Description
Book SynopsisThe poetry of the Heian court of Japan has typically been linked with the emergence of a distinct Japanese language and culture. Combining visual analysis of the calligraphy with which this poetry was transcribed, a more traditional textual analysis, and a review of the politics of the period, this book presents a view of Heian poetry and culture.
Trade Review“‘The line,’ wrote William James, ‘is the relation.’ In a study of stunning originality, Thomas Lamarre gives us the brushwork line, the line of poetic gesture—and through it, the relation between nation and sensation.
Uncovering Heian Japan combines an exquisitely researched archeology of Japanese writing with far-ranging reflections on race, nation, and collective expression. A major contribution not only to Japanese studies, but to the interdisciplinary realm of cultural theory as a whole.”—Brian Massumi, State University of New York at Albany
“A vivid reading of Heian court poetry that removes the interpretive screen later imposed in the name of national identity and modernity to reveal a richly expressive world. Here calligraphy, composition, and community combine in a ‘song machine’ that links poetics and politics and seeks, quite literarily, to calibrate the cosmos. After this book the poetry of ‘old Japan’ will never be the same.”—Carol Gluck, Columbia University
"Thomas LaMarre has written a fascinating archaeology of how the national imagination of modern Japan has colonized ancient scriptures of the archipelago to fabricate a glorious lineage and cultural ancestry for itself.
Uncovering Heian Japan also recovers the rich prehistory of cosmopolitan poetic exchanges between the archipelago and the Middle Kingdom that is foreclosed by state-sanctioned cultural histories of both modern Japan and China."—Pheng Cheah, University of California, Berkeley
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
A Note on Transliteration and Illustrations ix
Introduction: Unstating Heian Japan 1
Part One. The Interpretation of Rebuses
1. Revising the Rebus 13
2. Kana Inscription and Stylistic Differentiation 26
3. Composition and Competition 50
Part Two. Inscription and Sensation
4. Toward a History of Styles 77
5. Heian Calligraphy 93
6. The Multisensible FIgure: Ashide Shita-e Wakanroeisho 116
Part Three. The Song Machine
7. Two Prefaces, Two Modes of APpearance 143
8. Tsurayuki's Song Machine 161
Notes 189
Works Consulted 207
lIllustrations 217
Index 229
