Shinto Tradition And The Japanese Arts (Professor M)
Shinto Tradition and the Japanese Arts
This week we explore the nature of the Shinto kami, and try our hand at composing Japanese haiku and tanka poems with the aesthetic feel of the continuity of human beings and nature.
First research the web to find an image of a Shinto kami of one of the types named in Activity 4.2 of Module 4, namely: kami of nature, charismatic kami, clan ancestors, and occupational kami. Post the image, identify the type of Shinto kami, and explain why you classify it as that particular type.
Then write one original tanka and one original haiku. Using your creativity, capture the Shinto theme of purity in one poem, and let the other poem involve the closeness between human beings and nature. Furthermore, make one of your two poems reflect the Japanese sensibility of mono no aware, the pathos of things. Give a brief commentary (about 2 sentences for each poem) on each of your poems telling how you chose your subject matter, and what you tried to achieve in the poem.
POETIC FORMS: A tanka is five lines long, with 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern. In other words, it has five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, five syllables in the third line, seven syllables in the fourth line, and seven syllables in the fifth line. A haiku is three lines long, with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.
