Office of Female Dancers and Musicians (内教坊 Naikyōbō). Once influential, the Ki 紀 clan of Tsurayuki’s day was long in decline, and so both his rank and official career were modest. But through the decades, as he went from position to position, from the capital to provinces and back, to finally reach Upper Grade of Junior Fifth Rank (従五位上 jugoi no jō) and the position of Provisional Director of Carpentry (木工権頭 Moku gon no kami), he was also an active poet, critic, even a diarist.
In poetry, Tsurayuki was able to bring out the beauty of the simplest of matters and compose outstanding poems on the most mundane of topics. His poetry hardly had equals, and so while still in his twenties, he was already a member of the Imperial Palace poetic circle, composing for folding screens (屏風 byōbu) and participating in poetry contests (歌合 utaawase).
But rather than poetic composition, his most significant work was editorial and came about when he was still in his thirties − an exceptionally young age to be granted a honour of compiling an imperial collection. The compilation of the first imperial poetry collection Kokinshū was carried out by an editorial board, where Tsurayuki worked with his cousin Ki no Tomonori 紀友則 (845−905; Hyakunin Isshu 33), Mibu no Tadamine 壬生忠岑 (after 850−?; Hyakunin Isshu 30), and Ōshikōchi no Mitsune 凡河内躬恒 (859−925; Hyakunin Isshu 29). Therefore Tsurayuki’s role in Kokinshū compilation is hard to trace precisely, but scholarly consensus seems to be that after the death of Tomonori sometime in 905, Tsurayuki became the principal compiler, and the careful ordering of the poems − from early to late spring, to summer, autumn, and winter, from the budding of love to separation, − as well as the famous Kana (Japanese) Preface, the first critical work on waka poetry, were all works of Tsurayuki.
Kokinshū was presented to Emperor Daigo (醍醐天皇 Daigo tennō; 885−930, reigned 897−930) in 905, soon became the primary reading for all of the well-educated Heian 平安 nobility, and remains to this day at the core of waka poetic tradition. But Kokinshū was far from being the end of Tsurayuki’s activities and twenty-five years later he was tasked by Emperor Daigo to select the superior compositions from the anthology. Tsurayuki’s selection, now known as Shinsenwaka 新撰和歌 (Newly Selected Japanese Poems, 930), was compiled while he was serving as Governor of Tosa (土佐守 Tosa no kami), but because the emperor passed away on the year of Tsurayuki’s assignment, the collection was never officially presented and was in danger of being forgotten and eventually disappearing. However, Tsurayuki chose to release his work out into the world, thus allowing for preservation of his selection of 360 superior poems from Kokinshū to this day.
Tsurayuki served as the governor of Tosa 土佐 (modern-day Kōchi 高知 prefecture) between 930 and 935, and related to those years is not only Shisenwaka, but also the first Japanese (as opposed to Chinese) diary, known as Tosa Nikki 土佐日記 (The Tosa Diary; around 935). The diary, which is often classified as a travel record, describes a fifty-five day journey from Tosa to the capital that is now Kyōto 京都. Written Japanese, in the guise of a lady in the governor’s retinue, the diary paved the way for Japanese diary literature, which in the century following Tsurayuki flowered under the the brushes of numerous accomplished women and is now seen as one of the central genres in Japanese classics.
Tsurayuki's lineage and offices may have been modest, but his literary accomplishments were unparalleled. His poems are preserved in a personal personal collection Tsurayuki Shū 貫之集 (Collected Poems of Tsurayuki; around mid-10th century), while imperial collections hold 452 of his compositions − a number second only to Fujiwara no Shunzei 藤原俊成 (also read as Fujiwara no Toshinari; 1114–1204; Hyakunin Isshu 83) and his son Fujiwara no Teika (also read as Fujiwara no Sadaie; 1162–1241; Hyakunin Isshu 97). And Fujiwara no Kintō 藤原公任 (966–1041; Hyakunin Isshu 55), another grand figure of Japanese poetry, considered Tsurayuki among the Thirty Six Poetic Immortals (三十六歌仙 Sanjūrokkasen).
