Tanka Orai, July 2025 Issue
1. Kenichiro Yara, 'The Tanka Magazine "Uguisu" and Tanka During Wartime'
<"Uguisu" was a tanka magazine launched in February 1940 by young members of "Kokoro no Hana" such as Harutsuna Sasaki and Kiyoko Kurihara. It published 50 issues until it merged with "Kokoro no Hana" in March 1944 due to paper shortages.>
I read this with great interest as it contained so much I was completely unaware of. Hiroshi Takeyama's remarks resonated with me.
2.I cannot delete the screenshot of your 'like' either; spring to early summer is unexpectedly far away. - Haru TachibanaI took a screenshot of a 'like' from you. It is an act that contrasts with the lightness of a 'like.' Even if the relationship between the two of us changes, I cannot delete it. While spring to early summer might seem close, perhaps the passage of time is felt to be slow.
3.Dampening spirits, or perhaps I shouldn't, warning-level heavy rain falls on the reconstruction. - Yukiko MiharaThe subject cannot get on board with the word 'reconstruction.' They feel like dampening the mood, but there is an atmosphere where that cannot be done. Only the rain falling from the heavens, without feeling any friction, literally dampens things. Yet, that is also a troublesome matter.
4. Koichiro Mochida, 'Cherry Blossoms and the Yamato Spirit'
<As Hideo Kobayashi discusses in detail in "Motoori Norinaga," Norinaga thoroughly explored the origins of Japanese culture, deciphered the "Kojiki" which had already become unreadable by the Edo period, and argued that the "Yamato spirit" revealed therein was the most excellent, rejecting the "Kara-gokoro" (Chinese spirit) based on Chinese-derived thought. As literature expressing that "Yamato spirit," he expounded on the "mono no aware" of "The Tale of Genji.">
<I was surprised to read Hisao Kawaguchi's "The Road to The Tale of Genji." Kawaguchi discusses in detail how deeply Murasaki Shikibu was influenced by Chinese literature.>
I think the values differ between the era when Genji was written and Norinaga's era. Even if there are differences between the two cultures, isn't it possible that there is no superiority? Perhaps it was an era that felt it had to conclude that way? I would like to read a comprehensive work on Motoori Norinaga sometime.
July 27-29, 2025. Edited and reposted from Twitter