Kakyō Hyōshiki


Kakyō Hyōshiki is a text on Japanese poetics written by Fujiwara no Hamanari. One volume in length, it "is the oldest extant piece of poetic criticism in the Japanese canon".

Development

The text was commissioned by Emperor Kōnin and completed in 772.

Title

The common title today is Kakyō Hyōshiki and is in reference to Chinese Book of Songs. However, chronologically the name does not fit, and some manuscripts do not include this title at all. Alternative titles include Uta no Shiki, which is likely to have been the original title, as well as Hamanari Shiki based on the compiler's name.

Contents

The main focus of the text is an attempt to apply phonetic rules of Chinese poetry to Japanese poetry. As the two languages are fundamentally different, the application is forced and unnatural.
The text defines seven types of kahei, literally "poetic sicknesses" which are rhetoric faults that should be avoided when composing poetry.
The text also defines three types of poetic forms:
Hamanari quotes 34 poems to illustrate the above points. Many of these poems are not found in poetry collections of the time such as Man'yōshū. These poems are quite valuable to historical linguists as they are written in Man'yōgana, a script which preserves a historical phonological distinction known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai that was soon lost afterwards.