Three Poets at Minase

In the first moon of 1488 three of the greatest masters of linked-verse, Sogi (1421-1502), Shohaku (1443-1527), and Socho (1448-1532) met at Minase, a village between Kyoto and Osaka. As part of an observance at the shrine, which stood on the site of the Minase Palace of the Emperor Gotoba, they composed one hundred verses, of which 50 are here translated.
The art of linked-verse was an extremely demanding one. Generally three or more poets took part, composing alternate verses of 5,7,5 syllables and 7,7 syllables. Many rules had to be observed exactly: for example, if spring or autumn were mentioned in one verse, the following two to four verses also had to mention it. However, it was not necessary that the actual words ‘spring’ or ‘autumn’ be used; many natural phenomena, such as mist, blossoms, or singing birds, stood for spring, while others, such as fog, the moon, or chirping crickets, stood for autumn.
Beyond the technical difficulties imposed by the rules of linked-verse were the major consideration of keeping the level so high that it would not run the risk of resembling a mere game, and the problem of making each ‘link’ fit smoothly into the chain. Any three links taken from a sequence should produce two complete poems. Thus:

Except for you
Whom could I ever love,
Never surfeiting?

Nothing remotely suggests
The charms of her appearance.

Even plants and trees
Share in the bitter grief
Of the ancient capital.


a)
Except for you
Whom could I ever love,
Never surfeiting?
Nothing remotely suggests
The charms of her appearance.

b)
Nothing remotely suggests
The charms of her appearance.
Even plants and trees
Share in the bitter grief
Of the ancient capital.

Here we have two poems of entirely different meaning linked together: the first concerns a lover’s delight in his mistress, the second the grief of the poet over the destruction of the capital.
This kind of multiple stream of consciousness is a uniquely Japanese literary development, and was fostered in part by the ambiguity of the Japanese language, which permits many varieties of word play and is extremely free in the use of pronouns.


The above text from pp. 300-301 ‘Anthology of Japanese Literature’, introduced and compiled by Donald Keene, Penguin Classics, 1968.

I give you this as further information. However, it does not all apply to our renga because ours is a summer kasen renga and has a different pattern.

The text is then shown, with a commentary on each stanza as it goes. It is a very useful piece to read if you are trying to understand the traditional aims of renga.

Andrew