Utamakura

{{transliteration|ja|Utamakura}} is a category of poetic words, often involving place names, that allow for greater allusions and intertextuality across Japanese poems.

{{transliteration|ja|Utamakura}} enables poets to express ideas and themes concisely—thus allowing them to stay in the confines of strict {{transliteration|ja|waka}} structures.

Some scholars{{who|date=May 2022}} see the use of geographical allusion as the evidence for a restricted scope of poetry writing. Although the poets' "true" meaning was true because the essence was initially pre-established, the poems were written within fixed topics ({{transliteration|ja|dai}}). The poet could inhabit a subjective position or persona and write about the topic, but not necessarily about their personal feelings; therefore, {{transliteration|ja|utamakura}} could have restrained the scope of topics a poet could write about.

{{transliteration|ja|Utamakura}} include locations familiar to the court of ancient Japan, such as:

• particularly sacred Shinto and Buddhist sites,
• places where historic events occurred, and
• places that trigger a separate mental association through a pun.

{{transliteration|ja|Utamakura}} serve as a significant tool to achieve {{transliteration|ja|yugen}} (mystery and depth) in Japanese poetry by adding profound and indirect beauty in poems. It can be used as a source for identifying significant figures and places in ancient Japan.

The history of {{transliteration|ja|utamakura}} is found in documents on the study of poetry such as the {{transliteration|ja|Utamakura}} of Noin, by the poet and monk of the late Heian period, and lists of places in the {{transliteration|ja|Utamakura Nayose}} (Utamakura reference book).

{{transliteration|ja|Utamakura}} were first used by traveling priests.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} They collected stories from the towns they traveled to. Since they saw many places, it was easier to remember the details of a story by using a single, consistent reference point for each recurring event in their tales. Over time, the people across the Japan came to identify {{transliteration|ja|utamakura}} place names by the psychological feelings associated with the references made by the wandering priests.

After {{transliteration|ja|utamakura}} place names and people had become well established, eager {{transliteration|ja|waka}} poets went sightseeing to the sites of {{transliteration|ja|utamakura}}. Beyond becoming familiar with the scenery of the poems, entering the locale of a poem or story deepened one's understanding of it.

{{transliteration|ja|Utamakura}} was also used in {{transliteration|ja|renga}}, a form of Japanese collaborative poetry that is the ancestor of {{transliteration|ja|renku}} and haiku poetry.

There are numerous instances of {{transliteration|ja|utamakura}} in Japanese literature, one of which is the {{transliteration|ja|Kokinshū}}. The source of this particular {{transliteration|ja|utamakura}} example is poem #3 in the "Spring" section.{{Clarify|date=May 2024}}{{cite book |title=Kokin Wakashū |chapter=Spring. No. 3|url=http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-japanese?specfile=/web/data/japanese/search/japanese.o2w&act=surround&lang=en&offset=44095026&id=CookKok&query=Where+are+the+promised |via=Japanese Text Initiative |publisher=University of Virginia Library |year=2004 |access-date=28 July 2013}}

{{Verse translation|

{{transliteration|ja|harugasumi

tateru ya izuko

Miyoshino no

Yoshino no yama ni

yuki wa furitsutsu}}

|attr1=Anonymous|

Where are the promised

mists of spring?

In Yoshino, fair hills

of Yoshino, snow

falling still|attr2=Translated by Lewis Cook}}

In the poem above, Yoshino refers to a place in the Yamato region in the nearby of the capital. Yoshino is known for having both heavy snowfall and an abundance of cherry blossoms.

Poem #1 in "Spring 1" of Shin Kokin Wakashū also uses Yoshino for depicting the beginning of spring.{{cite web |title=Shinkokinshu |url=http://etext.virginia.edu/japanese/shinkokinshu/index.html |work=Japanese Text Initiative |publisher=University of Virginia Library |date=1 August 1999 |access-date=28 July 2013}}{{cite book|last=Carter|first=Steven D.|title=Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dq7TOrkTCP0C&pg=PA510|year=1993|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-2212-4|page=172}}

{{Verse translation|

{{lang|ja-Latn|Miyoshino wa

yama mo kasumite

shirayuki no

furinishi sato ni

haru wa kinikeri}}

|attr1=The Regent Prime Minister
(Kujō Yoshitsune)|

Fair Yoshino, mountains

now wrapped in mist:

to the village where snow

was falling

spring has come.|attr2=Translated by Lewis Cook}}

Another instance of poetic place name comes from Tales of Ise, a piece titled "In the Provinces" (#15).{{cite web |title=Ise Monogatari |url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/ise/index.html |work=Japanese Text Initiative |publisher=University of Virginia Library |date=11 November 1998 |access-date=28 July 2013}}{{cite book |last=McCullough |first=Helen Craig |title=Tales of Ise: Lyrical Episodes from Tenth - Century Japan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ol_MOUZmpMC|year=1968 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-0653-7 |page=80}}

{{Verse translation|

{{lang|ja-Latn|Shinobuyama

shinobite kayou

michi mogana

hito no kokoro no

oku no miru beku}}

|

I long to find a path

to the depths of Mount Shinobu

that I might fathom

the secrets

of another's heart.|attr2=Translated by Jamie Newhard
and Lewis Cook}}

Mount Shinobu is a pun on the verb shinobu, meaning "to conceal," "endure," "long for," and "remember".

Utamakura are also used outside of poetry, for example menu items named after their visual appearance with a reference to a well-known Japanese scenic area. Tatsuta age, deep-fried fish or chicken that has a dark reddish-brown color as a result of being marinated in soy sauce, is named after the Tatsuta River, known for its maple trees, the leaves of which turn a deep red color in autumn.{{cite news|last=Andoh|first=Elizabeth|title=Japanese Menu Names|url=http://www.bento.com/ta-name.html|access-date=28 July 2013|newspaper=Daily Yomiuri|date=8 November 1997}}

• {{anli|Darmok}}

{{reflist}}

• Kamens, Edward. Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in Traditional Japanese Poetry. Yale University Press, 1997. {{ISBN|0-300-06808-5}}
• Raud, Rein. "The Lover's Subject: Its Construction and Relativization in the Waka Poetry of the Heian Period". In Proceedings of the Midwest Association for Japanese Literary Studies, vol. 5, summer 1999, pp. 65–79.
• Shirane, Haruo (editor). Traditional Japanese Literature. Columbia University Press: New York, 2007.
• Wright, Ichabod C (Translator). The Inferno of Dante. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman: London, 1833.

{{Japanese poetry}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Concepts in Japanese aesthetics

Category:Japanese poetry

Category:Articles containing Japanese poems

Category:Japanese words and phrases

Category:Allegory