the tales of ise
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Waka – the most ancient and prestigious of the traditional poetry genres – constitute the literary heart of the Tales.
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The term waka (literally, ‘Japanese poem’) can be used to denote all the various traditional verse-forms in Japanese (tanka, renga, haiku), but it usually refers to poems of five lines in a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic sequence.
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As they could not speak to or see each other, convention demanded that, in order to establish a relationship, they had to exchange poems, and proficiency in poetry composition was expected. Until they actually met, the way men and women evaluated prospective partners was based on the quality of the poems, the tastefulness of the paper on which they were written, and the beauty of the calligraphy.
These exchanges had to adhere to a particular code of conduct.
[…] And if one received a poem on spring, the poem composed in reply was expected to be on the same season; if it were on another season, it would be a sign of a lack of taste. Replies were also expected to cleverly pick up an element of the original poem and quote from it or refer to it in the reply. There would, of course, have been differing levels of skill in composing and appreciating poems, but a basic knowledge of the art of composing poetry was de rigueur for all courtiers; indeed, without such skills they could have expected little success in the art of love.
