Traversing the frontier : the Man'yōshū account of a Japanese mission to Silla in 736-737 / H. Mack Horton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horton, H. Mack.

Series:

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 330.

Harvard East Asian monographs

Language:

English

Japanese

Subjects (All):

Man'yōshū.

Japanese poetry--To 794--History and criticism.

Japanese poetry.

Physical Description:

xvii, 628 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Asia Center : Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

Editorial matter in English; some illustrative passages in Japanese and/or English translations.

Summary:

H. Mack Horton (premodern Japanese literature and culture, U. of California, Berkeley) has produced the first new English study in a generation of the Man'yoshu, a sequence of 145 poems written in the 8th century about an expedition from Japan to the Silla kingdom (later known as Korea). His book, which could easily have been of only technical interest, succeeds on diverse fronts. The translations of the poems are skilled and evocative. They are printed together in a creative graphic format. Each poem is given a careful analysis. Readers are told the history of the expedition in a smartly-written nonfiction narrative. The author also explores a series of historical transformations the Man'yoshu represents: between oral storytelling and writing, between religious ritual and literature, between indigenous tradition and cultural cross-pollination, and between the anonymous, collective product of a people and the voice of an individual artist. The first section of his book introduces the poems, and prints his translation. The second analyzes the poems. The third recounts the expedition and describes its historical contexts, the fourth looks at literary contexts and how those transformations work on the page, and the fifth looks at the authors and editors who first put together the poems into a book that mirrors the events of the expedition. There are two appendices: a technical description of the content and structure of the poems, and a scholarly overview of the Man'yoshu. Notes and works cited form an extensive end section. In addition to being a vital book for scholars in premodern Japanese literature, this book may be interesting to an educated readership that loves translation, poetry, Japan, travel writing, storytelling, or history. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

1 Traversing the Frontier 45

Lay of the Land 45

Official History: Shoku Nihongi 48

The Structure of the Sequence 49

2 Internal Contexts 54

The Parting Poems 54

Dramatic Development 66

The Autumn Reunion as Fictional Construct 76

The Lexicon of Longing 79

Association and Progression 102

Homeward Bound 111

3 Historical Contexts 117

In Search o f "Masurawo" Spirit 117

Silla and Japan 122

Lost at Sea 145

Deaths in Uncountable Numbers 150

4 Literary Contexts 153

The Frontier between History and Art 153

Style and Stereotypicity 154

Nascent Intertextuality: The Old Poems by Hitomaro and Others 161

Travel beyond the Bounds of the Sequence 198

Poetry by Envoys to the Tang 234

Border Guard Verses 245

The Envoys and the Gods 266

Chinese Models 302

Communion and Convention: The Poetic Site 329

5 Authorial and Editorial Contexts 359

Prologue: Tabito's Retainers, Shika Seafolk, and Kumagori 359

A Journey of the Imagination 375

Poets, Compiler, Editor 385

Journey's End 414.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [557]-592) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780674053304

0674053303

OCLC:

762372213