Plotting Poetry 7: 2024

Visualization of humorous rhetorical patterns in classical Japanese poetry

Bor Hodošček
Osaka University

Hilofumi Yamamoto
Tokyo Institute of Technology

Introduction

Purpose of Study

To verify whether the humorous rhetorical patterns found in the Kokinshū (ca. 905) can be applied to the Hachidaishū (ca. 905-1205).

Waka

Classical Japanese poetry (waka; lit. Japanese songs) is a fixed form of poetry with 31 syllables and a 57577 rhythm.

Collections of poetry published
under the order of Emperors such as:

the Manyoshū (ca. 759),
the Kokinshū (ca. 905),
the Shinkokinshū (1205), etc.

Hachidaishū/"Eight anthologies"

Kokinshū (ca. 905),
Gosenshū (ca. 950),
Shūishū (ca. 1005),
Goshuishū (1086),
Kin'yōshū (ca. 1124),
Shikashū (ca. 1152),
Senzaishū (1188), and
Shinkokinshū (1205).

The themes of waka are diverse.

nature, love, seasons, landscapes, human relationships, life, death, religion, mythology, history, satire, customs, scenery, elegance, taste, and charm...

However, the expression of human emotions and actions is rarely directly expressed.

Singing Scenes

Utaawase is a poetry contest.

Utakai is a gathering where waka is recited.

Waka was mainly poetry recited for solemn occasions in the imperial court.

utaawase

a Big Gap...

The humor expressed secretly, is subtle, but it contains a sense of humor created from gaps between
the playfulness and the seriousness.

Human emotions and actions are often implied through things and landscapes.
The techniques of expression in waka are generally referred to as waka rhetoric.
Waka rhetoric is not dependent on the topic; however, humor is intricately embedded within its devices.

Unfortunately, there is little research on rhetoric that focuses on humour.

Five typical techniques in waka rhetoric:

Makura Kotoba : pillow words; five-syllable words
Jo Kotoba : prefatory words; long decorative words
Kake Kotoba : wordplay; puns
Engo : allusion; associative word games
Honka Dori : parody; imitation of famous poems

These are all explicit techniques and are well known.

Filling in the research gap: Structural analysis of humour (laughter) in Waka poetry using visualization.
To analyze the humour in waka poetry from the Kokinshū to the Shinkokinshū, a period of 300 years.

After explaining the data format of the Hachidaishū we published on Zenodo and the outline of the visualization system, we show the humorous waka and its modern translation.
We will analyze waka poems including humor from the Shinkokinshū based on the characteristics of humorous waka poems in the Kokinshū using the visualization system.

Methods

Nightingale/warbler, Uguisu.

Figure 1. Nightingale/warbler; illustrated by Yoshio Yamamoto.

"Waka is created by using the heart of people as seeds and singing a thousand words as songs." (literal translation from the kana preface to the Kokinshū, Kananojo)
Indirectly, animals and nature are often personified.

In this paper, we analyze how people's hearts, especially humour (laughter), are expressed in waka poems about the warbler.
Therefore, we will explore the movement of people's hearts, especially that of humour, contained in waka poems using computational techniques, especially visualization.

We use the Hachidaishū as the material with the cooccurrence weighting method, cw (Yamamoto, 2006), which calculates the weight of patterns of any two words occurring in a poem sentence.

The goal is extracting the content elements from each poem.
Extraction of Content Elements

To extract content elements,
we need to use objective criteria.
We will apply cooccurrence patterns as the solution.
Afterwards, we will explain how to generate the cooccurrence patterns.

Result: over 5,000 patterns in the Kokinshu containing the warbler.

Co-occurrence Weight: cw

The co-occurrence weight, cw, is a weight calculated for any two words that co-occur in a waka, similar to the weighting of tfidf's idf.

Co-occurrence Weight: cw

Where w is a weight, t, a token, and N the number of tokens.
The function, idf, is called the "inverse document frequency."

Co-occurrence Weight: cw

The function, cw, is called the "co-occurrence weight," which allows us to examine the patterns of poetic word constructions through mathematical modeling.

Co-occurrence Weight: cw

This method and verification of modeling are detailed in Chen et al. (2023).
Using the distribution of cw, we analyze the patterns found in the waka that pertain to the warbler.
Each cw is a weight of geometric means of any two words.
The distribution of cw values is considered to form a kind of normal distribution.

Roughly, to extract content elements,
take from patterns with +1σ

Materials

The data of the Hachidaishū anthology is published on Zenodo (Yamamoto and Hodošček 2021)
We have also digitized 10 different modern translations of the Kokinshū, but they are copyrighted and cannot be made public.

