Ancient Japanese Waka and songs of Amami and Okinawa islands - a Comparative Study

日本古代的和歌总是被大声朗诵，即使它的创作者或读者是孤独的。在人们开始在纸上写waka之前，这是自然的，之后也是如此。因此，口头方面对于理解瓦卡-一种主要的口头艺术-是如何创造的，然后代代相传是极其重要的。然而，由于对和歌的研究主要是基于古代的手稿，口头方面的研究在很大程度上被忽视了。本文将结合书面文本和口头传统的研究结果来解决这个问题。本研究将以奄美群岛和冲绳歌谣的民族志研究为基础，建构一个理论，解释这些歌谣是如何被创造出来，然后在社区内传播的。最后，笔者将用比较的方法来解决日本古代和歌的问题。第一节的主题“大原之今木的生平与作品”是“万代书”的创作者之一樱井之子。大原以他在宴会上创作和歌的诗歌能力而闻名，并背诵了许多在他之前创作的和歌。应该强调的是，这种能力最有可能体现在早期的年龄。第二部分，“生活史的“乌塔沙”：《奄美群岛歌曲民族志》，本文将分析奄美群岛歌手的生活史，并讨论他们掌握和体现其艺术的过程，认为这一过程与古代和歌诗人学习和歌的方式直接相关。第三部分“八重山诸岛的歌与歌手--吹麻”，探讨了吹麻歌曲的创作方法和歌手的个性问题。这也与古代的瓦卡有关。

Ancient Japanese waka was always recited aloud, even when its creator or reader was alone. It was naturally so before people began to write waka on paper, and so it was after. The oral aspect is thus extremely important for an understanding of how waka - a predominantly oral art - was created and then passed down from generation to generation. Still, due to the fact that research on waka was mainly based on ancient manuscripts, the oral aspect has been largely neglected.This paper will address this problem by combining the findings of research on both written texts and on oral tradition. Based on ethnographical study of songs of Amami and Okinawa Islands, it will construct a theory explaining how these songs are created and then transmitted within the community. Finally, the author will use a comparative method to address the problem of ancient Japanese waka.The subject of the first section, "Life and works of Ohara no Imaki" is the son of Sakurai no Okimi - one of creators of Man'yoshu. Ohara was noted for his poetic ability to compose waka during banquets, and recite numerous waka which were composed before his time. It should be stressed that such ability was most probably embodied at an early age.The second section, "The Life Histories of "Utasha" : An Ethnography of Songs in the Amami Islands", will analyze the life histories of Amami Islands singers and discuss the process by which they master and embody their art. It will be argued that this process is directly linked to the ways in which waka poets learned waka in ancient times.The third section, "Tubarama - songs and singers of Yaeyama Islands", discusses the methods of song composition of tubarama and also the problem of singers' individuality. This discussion is also linked to ancient waka.