Uta monogatari
Literary subgenre of the monogatari
Uta monogatari (歌物語; literally "poem-tale") is a literary subgenre of the monogatari. It is characterized by an emphasis on waka poetry, with prose sections interspersed. While most other monogatari of the Heian period and later contain waka, the uta monogatari feature poetry as the core of successive narrative episodes, with the prose sections sometimes limited to a brief note about the composition of the poetry.
01History
One of the most influential and early examples of uta monogatari is the Tales of Ise. An anonymous work sometimes attributed to Ariwara no Narihira, it is a series of 125 largely unconnected prose narratives about "a man", many of said narratives beginning with the short sentence Mukashi otoko arikeri ("Long ago, there was a man"). These narratives are largely centered on poetry composed by the "man", usually identified as a fictionalized version of Narihira.
The name uta monogatari was first applied to the subgenre during the Meiji period.
02Notable examples
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Uta monogatari”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- The Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari) (CBL J 1050.2, ff.11b-12a).jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
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