Renga is a hundred-verse sequence composed during a session by a group of 3 to 10 or more poets in the Japanese medieval period (12th-16th c.); it is the precursor of the kasen, the shorter 36-verse version popular among Basho and his group in the early modern period. This lecture examines the socio-historical and cultural conditions that made such a unique genre possible, including the rules of progression from verse 1 to 100, and casts light on the way of reading the poem in its own time.  We will pay attention to the influence of Buddhist philosophy in the understanding of poetry’s function and practice in premodern Japan while reading “Broken Beneath Snow,” a renga composed by a group of samurai and monks under the guidance of the renowned poet-monk Shinkei in the winter of 1468 in Tokyo. We will also look at examples of US college student renga from my Great Books classes as one of the genre’s possible translations into a Western social poetry practice using the internet.

Image: Tosa Mitsuoki, “Autumn Maples with Poem Slips,” c. 1675