Poets, Patrons, and the Public: Poetry as Cultural Phenomenon in Courtly Japan

Waka poetry was all the rage in tenth-century, courtly Japan. Every educated person composed it, emperors and consorts sponsored it, and societal interest in it was at an all-time high. Persiani’s book offers an unprecedentedly broad and vivid portrayal of this season of literary flourishing, revealing the multitude of factors that contributed to it, as well as the social, political, and cultural reasons behind waka’s rise.
Deftly combining sociological theory and social and intellectual history with insightful readings of a wealth of primary texts—some never before discussed in English—the book is both a history of waka in the Heian period and a study of Heian court society through the lens of waka.

Gian Piero Persiani is Assistant Professor of Premodern Japanese Literature and Culture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He writes on premodern Japanese literature and culture, the relationship between Sinitic and vernacular forms in medieval East Asia, and the history of East-West contacts. Poets, Patrons, and the Public: Poetry as Cultural Phenomenon in Courtly Japan is his first book.

From the reader's report: “This is a work of striking originality and clarity based on comprehensive research of the extensive secondary literature in Japanese on waka poetry as well as engagement with a vast array of primary texts.(...) Since it provides a comprehensive view of this critical turning point in what is now regarded as the most important poetic genre in Japanese literary history, it will certainly become a reference work for all survey courses in Japanese literature. The clarity and economy of its style also recommend it for this purpose. Beyond that, its creative use of sociological theory related to cultural production and consumption will have appeal for scholars and even general readers interested in comparative literature. The eminently accessible quality of its writing style give it potential for attracting a larger readership than usual for critical works on premodern Japanese literature."