Spring River Poems

Most of this weekend I spent in my room finishing up a big project for one of my classes, but on Sunday morning I managed to get out of the house. A relative of my host family’s was in town for a waka performance at Kamigamo shrine, and so we all went down to see her there. The relative is part of the same waka singing group as my host mother is, which meets at the house of an aristocratic Kyoto family but also performs here and there. I’m not certain that I’ve explained here what waka are and why one would sing them, so I guess that I’ll explain now. Waka are poems that have been written from before 900 AD until the present, with syllables in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern. These poems were written in vast numbers by the Heian period aristocracy, and are still written (though naturally not as frequently) but people today. These poems were not only read, but also chanted to music, which is what my host mother and her niece do. The morning of the performance I dressed in my hakama and we all three went down to Kamigamo shrine, a major shrine in Kyoto on the upper Kamo river. It was a beautiful day, and all around the massive cherry tree in front of the shrine people had spread out blankets and were enjoying the nice weather. We walked past the festival-like atmosphere towards the side of the shrine, where there is a beautiful moss garden with a stream down the middle. It would have been very peaceful if there hadn’t been masses of people pressed up to the bamboo-fenced enclosure and cameramen everywhere. The main players came in soon after we found decent places to stand: The Kamigamo priestess, the two girls there to help her, a group of young children in Heian page-boy costumes, a group of costumed musicians, the waka group, and five waka masters, also in full Heian costume. The five waka writers took their places along the calculatedly meandering stream under umbrellas, and everyone else took their places over to the side. The Priestess gave the theme that the poems for the day were supposed to follow: The river in spring. With the theme announced, all of the masters went to work grinding their ink, and a little wooden raft with a single cup of sake on it was let loose at the top of the stream to be guided down to the bottom by children using bamboo poles. When the sake reached the bottom, it was retrieved and brought to one of the writers. This was all accompanied by ‘mood music’ from the musicians on the side. Theoretically, the writers in a gathering like this have until the sake cup meant for them reaches the bottom to write a poem, the idea being that they have to trade the waka for their sake. In this gathering, however, at what appeared to be a designated span of time a couple of men with a lacquered tray came by and collected the poems, bringing them to the master of ceremonies. Here the waka singers came in, positioned themselves around the waka, and sang it out for everyone to hear. Each writer stood when his or her poem was being sung. In this manner we heard five waka, and every writer received at least one cup of sake before everyone paraded out again. There was only one obvious mishap, which was inevitable. At one point the sake raft met with some sort of trouble, causing it to sink or fall over, at which point the kid pushing it along tried to go in after it, which caused some consternation among the priests running things. One minute there were two puzzled looking kids, the next there were two kids and three priests crowded around a single manicured bend in the stream. The day was all a lot of fun for me, as I’ve read about gatherings like this in ‘The Tale of Genji’ and my various history texts. After it was over we took some pictures, and then went to feed the shrine’s horse, which is supposed to be for the shrine’s god. He was a very ill-mannered horse, but a handsome one.
-I learned afterward from my host sister that the poem that each writer was going to show had been decided upon beforehand so that the singers would have time to practice, which makes sense.
-The Kamigamo (“upper-kamo river”) shrine is a sort of ‘sister-shrine’ to Shimogamo (“lower-kamo river”) shrine. The famous Aoi Matsuri (one of the ‘three great festivals of Kyoto’) held in late May moves the shrines’ god between the two shrines.
-Traditional Japanese music with drums and flute is very nice. When not amplified. In my opinion everyone would have been able to hear just fine without the microphones (okay, they might have had to use on for the koto) as it was really not that big of a space. The amplified flute was extremely shrill.
-There is some sort of famous cake from Kamigamo shrine, but it sells out quickly. We didn’t move quickly enough.