Shirome
Shirome (白女) was a Heian-era Japanese waka poet and asobi, or female entertainer.[1] Her name was almost certainly a moniker used by multiple asobi, and follows the trend of suffixing -me (女) to mean "girl" (Shirome means "white girl").[2][a]
Shirome was the daughter of Ōe no Tamabuchi (摂津国玉淵), governor of Tango Province and himself a waka poet.[3][4] Her aristocratic background was rare but not unique among asobi.[5] Her encounter with Emperor Uda, recorded in both the Ōkagami and Yamato Monogatari, illuminates this tension.[6] [7] The retired emperor notices Shirome's beauty while relaxing at Torikai (鳥飼), and hearing Tamabuchi is her father challenges her to prove it by composing a poem on the theme of Torikai. She promptly recites a poem punning on Torikai and alluding to the emperor as spring, whereupon the court showers her with praise and gifts.[3][b]
The Kokin Wakashū includes one of her poems:
- If life were to last
- however long we saw fit
- would we be likely
- to suffer such deep distress
- just because of a parting?[9]
Shirome is the only asobi identifiable in the Kokin Wakashū, though many asobi composed poetry to entertain large groups.[10]
Notes
[edit]- ↑ Ōe no Masafusa's Yūjoki mentions an asobi named Shirome in the port city of Eguchi, and there is no reason to believe she is the same figure as the poet.[3]
- ↑ "Though not a mist/I have ascended/in this season/when we greet the spring/with its fruitful green." In transliterated Japanese, one can see how "Torikai" is hidden at the end of the first line and beginning of the second: Fukamidori/kai aru haru ni/au toki wa/kasumi naranedo/tachinoborikeri. In Japanese characters, it is: あさみどり かひある春に あひぬれば霞ならねど たちのぼりけり.[8][7]
References
[edit]- ↑ Brocade by Night: 'Kokin Wakashu' and the Court Style in Japanese Classical Poetry. Stanford University Press. October 1985. ISBN 978-0-8047-6645-6.
- ↑ Meeks, Lori (2010). Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Order in Premodern Japan. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3394-7.
- 1 2 3 Goodwin, Janet R. (2006-12-31). Selling Songs and Smiles: The Sex Trade in Heian and Kamakura Japan. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-6425-5.
- ↑ Fiévé, Nicolas (2003), "Social Discrimination and Architectural Freedom in the Pleasure District of Kyoto in Early Modern Japan", Japanese Capitals in Historical Perspective, Routledge, doi:10.4324/9781315020662-4 (inactive 1 July 2025), ISBN 978-1-315-02066-2, retrieved 2024-04-14
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link) - ↑ Seigle, Cecilia Segawa (1993-03-01). Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1488-5.
- ↑ "第一章 我が國賣春婦の歷史的考察". 次世代デジタルライブラリー（テキストモード）.
- 1 2 McCullough, Helen Craig (2014). Okagami, the Great Mirror. Princeton University Press Press. ISBN 9781400855933.
- ↑ "大和物語 百四十六段 趣味の漢詩と日本文学". 楽天ブログ. 2011-06-05.
- ↑ McCullough, Helen Craig (1985). Kokin Wakashu: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry: With 'Tosa Nikki' and 'Shinsen Waka'. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1258-3.
- ↑ Heldt, Gustav (2008). The Pursuit of Harmony: Poetry and Power in Early Heian Japan. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-933947-39-6.