From Court Women’s Literature to Recluses’ Literature

How did the work of court women become the livelihood of literary recluses? Orikuchi Shinobu follows poetry from female attendants transmitting imperial words through contests, hereditary teaching houses, traveling monks, and professional linked-verse masters.

His discussion brings together love poems, borrowed verses, provincial song, Buddhist performance, and changing ideas of poetic depth. Shunzei, Saigyō, Teika, and Retired Emperor Go-Toba become figures in an argument about form, sensation, individuality, and the limits of collective literary fashion. The Oki selection of the Shin Kokin Wakashū provides the final focus.

First published with Oki-bon Shin Kokin Wakashū in September 1927, this complete translation preserves seven numbered sections and the physical lines of quoted poems. Notes explain historical figures, specialized critical terms, recovered Japanese readings, and discrepancies retained from the source. The author’s forceful literary judgments and uncertain historical reconstructions remain visible throughout. AI-assisted translation.