Stories of Tsurayuki composing poetry were also immortalized in tales like the Ōkagami大鏡 (The Great Mirror; around 11th century), which tells of the powerful statesman Fujiwara no Tadahira 藤原忠平 (880–949; Hyakunin Isshu 26), a worthy poet himself, and his sons coming to Tsurayuki for poems on important occasions − so strong seems to have been the belief that Tsurayuki would offer a superior composition. Ōkagami also records a story of Tsurayuki’s daughter Ki no Naishi 紀内侍 (dates uncertain), composing when her plum tree was taken away by emperor’s command, while history remembers Tsurayuki’s son Ki no Tokibumi 紀時文 (also read as Ki no Tokifumi; 922−996) as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber (梨壺の五人 Nashitsubo no gonin), who worked on the second imperial collection Gosenshū 後撰集 (Later Collection; 953) almost fifty years after Kokinshū.
Tsurayuki’s legacy was clear even a generation or two after him, but it was in 1904, in the reign of Emperor Meiji (明治天皇 Meiji tennō; 1852–1912, reigned 1967–1912) and almost a millennium after Kokinshū, that Tsurayuki was awarded a Posthumous Junior Second Rank (贈従二位 zō junii). And so to this day Ki no Tsurayuki, a man of modest lineage and rank, still stands as one of the most significant men in the world now called Japanese literature.
Plum blossoms in my old home,
still smell like in the days long gone...
Tsurayuki’s poem in the Hyakunin Isshu is an early spring poem, but also a playful and witty composition singing of the very first blossoms of spring and of their fragrance, unchanging through the years unlike the ever-changing human emotions.
The poem is from the first book of spring poems in Kokinshū, and as it only mentions “flowers” (hana, in the fourth line hana zo mukashi no), it might seem that it is a composition on cherry blossoms (桜 sakura), but the focus on aroma rather than the beauty of the flower immediately implies it is a poem on the fragrant plum blossoms (梅 ume), and the Kokinshū headnote confirms it, also telling of a witty conversation that resulted in the composition:
When after a long time of not visiting he arrived at a house he always used to stay at on journeys to Hatsuse, the owner of the place said: “As you see, these are still perfectly fine lodgings.” And so he broke off a branch from a plum tree growing nearby and composed:
The human heart −
I do not grasp, but
in my old home flowers
fill the air with scent
like in the days long gone.
To the remark of the house owner:
“As you see, these are still perfectly fine lodgings.”
Tsurayuki cleverly replied in a poem:
“The house is there, but of your feelings I am unsure.”
The poem juxtaposes the ever-changing humans to the seemingly unchanging nature, and in the original it is done through particles wa, which follow hito (“human”) in the first line and furusato (“one’s old home”) in the third, creating a parallel, while the second line ending in a negative auxiliary verb zu in shūshikei 終止形 (final form) breaks the poem into two parts and emphasises the contrasting elements: hito wa isa / kokoro mo shirazu // furusato wa... (As for humans, I do not know their hearts. As for my old home...)
The poet seems to imply that humans − whether the house owner or any other person − greet every spring having changed, and so as a long time has passed, he is unsure of the feelings of the house owner. On the other hand, flowers bloom the same every spring, and so in his old home (furusato), as he goes on to state: indeed, the flowers smell with fragrance of the past (hana zo mukashi no / ka ni nioikeru).
Here, hana zo means “indeed, the flowers”. Zo puts emphasis on hana and requires the final keri in rentaikei 連体形 (attributive form), resulting in keru. Mukashi means “the past” or “long gone days”, so together with ka (“fragrance”) it forms “fragrance of the past”, while nioi means “to smell” and is used in ren’yōkei 連用形 (continuative form), as it connects to keru, denoting realization.
A Shōho 正保 era (1644–1648) reproduction of Tsurayuki’s personal collection also includes a reply poem (返歌 henka) from the house owner:
花だにも おなじ心に 咲くものを 植ゑたる人の 心知らなむ | hana dani mo onaji kokoro ni saku mono wo uetaru hito no kokoro shiranamu | Even if the flowers bloom with their hearts unchanging, I want you to understand the heart of one who planted them. |
And so, while most commentaries agree that the house owner was a man, reading the reply it is easy to imagine the owner being a lady, just like Kubota Jun (2009, 47) suggests. And then the playful conversation could well be seen as carrying a romantic hue, perhaps the colour of a rose plum. But even if not, a poem on plum blossoms, the first to flower in spring, is still beautifully appropriate for a poet who stood at the very forefront of establishing a well-respected place for his art.
Illustrations
Square illustration: Chōyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi 超訳百人一首 うた恋い, dir. Kasai Ken‘ichi カサヰケンイチ, TYO Animations, 2012. / Editing by the blog author.
Poet card: Ki no Tsurayuki by Katsukawa Shunshō 勝川春章 1775, carved and pained by David Bull in 1994.
Poem sheet: Chōyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi, 2012. / Editing by the blog author.