| Book five of the earliest extant anthology of Japanese poetry, the eighth century Man'yoshu, is unique in the collection. The book is dedicated entirely to the poetic activities of a group of poets on the island of Tsukushi, most prominently Yamanoue Okura and Otomo Tabito, who actively experimented with combining Chinese and Japanese forms and incorporating Chinese themes, making their poetry different from anything else in the anthology.; This dissertation recasts the activities of these poets not as an aberration, but as a vital chapter in the development of the Japanese poetic tradition. I examine the process through which the Tsukushi poets applied Chinese literary conventions to the task of creating a new type of Japanese poetry, from their earliest experiments with compound Chinese/Japanese forms to the more complex poetry sequences that were the culmination of their efforts. The adaptation and assimilation of Chinese culture undertaken by these poets are examined not as an exception to the rule, but as a reflection of the widespread adoption of Chinese concepts of statecraft that were transforming the Japanese state.; The poets' incorporation of Chinese literary models is revealed as part of an effort to move Japanese poetry away from its origins in ritual song and create from it a written poetry no longer reliant on performance. This written form allowed the poets to deal with more complex philosophical and psychological themes than had been possible in oral poetry, through the use of multi-part poetic forms, coherent poetic sequences, and works of collective rather than individual composition. The result of their efforts was not merely a transformation of an existing poetic tradition through the incorporation of Chinese elements, but a creation of something entirely new: the first Japanese poetry that could truly be called literature. |
