A great poem can be the perfect primary source to introduce students to the social, political and human complexities of important historical periods. TEA hosts University of Colorado Boulder professors Dr. Janice Brown and Dr. Marjorie Burge for this series of webinars featuring Japanese poems in translation that can be integrated into your classrooms.
Join us for one or all of these webinars.
April 9 – Tanka and Chōka from the Man’yōshū: This webinar introduces two poetic forms and three poets featured in the 8th century Japanese poetry anthology Man’yōshū. Dr. Marjorie Burge will discuss the Nara courtiers’ expressions of identity, travel, and nature’s beauty and power through the forms of 31-syllable tanka (short-poems) and chōka (long-poems) featuring appended envoy verses in tanka form.
April 23 – Heian Exchange Poetry and Poetry Contests: In Japan’s Heian period (794-1185), the exchange of 31-syllable tanka (short poems) was an integral component of courtship among the capital-based aristocracy, as well as the center of poetry contests! Join Dr. Marjorie Burge to explore a well-documented 10th-century courtship exchange from the woman-penned Kagerō Diary and learn how to run a Heian-court poetry contest in your classroom.
May 7 – Linked Verse (Renga): The practice of collective composition of a single verse is as old as poetry itself in Japan, but social gatherings in which participants worked together to create extended “linked verse sequences” is a phenomenon of the medieval period (ca. 13th-16th centuries). In this session, Dr. Marjorie Burge will feature the poetic principle of impermanence in the sequence “Three Poets at Yuyama” by three of the greatest poets of the late-15th century, Sōgi, Sōchō, and Shōhaku.
May 23 – Haiku by Matsuo Bashō and Masaoka Shiki: This session will focus on selected haiku by Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) and Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) to trace the development of haiku from early modern to modern times and its spread in Japan and the world. With Dr. Janice Brown, participants will study and analyze selected haiku and explore activities for teaching haikai and haiku poetry in the classroom.
June 6 – Short Free Verse by Hagiwara Sakutarō and Hayashi Fumiko: The modernization of Japan brought sweeping changes to Japanese society and even poetry. Short free verse poems such as “Sickly Face at the Bottom of the Ground” and “Seeds on a Palm” by male poet Hagiwara Sakutarō, became an inspiration for those seeking new modes of expression. Through Dr. Janice Brown’s comparison to female poet Hayashi Fumiko’s short free verse poems, “Lone Journey”” and “Quiet Heart,” participants will consider the impact of modernization on gender, class, and socio-economic status in 20th-century Japan.