Channels of allusive variation or manifestations of poetic discourse? Referring practices in early medieval Japanese court poetry as evidenced in the appropriation of Man’yōshū (original) (raw)

Abstract

Allusive variation (honkadori) is believed to be one of the features of Japanese court poetry (waka) of early medieval period. Honkadori is usually defined as “intentional appropriation of poetic expressions from well-known and often earlier poems in newly composed waka.” However, this one-directional (present→past) and thus one-dimensional approach focuses linearly only on channels of poetry appropriation. It does not take into consideration the existence of poetic discourse, which provides a multi-directional and dispersal approach to referring practices in waka. In fact, poetic discourse is a significant feature of early medieval waka. This paper provides an alternative interpretation of referring practices in early medieval waka at an example of Man’yōshū poetry appropriation in poems of numerous poets from various poetic factions. I argue that poetic discourse is a much broader concept lying above any referring practices and that honkadori is a way of half-intentional creating of, claiming, participating in and validating poetic discourse. This paper demonstrates that it was the already established poetic discourse, which may be defined as common knowledge about waka possessed by poets in early medieval period, not any particular line of transmission or affiliation to any poetic school, that caused numerous poets to allude to the same Man’yōshū poems and expressions. Honkadori is thus a manifestation and one of the interpretations of poetic discourse. Moreover, as opposed to Japanese literary studies that emphasize the significance of Man’yōshū manuscripts for referring practices, my interpretation of honkadori allows secondary sources and poetry by fellow early medieval poets to be channels of Man’yōshū poetry appropriation.

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