Speaker: DANICA TRUSCOTT, Reischauer Institute Postdoctoral Fellow (PhD Literature, Univ of California Los Angeles 2022)

Moderator: MELISSA McCORMICK, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Japanese Art and Culture, Harvard University

Summary:

As one of its three major poetic genres, sōmon poetry occupies considerable space in the Man’yōshū, Japan’s oldest vernacular poetic anthology. Translated as “love poetry,” or “private exchanges,” sōmon are often read as mere depictions of romance between men and women, devoid of any broader social or political implications. Since most contributions to the Man’yōshū by women appear in sections or volumes dedicated to this genre, these authors are often relegated by commentaries and general overviews to the status of “love poets.” Thus, both the genre and its specialists are absent in discussions about the contexts under which poetry was composed and anthologized in early Japan. 

In this talk, I read Volume IV, a book solely dedicated to sōmon poetry, as a text rather than a collection of individual poems in order to demonstrate that the works of women as presented in this volume actually help create narratives about the imperial court’s history and the political tensions that reside therein. Specifically, I focus on poetry by members and associates of the Ōtomo lineage, whose position at court stagnated in the mid-eighth century. Despite their waning influence in reality, I argue that the text of Volume IV frames several members, including women, as romantic protagonists facilitating relationships with the imperial family and other powerful nobles. In this way, women clearly played a pivotal role in the textual configuration of sociopolitical relations at court during the eighth century.
 

***

Please register here to attend virtually via Zoom

In-person event location: Porté Room S250, Second Level, CGIS South Bldg., 1730 Cambridge St. 

***

Reischauer Institute Japan Forum