...Hiroaki Sato Light Verse from the Floating World: An Anthology of Premodern Japanese Senryu . Compiled, translated, and with an introduction by Makoto Ueda . New York : Columbia University Press , 1999 . 273 pp. $17.50. Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2000 2000...

... takes shelter / then, after it's begun to pour, / decides to leave" (honburi ni natte dete yuku amayadori) and '"Bad for my health' when you begin to feel so / you've begun to age" (doku to ki no tsuita ga toshi no yori hajime). Ueda reports that about 200,000 senryu survive from the Edo period. He must...

... genre is represented: from sentimental books ( ninjōbon ) to funny ones ( kokkeibon ), from poetry ( senryū , haikai , waka ) to comic sermons ( dangibon ), from kabuki plays to books of manners ( sharebon ), and more. Flipping through its pages is like entering an imaginary salon where the Who's Who...

...David Pollack Abstract In Japan between 1770 and 1790, the craze for witty, comic verse forms such as kyōka and senryū, infected the ancient and noble tradition of poetry written in Chinese to produce kyōshi, “wild Chinese poetry.” Written in both Edo and Kyoto by poets of the lower samurai...

... all that, there are still crystal clear images in the rubble of these Great Mirrors Shattered, glimpses few others would have had the courage to write about. JOSEPH R. H A W K I N S University of Akron Light Verse from the Floating World: An Anthology of Premodern Japanese Senryu. Compiled, translated...

... such as kyoka and senryu, infected the ancient and noble tradition ofpoetry written in Chinese to produce kyoshi, "wild Chinese poetry." Written in both Edo and Kyoto by poets of the lower samurai and educated townsmen classes, kyoshi ranged from silly puns and parodies of long-petrified Chinese verse forms...

... not go beyond what had already become commonplace in haiku and senryu. Some poems (No. 23, for instance) remind one so forcibly of Basho as to make one suspect copying. Kotomichi's philosophy of poetry, moreover, seems to come largely from the Preface to the Kokinshu. And is he really so profound? At his...

... of these three strands of Japanese nature aesthetics and their syncretic synthesis during the Edo period. These strands converged in popular arts, which engaged people from all walks of life: haikai , senryū , kyōka , woodblock prints, and tea ceremony. These artistic genres were accessible and appealing...

... is Kanadehon Chushingura ("a copybook of \ana: the treasury of loyal retainers") with "copybook" having the second meaning of "exemplars." It was written in 1748 by Takeda Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku, and Namiki Senryu, and has remained the most popular play based on the vendetta of 1703 in which forty-six men, led...

... retainers") with "copybook" having the second meaning of "exemplars." It was written in 1748 by Takeda Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku, and Namiki Senryu, and has remained the most popular play based on the vendetta of 1703 in which forty-six men, led by Oishi Kuranosuke, beheaded the man (Kira) who had caused...

... particularly enjoyed rereading were those by Professor Seidensticker, especially "Japan and the Quick Change," a witty and perceptive discussion of what is happening to the Japanese language, and by the late Professor Blyth, who has contributed a brilliant, outrageous essay subtitled "Why Nobody Likes Senryu...

... useful to the novice. Again, the selection of the items is perplexing. Why kabuki, but not no? And obviously some last-minute excisions took place. Under gesaku, the reader is directed to consult kibyoshi, but no such entry exists. Similarly, the referral to haiku under the entry for senryu leads nowhere...

... were those by Professor Seidensticker, especially "Japan and the Quick Change," a witty and perceptive discussion of what is happening to the Japanese language, and by the late Professor Blyth, who has contributed a brilliant, outrageous essay subtitled "Why Nobody Likes Senryu" and a moving elegy...

... tradition, and the kyoka and senryu add a nice touch of humor. Yadoyano Meshimori (1753 1830) proves to be more practical than Tsurayuki: When it comes to poets, the clumsier the better what a mess if heaven and earth really started to move! (Watson, p. 362) 418 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES Approximately...

..., mostly composed during the eighteenth century. Playwrights such as Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Takeda Izumo, Namiki Sosuke (Senryu), and Chikamatsu Hanji wrote the core of an enormous collection totaling more than one thousand full-length plays. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Joruri...

... in 1719 and adapted for the kabuki theater the following year. Sugawara's Secrets of Calligraphy, written by Takeda Izumo, Namiki Senryu, and Miyoshi Shdraku in 1746 for the puppet theater, was taken into the kabuki theater the same year. These are classified as history plays. The other two plays Benten...

... and senryū mode of The Safflower needed erudition and training to decipher, making it permissible, but contemporary translations and editorial comments appended to the Dannoura text made it too immediate, accessible, and therefore obscene. This reviewer would have liked more information on the Dannoura...

... performs a vast and rich repertoire, mostly composed during the eighteenth century. Playwrights such as Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Takeda Izumo, Namiki Sosuke (Senryu), and Chikamatsu Hanji wrote the core of an enormous collection totaling more than one thousand full-length plays. During the eighteenth...

... ch'u-pan-she . Ma Y. W . 1975 . “ The Chinese Historical Novel: An Outline of Themes and Contexts .” Journal of Asian Studies 34 , 2 : 277–94. . Mano Senryū . 1979 Mindai bunkashi kenkyū [Researches into the Cultural History of the Ming Dynasty]. Tokyo : Tōmeisha . Overmyer...

..., but not no? And obviously some last-minute excisions took place. Under gesaku, the reader is directed to consult kibyoshi, but no such entry exists. Similarly, the referral to haiku under the entry for senryu leads nowhere. The bibliography consisting entirely of materials in Japanese would most benefit the specialist...