Yakazu Haikai

A form of haikai. Modeled on the archery competition at Sanjusangendo in Kyoto, this is a haikai performance in which participants compose as many verses as possible in a day and night or in a single day, and compete to see who can write the most. The first performance was in May 1677 (Enpo 5) at Honkakuji Temple in Ikutama, Osaka, when Ihara Saikaku recited 1,600 verses by himself (the "dai-haikai verse performance"). Four months later, Gekko Kishi of Yamato recited 1,800 verses by himself in a single day and night at Gokuraku-in Temple in Nara, and in March 1679, Oyodomichikaze of Sendai broke the record by performing 3,000 verses in a single day and night. So in May of the following year, Saikaku attempted a second solo recitation of 4,000 verses in the Yasuzu haikai at the southern temple of Ikuta Shrine and succeeded (Saikaku's Great Yasuzu).He then set a new unprecedented record of 23,500 verses at the head of Sumiyoshi Shrine in June 1684 (the 1st year of the Jōkyō era), bringing an end to the Yasuzu haikai that he had founded, describing it as "a great Yasuzu that takes its last breath with divine power and sincerity."

[Kumo Hideo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

俳諧形式。京都三十三間堂の通し矢の競技に倣い、一昼夜もしくは一日の間に独吟でできるだけ多くの句をつくり、その数を競う俳諧興行。1677年（延宝5）5月に大坂生玉(いくたま)の本覚寺で井原西鶴(さいかく)が千六百句独吟の矢数俳諧を興行（俳諧大句数）したのが最初で、4か月後には大和(やまと)の月松軒紀子(きし)が奈良極楽院で一昼夜独吟千八百句を、さらに1679年3月には仙台の大淀三千風(おおよどみちかぜ)が一昼夜三千句を興行し、記録を更新。そこで西鶴は翌年5月生玉社南坊で二度目の矢数俳諧独吟四千句に挑戦し成功（西鶴大矢数）、さらに1684年（貞享1）6月住吉(すみよし)社頭で二万三千五百句の前人未到の記録を樹立し、「神力誠(しんりきまこと)を以(もって)息の根留(とむ)る大矢数」と、自ら創始した矢数俳諧に終止符を打った。

［雲英末雄］

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