Japanese Court Poetry [Paperback]

Robert H Brower (Translator), Earl Miner (Translator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; 1 edition (November 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804715246
• ISBN-13: 978-0804715249
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,346,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Brower and Miner" -- A Seminal Work, July 2, 2005

By 

Robert E. Morrell (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japanese Court Poetry (Paperback)

For students of early Japanese poetry during the past half-century it is impossible to imagine a more influential work than Brower and Miner's Japanese Court Poetry. Both authors were disciples of Professor Jinichi Konishi, to whom the book is dedicated, and whose collaborative article on "Association and Progression: Principles of Integration in Anthologies and Sequences of Japanese Court Poetry, A.D. 900-1350" (Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 21, [1958]) provided a major tool for their research.

The two scholars set the agenda for the next generation of students, even to such details as the standard format for English translations of Japanese poetry. The 5-7-5-7-7 syllable units of the 31-syllable tanka, for example, were represented in English by five lines, with the shorter first and third lines indented - such as we find throughout Japanese Court Poetry. The pattern is not universally accepted today, but it is as close to being standard as we are ever likely to get.

A concise summary of the contents JCP may be of some use to the curious.

PART ONE. THE NATURE OF JAPANESE COURT POETRY

I. The Distinctive Common Elements of Japanese Court Poetry

II. Recurring Formative Elements in the Court Tradition

PART TWO. THE IDEALS, PRACTICE, AND DEVELOPMENT OF JAPANESE COURT POETRY

III. Primitive Song and Poetry, ca. 550-686: Sources of Early Japanese Song, Primitive Songs and Later Contexts, The Place of Song in Early Japanese Life, Composition and Technique

IV. The Early Literary Period, 686-784: Poetry as a Literary Art and the Chinese Example, The Poet and His Audience, Poetic Practice, Attenuation and Decline

V. The Early Classical Period, 784-1100: The New Poetic, Poetic Practice, Consolidations, New Developments, and Decline

VI. The Mid-Classical Period, 1100-1241: The Formation of a New Esthetic, Poetic Practice, The Composition of Poetic Sequences, Minamoto Sanetomo and Romantic Primitivism

VII. The Late Classical Period, 1241-1350: Historical Developments and Literary Issues, Poetic Practice, New Developments in the Composition of Poetic Sequences, The Decline of Court Poetry and the Rise of New Forms

PART THREE. THE TRADITION OF JAPANESE COURT POETRY

Vlll. The Tradition of Japanese Court Poetry: The Courtly Nature of the Tradition, Japanese Poetry and the Western Reader: The Problem of Limitations, The Achievements of Japanese Court Poetry

APPENDIX: IMPERIAL ANTHOLOGIES AND OTHER COLLECTIONS OF JAPANESE COURT POETRY; BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Japanese Scholarship, The Integration of Anthologies and Sequences, Principles and Forms of Citation Found in This Book, Sources

GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS, FINDING LIST FOR JAPANESE POEMS TRANSLATED IN THE TEXT, INDEX

I recommend this book with enthusiasm, and only one reservation - it is not an easy read, although it is well-written. Miner seems to have recognized the problem. Those who prefer a serious but somewhat less intense experience might prefer his An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry (1968). Or buy both!