The sanbunshi (Prose Poem) in Japan

Abstract

Among scholars of Japanese poetry there is disagreement as to who the historically important Japanese prose poets are, as well as disagreement over whether prose poetry in Japan is an exclusively modern phenomenon or is one that can be traced back very nearly to the beginnings of Japanese literature. On encountering the above statement, some readers will react dismissively#x2014;dissensus is an inevitable feature of academic discourse, such readers might say. But this chapter is going to claim that there are reasons for the dispute over Japanese prose poetry: the history of the concept of prose poetry in Japanese has made competing theories inevitable—or, if that is too strong a claim, then at least it made dissensus highly likely. An examination of the disparate paths followed by Japanese critical discourse about prose poetry, on the one hand, and the composition of prose poems in Japanese, on the other hand, will go far toward explaining why there have been sharply divergent views on fundamentals at virtually every turn.