Kyoto National Museum

https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?content_base_id=101056&content_part_id=001&content_pict_id=001&langId=en&webView=null

Quotation: “Within the larger topics, much care was taken in the ordering of individual poems: each on is linked to those before and after by a chronological or geographical progression of natural or human affairs, by imagery, or by subtle shifts in theme. The poems in the Kokinshu emphasize concerns common to the entire tradition of Japanese court poetry—concern with lyrical expression, with nature, with qualities of experience rather than with moral or other absolutes, and with the social contexts of poetry rather than with social subjects”. Laurel Rasplica Rodd, Mary Cathrine Henkenius, Kokinshu Translation p.4

I thought the poem was interesting in relation to the quotation because my quote describes how careful each poem was written and added to Kokinshu. The lines and calligraphy in the image are perfect and very beautiful. It is clear that their care for the poem text arrangement carried over to how the poem is also displayed artistically.

Bashō: “time goes by and the world shifts, and the traces of the past are unstable.”

I’m writing about the Roads of Oku: Travels in Japan: Narrow Roads of Oku because I found it interesting how much Matsuo Bashō traveled and how I think that relates to his writing. I feel like he saw the world as always changing and unstable because of how much he traveled. He must have watched his home change while he was away on his travels. And while on his travels noticed the similarities in humanity and how nothing lasts forever. It was especially interesting to me because I feel like for well traveled people it’s a common theme to think that the world is always changing.