Materials

The modern translations of the other 7 anthologies of the Hachidaishū have not yet been digitized.
The analysis will proceed not by looking at the form of the poems but by using a visualization system that displays their content.

Zenodo dataset

Results

Using the bigram pattern of tokens in each poem, we will analyze elements of humour found in poems from the perspective of whether the same pattern exists in other Imperial anthologies of classical Japanese poetry.

From 9,499 poems, 102 were found to include the warbler in the Hachidaishū anthology.

According to the weight calculation of the bigram pattern, the weight value calculated from two arbitrary words found in waka poems about cherry blossoms and plum blossoms has a distribution that approximates the normal distribution.

Distribution of cw values (after normalization by z-value)

cw and cumulative frequencies of waka terms

The extraction of the 2-gram pattern is as follows.

First of all, we show the cw value table and the top 10 patterns of the warbler and plum waka in the Kokinshū ca. 905.

Plum

Plum cooccurrence table (cw over 2.50; upper 10 patterns)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 t1---------    t2---------
      cw   fq    idf  fq/all    idf  fq/all    Pattern t1--t2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1    4.09  2    7.77  2   4    7.08  2   8    Bamboo Hat--Sewing
 2    3.69  9    4.76  9  82    4.17 23 145    Fragrance--Plum
 3    3.44  1    7.21  1   7    9.16  1   1    Garden--Branch
 4    3.41  1    8.06  1   3    8.06  1   3    Single Thread--Flower Hat
 5    3.35  1    7.77  2   4    8.06  1   3    Bamboo Hat--Flower Hat
 6    3.35  1    8.06  1   3    7.77  2   4    Single Thread--Bamboo Hat
 7    3.35  1    8.06  1   3    7.77  1   4    Spring Area--Dark Mountain
 8    3.28  6    4.17 23 145    4.54  6 100    Plum--Warbler
 9    3.27  2    7.77  2   4    4.54  6 100    Bamboo Hat--Warbler
10    3.20  1    8.06  1   3    7.08  2   8    Flower Hat--Sewing

Warbler

Warbler cooccurrence table (cw over 2.50; upper 10 patterns) [visualization]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 t1---------    t2---------
      cw   fq    idf  fq/all    idf  fq/all    Pattern t1--t2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1    4.00  2    7.77  2   4    7.08  2   8    Bamboo Hat--Sewing
 2    3.42 16    4.54 26 100    3.09 16 426    Warbler--Chirping
 3    3.36  1    7.21  1   7    9.16  1   1    Garden--Branch
 4    3.34  1    8.06  1   3    8.06  1   3    Single Thread--Flower Hat
 5    3.28  1    7.77  2   4    8.06  1   3    Bamboo Hat--Flower Hat
 6    3.28  1    8.06  1   3    7.77  2   4    Single Thread--Bamboo Hat
 7    3.21  6    4.17  6 145    4.54 26 100    Plum--Warbler
 8    3.20  2    7.77  2   4    4.54 26 100    Bamboo Hat--Warbler
 9    3.13  1    8.06  1   3    7.08  2   8    Flower Hat--Sewing
10    3.13  1    8.06  1   3    7.08  2   8    Single Thread--Sewing

Plum ∩ Warbler

Plum ∩ Warbler combined table (cw over 2.50; upper 10 patterns)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 t1---------    t2---------
      cw   fq    idf  fq/all    idf  fq/all   Pattern t1--t2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1    3.69  9    4.76  9  82    4.17 23 145   Fragrance--Plum
 2    3.35  1    8.06  1   3    7.77  1   4   Spring Area--Dark Mountain
 3    2.98  5    4.17 23 145    4.11  5 159   Plum--Fold
 4    2.93 17    4.17 23 145    2.30 17 888   Plum--Flower
 5    2.85  1    8.06  1   3    5.63  1  34   Spring Area--Marked
 6    2.83  1    7.37  1   6    6.07  1  22   Mist--Line Up
 7    2.80  1    5.63  1  34    7.77  1   4   Marked--Dark Mountain
 8    2.76  1    8.46  1   2    5.01  1  63   Human--Separate
 9    2.76  1    5.28  2  48    8.06  1   3   Darkness--Spring Area
10    2.76  1    8.46  1   2    5.01  1  63   Human--Eye

The extraction of content words was almost realized.
Using the cw value cutoff, is it possible to visualize the warbler waka?

