Development
The oldest known collection of haikai linked verse appears in the first imperial anthology of renga, the Tsukubashū (1356-57).
Traditional renga was a group activity in which each participant displayed his wit by spontaneously composing a verse in response to the verse that came before; the more interesting the relationship between the two verses the more impressive the poet’s ability. The links between verses could range from vulgar to artistic, but as renga was taken up by skilled poets and developed into a set form, the vulgarity of its early days came to be ignored.
Haikai no renga, in response to the stale set forms that preceded it, embraced this vulgar attitude and was typified by contempt for traditional poetic and cultural ideas, and by the rough, uncultured language that it used. The haikai spirit, as it came to be called, embraced the natural humor that came from the combination of disparate elements. To that end haikai poets would often combine elements of traditional poems with new ones they created. A well-known example of this early attitude is the opening couplet, possibly by Yamazaki Sōkan (1464–1552), from his Inutsukubashū (犬筑波集, "Mongrel Renga Collection").
He was given the following prompt:
- kasumi no koromo suso wa nurekeri
- The robe of haze is wet at its hem
to which he responded:
- saohime no haru tachi nagara shito o shite
- Princess Sao of spring pissed as she started
This poem clearly derives its humor from shock value. Never before in Japanese culture had anyone dared to talk of the goddess of spring in such a manner. Taking an ostensibly traditional and poetic prompt and injecting vulgar humor while maintaining the connection of the damp hems and the spring mists was exactly the sort of thing that early haikai poets were known for.
A comparable, though less evolved, tradition of 'linked verse' (lién jù, written with the same characters as 'renku') evolved in Chin-dynasty China, and it has been argued that this Chinese form influenced Japanese renga during its formative period.
Read more about this topic: Renku
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