Ono no Komachi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- In this Japanese name, the family name is Ono.
Ono no Komachi (小野小町, c. 825—c. 900) was a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen—the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She is also numbered as one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals.
Contents |
[edit] Life and legends
The place of Komachi's birth and death is uncertain. According to one tradition, she was born in what is now Akita Prefecture, daughter of Yoshisada, "Lord of Dewa".[1] Her social status is also uncertain. She may have been a low-ranking consort or a lady-in-waiting of an emperor, possibly Emperor Ninmyō (r. 833-850).
As a poet, Komachi specialized in erotic love themes, expressed in complex poems.[2] Most of her waka are about anxiety, solitude or passionate love. She is the only female poet referred to in the preface of the Kokin Wakashū, which describes her style as "containing naivety in old style but also delicacy".
There are legends about Komachi in love. The most famous is a story about her relationship with Fukakusa no Shosho, a high-ranking courtier. Komachi promised that if he visited her continuously for a hundred nights, then she would become his lover. Fukakusa no Shosho visited her every night, but failed once towards the end. Despairing, he fell ill and subsequently died. When Komachi learned of his death she was overcome with sadness.
[edit] Legacy
Komachi sometimes features in later period literature, including five[3] Noh plays: Sotoba Komachi, Sekidera Komachi, Komachi uta Arasoi, Komachi Sōshi and Kayo Komachi. These works tend to focus on her talent for waka and her love affairs and the vanity of a life spent indulging in romantic liaisons. Komachi's old age is also frequently portrayed: when she has lost her beauty, has been abandoned by her former lovers, and now regrets her life, wandering around as a lonely beggar woman — albeit still appreciated by young admirers of her poetry.[1] This is a fictional description influenced by Buddhist thought and there may be no factual resemblance between this portrait and the historical reality.
In honor of her, the Akita Shinkansen is nicknamed Komachi. Also a variety of rice, Akita Komachi bears her name. One of her 31-syllable poems was chosen by Fujiwara no Teika as an entry in the very popular anthology Hyakunin Isshu.
Ono no Komachi is also the subject of a modern one-woman play, Call Me Komachi, produced by Lemon Tart Productions, written by Christie Nieman, directed by Miki Oikawa and starring Kaori Hamamoto. Call Me Komachi enjoyed successful seasons at various venues in Australia from 2003 to 2006. The play compares and parallels the lives of traditional Geisha with contemporary Japanese schoolgirls in "paid dating", known as enjo kōsai.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Rexroth (1977:141)
- ^ "Her beauty may be legendary but her rank as one of the greatest erotic poets in any language is not. Her poems begin the extreme verbal complexity which distinguishes the poetry of the Kokinshū Anthology from the presentational immediacy of the Man'yōshū." Rexroth (1977:141)
- ^ Keene (1970:67)
[edit] References
- Hirshfield, Jane; Mariko Aratani (1990). The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-6797-2958-5.
- Keene, Donald (1970). Twenty Plays of the Nō Theater. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-2310-3454-7.
- Rexroth, Kenneth; Ikuko Atsumi (1977). Woman poets of Japan. New York: New Directions Pub. Corp.. ISBN 0-8112-0820-6.
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ono no Komachi |
 |
This article about a Japanese poet is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
