Tuesday, October 14, 2008

HYAKUNIN ISSHU One Hundred Poems: The Hyakunin Isshu, or Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, 百人一首、 is a collection of 100 poems by 100 different poets. About 750 years ago, the poet Fujiwara no Sadaie (also known as Teika) selected them. They are fairly chronologically ordered from the seventh through the thirteenth centuries. The poems are all 'waka' (now called 'tanka'). Waka are five-line poems of 31 syllables, arranged as 5, 7, 5, 7, 7. The simplicity and beauty of the poems is still very much appreciated in Japan and abroad. Hokusai made a series of woodblock prints for the poems, which are shown on my website on each poem's page. They represent his own interpretation of the texts, which is focused on the daily life of the Japanese. Unfortunately not all were finished. But other artists followed suit. The poems are very popular even today, and are published, sung, and available as card games in many editions. The Hyakunin Isshu card game set has 200 cards, 100 of which contain the complete poem in kanji, and the other 100 contain the two last lines in hiragana. The game consists in finding the matching cards. One player reads from the complete card while the others try to find the matching card first. The relevant card from an ancient set is depicted on each poem's page on the website. The site is still under construction. New poems will be added regularly. 9:30:23 AM

© Copyright 2008 Hetty Litjens.