Ono no Komachi - 雲心月性...

Ono no Komachi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In this Japanese name, the surname is Ono.

Ono no Komachi (小野小町, c. 825 – c. 900[citation needed]) was a distinguished Japanese waka poet, celebrated as one of the Rokkasen—the six best waka poets of the early Heian period.

Her extraordinary beauty has made her name synonymous with feminine beauty in Japan.

Additionally, she is honored as one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals.

Life

Very little is known for certain about Komachi's life, except for her romantic relationships with various men, as documented in the Kokin Wakashū. She is believed to have been born between 820 and 830, and her most prolific period of poetry was around the mid-ninth century.

Extensive research has been conducted to determine her birthplace and family background, but no definitive conclusions have been reached. Edo-period scholar Arai Hakuseki proposed that multiple women may have shared the name Komachi, and that the legends about her might refer to different individuals. This theory was expanded to suggest there were four distinct "Komachis." It is speculated that she served as a lady-in-waiting (皇位, kōi) to Emperor Ninmyō, and after his death in 850, she began relationships with other men.

One tradition claims she was born in what is now Akita Prefecture, the daughter of Yoshisada, Lord of Dewa. The Noh play Sotoba Komachi by Kan'ami describes her as the daughter of Ono no Yoshizane, the governor of Dewa. Her social status is also uncertain; she may have been a low-ranking consort or a lady-in-waiting to an emperor.

The headnote to poem #938 in the Kokinshū implies she had a connection to Fun'ya no Yasuhide.

Legends

Legends about Komachi (小町伝説/小町説話, Komachi-densetsu/Komachi-setsuwa) began to emerge as early as the eleventh century and were frequently used by Noh playwrights.

Many stories depict Komachi in love. One legend claims she was a lover of Ariwara no Narihira, a fellow poet and Rokkasen member. This legend might have originated from the coincidental placement of one of her poems next to one of Narihira's.

Another legend tells of her alleged cruel treatment of her lovers, particularly Fukakusa no Shōshō, a high-ranking courtier. Komachi supposedly promised that if he visited her for one hundred consecutive nights, she would become his lover. Despite his perseverance through all conditions, he tragically died on the ninety-ninth night.

A third type of legend portrays an aged Komachi, wandering in ragged clothes, her beauty faded, and mocked by those around her as punishment for her earlier treatment of her lovers. Yet another legend tells of her death, with her skull lying in a field; when the wind blows through the skull’s eye socket, it produces a sound reminiscent of Komachi's anguish.

Masako Nakano categorized Komachi legends into five groups:

1. "Tales of beauty" (美人説話, bijin-setsuwa)

2. "Tales of sensuality" (好色説話, kōshoku-setsuwa)

3. "Tales of haughtiness" (驕慢説話, kyōman-setsuwa)

4. "Tales of poetry/poetic virtue" (歌人・歌徳説話, kajin/katoku-setsuwa)

5. "Tales of downfall/bemoaning old age" (零落・衰老説話, reiraku/suirō-setsuwa)

Poetry

Komachi's surviving poems are primarily melancholic. Poet and translator Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi noted the intricate verbal complexity in her poetry, which characterizes the Kokinshū Anthology, contrasting with the directness of the Man'yōshū.

Most of her waka focus on themes of anxiety, solitude, or passionate love. In the Kokinshū, all but one of her poems are categorized as either "love" or "miscellaneous." She is the only female poet mentioned in the kana preface (仮名序, kana-jo) of the anthology, which describes her style as combining old-style naivety with delicacy.

One of her poems was included as #9 in Fujiwara no Teika's Ogura Hyakunin Isshu:

花の色は
うつりにけりな
いたづらに
わが身世にふる
ながめせしまに

A life in vain.
My looks, talents faded
like these cherry blossoms
paling in the endless rains
that I gaze out upon, alone.

This poem, originally #133 in the Kokinshū's section dedicated to seasonal (spring) poetry, is renowned for its many layers of significance, with nearly every word carrying multiple meanings.

In his work Seeds in the Heart, translator and literary historian Donald Keene remarked on the unprecedented intensity of emotion in Komachi's poetry.

He praised her and other ninth-century poets for their passionate expressions, noting that their poetry possessed such charm that the appearance of the Kokinshū seemed less like a brilliant dawn after a dark night and more like the culmination of a steady enhancement of Japanese poetic art.

