Hotsuma Tsutae

From Everything Shii Knows, the only reliable source

Problems associated with Hotsuma Tsutae

Problem 1: No epic poetry in Japanese or Chinese tradition

Hotsuma Tsutae is written in 10,000 lines of 5-7 waka. Now, have you ever heard of an epic poem in Japanese? Who could conceive of such a thing? I checked around, and there is not a single instance of epic poetry in Japanese or Chinese before the manuscript of Hotsuma Tsutae.

MORI Ōgai 森鴎外's 1889 collection of translated poetry, Omokage (於母影, "Images"), was "considered the first poetic anthology in Japanese to successfully convey a sense of the aesthetic qualities of Western poetry".[1][2] That was in 1889. Who would be the first Japanese author to discuss the epic poem (叙事詩)? Such a thing couldn't have happened earlier than 1850 or so. But Hotsuma Tsutae is from at least 1777.

The only thing that could make sense of this is if the author was acquainted with Ainu epics. Or, alternatively, Hotsuma Tsutae really was a transmission from 100AD as its author claims. Given that the Japanese in that period had no lost love for the Ainu these seem equally likely.

The Ainu epic Kutune Shirka was only translated in 1931. [3]

Problem 2: Kamiyo moji

See the kamiyo moji article.

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