Next, we will discuss the warbler waka
after the Kokinshū, and
explore humorous elements in the warbler waka
using the visualization system.

Discussion

Puns and wordplay

Puns and wordplay are often used in waka poems.
Although these can be used skillfully to create surprise and interest, cw as used in this study prioritizes content words.
This makes it difficult to approximate puns and wordplay based on phonetic similarity.

Satire is used in waka, and it invites laughter by ridiculing or criticizing society and human weaknesses.

However, in classical waka, direct satire is rare, but it is sometimes expressed in subtle nuances.

Personification

One of the remarkable techniques used in waka poems in the Kokinshū is the use of personification.
Personification is a technique that gives human emotions and actions to nature and animals.

Personification

In the preface, Kananojo, it is said that when you hear the voices of the warbler singing in the flowers and the frog living in the water, how can you say that any living creature has not composed a poem?

Personification

Poem authors borrow the words of personified nature and animals, or speak to them, to appeal to the reader with their emotions. (Ozawa 1971:29)

Personification

Oritsureba / Sode koso nioe / Ume no hana
Aritoya koko ni / Uguisu no naku

When I break the twig, / The scent clings to my sleeve, / Plum blossoms.
Is it here? / The warbler sings.
(Kokinshū, ca.905; 10032 Anonymous)

Figure: Plum and warbler is a depiction of the humorous context found in a poem about a warbler.

There are clearly two points about this poem that are obviously strange and unconventional.

Did you notice them?

The first is that the fragrance of the plum blossoms easily sticks to the sleeves through just the act of breaking a branch.

Does that easily happen?

This is a bit exaggerated and happens to be a little unrealistic.

The other is that warblers, in general, fly into a human's sleeve and take risks.

Do you really think they do?

Not only warblers but also other birds are not stupid enough to fly into a human's sleeve.

The author created this poem which includes unrealistic things as if they were true.
The author is a big liar from the beginning.
This waka nonchalantly presents impossible events as if they actually happened.

The scene of reciting waka is a solemn scene in the imperial court.
Therefore, it looks true at first glance.
But when you think about it calmly, you realize that it is a big lie.

This poem is quoted in the Tale of Genji:
Volume 49, Yadorigi, Chapter 8,
Scene of the marriage of the second daughter of Hikaru Genji,
Ninomiya marries Kaoru and moves to the residence of the Sanjo Palace.

(Supplemental information) The Tale of Genji is a novel written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century.

Wokashi no hito no ohm-niohi ya.
woritureba, toka ihu yau ni,
uguhisu mo tadune kinu beka meri"

It's that wonderful scent of that person.
Even the warblers might come to visit you,
as if to say, "if you fold it,..".
(The Tale of Genji, 8.5.5)

To add a modern translation, it would be: "What a nice fragrance. Just as they say, If you break a branch, the warbler will come to seek it."

Knowing this, we would be able to understand that the line in this scene by Ninomiya indicates that she said it in a joking manner, as it is a quote from the Kokinshū.

Let's get back to the visualization system and

explore humourous waka from other anthologies.

We will focus on "warbler" and verb "to break" in the visualization.

Warbler and break in Shūishū (ca. 1005)

If I break the branch where the warbler is building its nest,
how will it manage to build its nest from now on? uguisu

30354 Anonymous/Shūishū (ca. 1005),
Uguisuno / sutsukuru eda wo / oritsureba / kouha ikadeka / umamutosuran

Teasing more

In the Senzaishū (1188) 70027
by Minamoto no Sanesada
If the warbler's voice changed because of the plum blossom's fragrance,
Ume ga ka ni koe utsuriseba
it would have been better if the branch on which it sings had been broken.
uguisuno sutukuru eda wo ooritsureba kouha ikadeka umamutosuran

This is rather teasing, than humorous.
"Warbler" is often used as material for waka, and is quoted in the Tale of Genji.
However, warblers do not change their voices because of the fragrance of plum blossoms.
We notice that the author is a big liar from the beginning.
Almost no waka experts have made this kind of observation.

Waka for contemporary people

It is a great thing that the laughter of poetry is guaranteed to transcend the ages.

Conclusions

The humorous rhetoric in the context of the warbler, as found in the commentary, was visualized in a graph.

Although one can get a general idea of the context and anecdote related to each warbler by looking at the diagram, it is important to go back to the waka poem on which it is based and confirm the context of the humor.

To this extent, the visualized graphs contributed to the detection of humorous waka poems, and were found to be effective as a means for understanding the context of humor.

The end.