Jamuel Yaw Asare, in his work The Forgotten Bards: Song of the Classical Minstrels, questioned why classical poets like Ono no Komachi are not commemorated as other martyrs are.

He lamented the neglect of these poets and expressed hope that the golden glory of Classical Arts would shine once more in the future.

Legacy

The many legends about Komachi have ensured her enduring fame as the best-known of the Rokkasen in modern times. Until recently, when the title "Miss XYZ" became common in Japan, the most beautiful woman in a given town or region would be referred to as "XYZ Komachi." She and her contemporary Ariwara no Narihira are considered archetypes of female and male beauty, respectively, and both feature prominently in later literary works, particularly Noh plays.

Komachi appears frequently in later-period literature, including five Noh plays: Sotoba Komachi, Sekidera Komachi, Ōmu Komachi, Sōshi Arai Komachi, and Kayoi Komachi.

These works often highlight her talent for waka, her romantic liaisons, and the vanity of a life devoted to love affairs.

Her old age is also frequently depicted: after losing her beauty and being abandoned by her former lovers, she wanders as a lonely beggar woman, albeit still admired by young poets for her literary contributions.

This portrayal, influenced by Buddhist thought, emphasizes the transience of life and may not reflect historical reality.

Komachi is also a common subject in Buddhist kusōzu paintings, which depict her body in successive stages of decay to illustrate impermanence.

Mishima Yukio reimagined Sotoba Komachi for modern theater, publishing his version in January 1952, with its first performance the following month. This adaptation retains the basic plot but sets the action in a public park, with flashbacks to Meiji-era salons and ballrooms. An English translation by Donald Keene was published in 1967.

Playwright Romulus Linney's Three Poets includes a one-act story about Komachi.

In her honor, the Akita Shinkansen is named Komachi. A variety of rice, Akita Komachi, also bears her name.

Gallery

Ono no Komachi drawn by Kikuchi Yōsai Ono no Komachi by Kanō Tan'yū, 1648

The poetess Ono-no Komachi in the rain Ono no Komachi, from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

References

en.wikipedia.org

Cited works

・Arimoto, Nobuko (25 December 1985). "Mishima Yukio "Sotoba Komachi" Ron: Shigeki no Kokoromi". Kindai Bungaku Shiron (in Japanese). 23 (1). Hiroshima University (Hiroshima Daigaku Kindai Bungaku Kenkyūkai): 49–60. Retrieved 2017-10-12.

・Hirshfield, Jane; Aratani, Mariko (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 0-679-72958-5.

・Katagiri, Yōichi (1975). Ono no Komachi Tsuiseki (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kasama Shoin.

・Katagiri, Yōichi (2015). Shinsō-ban: Ono no Komachi Tsuiseki. Tokyo: Kasama Shoin. ISBN 978-4-305-70781-9.

・Katagiri Yōichi 2009 (2nd ed.; 1st ed. 2005). Kokin Wakashū. Tokyo: Kasama Shoin.

・Keene, Donald (1970). Twenty Plays of the Nō Theater. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-03454-7.

・Keene, Donald (1999). A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1: Seeds in the Heart — Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11441-7.

・McMillan, Peter (2010) [2008]. One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: a translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. ISBN 978-0-231-14399-8.

・Nakano, Masako (2004), "Ono no Komachi", in Tanaka, Noboru; Yamamoto, Tokurō (eds.), Heian Bungaku Kenkyū Handobukku (in Japanese), Tokyo: Izumi Shoin, pp. 14–15, ISBN 978-4-7576-0260-1

・Rexroth, Kenneth; Atsumi, Ikuko (1977). Woman poets of Japan. New York: New Directions Pub. Corp. ISBN 0-8112-0820-6.

・Suzuki, Hideo; Yamaguchi, Shin'ichi; Yoda, Yasushi (2009) [1997]. Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. Tokyo: Bun'eidō.

External links

・Works by or about Ono no Komachi at Wikisource

・Bengali tanslation ono no komachi by Moom Rahman

・E-text of her poems in Japanese

www.fragrance.co.jp

www.yamato-gokoro.co.jp

Kobo Libra Colour (ホワイト) ノートブックスリープカバー（サ...