Kyōgoku Tamekane: Poetry and Politics in Late Kamakura Japan

Kyogoku Tamekane (1254-1332), who introduced changes in traditional waka verse form that would alter the course of Japanese poetry, lived in a period of upheaval and political complexity. The military government in Kamakura was exhausted by its successful efforts to thwart the Mongol invasions, and the imperial court in Kyoto was locked in a succession dispute. Tamekane was firmly planted amid the intrigues and rivalries of court politics: in a careful account of the institutional setting of his works, this book demonstrates that the poetry can hardly be discussed - indeed, would not even exist - apart from its political and social context. The premier literary family of the time split into three competing houses, one headed by Tamekane. There ensued a series of bitter and interconnected political, economic, and poetic disputes. The author assesses the extent to which these disputes affected Tamekane's ability to write and publish his own poetry, and conditioned his influence on his own age as well as the reputation he carried into later times. The book opens with a biography of Tamekane that explores the complex issues of his time, showing how they affected, and were affected by, him and his work. Special attention is given to the split in the imperial line and its effect on Tamekane's innovative poetry, examining the techniques he favored and placing his work in the context of waka's centuries-long history. Appendixes include a translation of the 60-poems and several contemporary documents that shed light on Tamekane and his poetry.