Ritual, Aesthetics, and Handwriting: Collaborative Poetry in Contemporary Japan

日本联体诗(Renga)是合作诗歌的一种形式，在仪式背景下出现，一个团体的几个成员轮流贡献诗句，然后产生更大的共同诗歌作品。对经文的书面记录是出现的仪式过程的一部分，此外，仪式之后往往会产生更多的副本，其中一些副本随后被奉献给神殿或寺庙作为祈祷祭品(hánô)。伦加在日本已有五千多年的历史。从19世纪中叶开始的现代化导致了这一传统的破裂，可能有一个例外。在20世纪80年代，复兴运动开始形成。由于他们的活动，伦加在日本各地重新开始练习。无论是在这些复兴运动过程中形成的圈子，还是他们的书面产品，到目前为止都没有被研究过。该项目的目的是调查这一“发明的传统”(其成员总是将其公开化)、它的做法以及在传统的文学、材料和表演方面的背景下的自我定位。这似乎特别有意义，因为在当代的伦加，可以观察到传统手写记录与现代通信媒体的共存。该项目将探索手写、印刷和数字产品的功能，从而有助于理解手写在现代社会中的持久性。

Japanese linked poetry (renga), a form of collaborative poetry, emerges in a ritual setting, whereby several members of a group alternately contribute verses to what then results in a greater common poetic work. The written recording of the verses is part of the ritual process of emergence, and moreover, after the ritual often more copies are produced, some of which are then being dedicated as a votive offering (hônô) to a shrine or a temple. Renga was practiced in Japan for more than half a millennium. The modernization from the middle of the 19th century onwards lead to a rupture of the tradition, with probably one exception. In the 1980s, revival movements began to take shape. As a result of their activities, renga is being practiced again all over Japan. Neither the circles that have been formed in the course of these revival movements nor their written products have hitherto been dealt with in research. The aim of this project is to investigate this “invented tradition” (which is always made transparent as such by its members), its practices and selfpositioning against the background of the literary, material and performative aspects of the tradition. This seems especially rewarding, as in contemporary renga a co-existence of traditional handwritten recording with modern communication media can be observed. The project will explore the function of handwritten, printed and digital products and thereby also contribute to the understanding of the persistence of handwriting in a modern society.