Junicho

A "twelve tone" pattern for renku

Shunjin and Seijo Okamoto

 

There are no formal divisions in the Junicho
hokku au au mn sp sp flo su wi mn
wakiku au au sp sp nssu nswi
daisan ns ns ns lv ns ns ns
4 short ns ns lv ns lv wisu ns ns lv
5 long suwi mn ns lv wisu ns spau mn ns lv
6 short ns suwi ns ns lv spau ausp
7 long ns lv ns ns ns lv ns lv ausp
8 short sp lv ns au au mn wi lv ns
9 long sp wisu au flo au ns su flo
10 short ns ns ns ns ns ns
11 long ns sp flo ns suwi ausp flo spau
ageku wisu flo sp suwi mn ns ausp spau

 

Notes

The Junicho is extremely flexible. This schema is illustrative only; many more variants are possible.

The poem typically has a two spring verses, two autumn verses, one winter and one summer verse. The autumn verses are always grouped as a pair, spring likewise.

Moon and flower each appear once. They may appear in association with any season, but not in association with a non-season verse. Flower may be any type of bloom; it is not restricted to blossom.

A grouped pair of love verses appear somewhere in the middle of the poem.

suwi - whichever season is selected first the alternate season must be selected later.
wisu - ditto.
spau - ditto - both verses change together.
ausp - ditto - both verses change together.
nssu - where the hokku is set in summer authors may use summer for the wakiku
nswi - where the hokku is set in winter authors may use winter for the wakiku
ns - non season position.
flo - flower position
mn - moon position
lv - love position

 


 

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