Edoza

A school of haiku from the mid-Edo to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. A group of Edo haiku poets with urban tastes, focusing on point-scoring haiku and a tendency towards free-spirited pleasure. Originally, it was a name for the Asakusa-za (Sentoku-style) and the Kikaku-style group, but it later became a general name for the entire group of Edo point-scoring haiku masters, in contrast to Setsumon (Ransetsu-style). Edo-za haiku was centered on the point-scoring format of adding points to tsukeku (additional verses) and competing for total points, so it had a strong tendency towards playfulness, and a trend emerged of valuing the intricacy of each tsukeku verse, leading to the publication of anthologies (such as "Mutama-gawa") that were an excerpt of only the most highly-scoring tsukeku verses. This led to a tendency for haiku poems, which are linked together in an associative form, to become more independent, and also had a strong influence on the independence of senryu (Japanese poetry). Furthermore, many of the masters of Edo-za had frequent contact with feudal lords and samurai families, and their style of poetry also delighted in expressing the social conditions and human feelings of the samurai city of Edo in a light-hearted manner. This trend promoted the establishment of a new literary art centered on Edo, and laid the groundwork for the blossoming of Edo urban culture during the Tanuma period (1772-86).

[Hideyuki Iwata]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸中期から幕末の俳諧(はいかい)流派。点取(てんとり)俳諧を中心とし、洒脱(しゃだつ)な享楽的傾向をもった都会趣味の江戸俳人集団。元来は、浅草(あさくさ)座（沾徳(せんとく)系）に対する称で、其角(きかく)系のグループをさしたが、のち一般化され、江戸の点取俳諧宗匠(そうしょう)グループ全体の別称として、雪門(せつもん)（嵐雪(らんせつ)系の流派）と対称的に用いられた。江戸座の俳諧は、付句(つけく)に加点して集計点を競う点取の形式を中心としたため、遊戯的傾向が強く、また付句一句の仕立ての妙を尊ぶ風がおこって、高点の付句のみを抜粋した句集（『武玉川(むたまがわ)』など）までが刊行された。これは、連想形式でつながっていく俳諧の付句を、個々独立的傾向に導くこととなり、川柳(せんりゅう)の独立にも強い影響を与えた。また、江戸座の宗匠たちは、大名や武家に出入りする者が多く、その句風も武家都市江戸の世態人情を軽妙に表現することを喜んだ。この傾向が、江戸を中心とした新文芸の確立を促し、田沼期（1772～86）における江戸都市文化開花の下地を養った。

［岩田秀行］

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