Link & Shift
an overview

"The linking verse is deduced from the preceding verse but it has no other logical connection with the leap-over verse. A work is composed by repeatedly linking a succession of such a verse ad libitum. This ingenious process of poetry composition was developed indigenously by our ancestors and has been found in no culture other than Japanese. In the final analysis, any [poetry] that embodies this characteristic dynamic should be recognised as renku regardless of its mode and other principles of composition."
Trans: Fusako Matano. Ed: Barry Hayter

The suggestion that Prof. Yaziki and Master Higashi make is clear - the sine qua non of renku is not to be found in the accretion of convention and precedent known in the Japanese as shikimoku. It lies instead in a single core driver, the paradox of 'link & shift'. Whilst it may be that this is a somewhat maximal position one thing is undeniable: it is impossible to write renku without understanding the principles of link and shift.

Any trio of verses in a renku sequence have particular relationships to each other and may therefore take generic names. Let us consider verses A, B, C and D. We already have verses A and B, and are currently working on finalising the text of verse C.

The verse on which we are working is known as the added verse (tsukeku). The verse to which we are linking is called the preceding verse (maeku); and the verse before that is called the leap-over or last-but-one verse (uchikoshi). These verses are linked, one to another. C links to B, which in turn has been linked to A.

What we have described so far is link, in Japanese 'tsukeai'. It is unexceptional; each added verse links in some way to the preceding verse. Linked verse has enjoyed popularity in many cultures at one time or another and the overwhelming majority of experimental forms of collaborative writing currently in vogue in English speaking countries are predicated on various aspects of linkage.

Renku Reckoner will shortly carry a detailed article exploring manners of linkage in renku. For our present purposes it is sufficient to remark that ideas of linkage alone do not explain the need to give a specific designation to the last-but-one or leap-over verse. For that we must understand shift.

In the diagram above, as we work on the linkage between C and B, we must also ensure that no aspect of A carries forward to exercise a lingering influence on C.

Moving onwards this requirement to shift holds true for any trio of verses we care to consider. Having finalised the text of C we then consider D. D will link to C. Crucially it in turn is obliged to shift comprehensively away from all aspects of its respective leap-over verse. So now it is verse B which must not be allowed to exert any pressure on D.

For all that it is easily represented in a diagram the quality of shift is deeply counterintuitive in practice, above all to people raised on post enlightenment notions of causality, logic and reductionism. Narrative is rendered impossible as is any form of extended topical exegesis. Perhaps unsurprisingly early attempts to propagate renku in the English speaking world were often met with outrage when the implications of shift were realised.

Renku Reckoner will shortly carry a detailed article exploring the nature of shift in greater detail. For our present purposes it is sufficient to remark that the degree of switch, of difference, intended by the term shift is sufficient to preclude any thought of thematic content in renku. Shift demands comprehensive changes in where a verse is set, what type of protagonists it has, what goes on, and how it is phrased. This doesn't mean that shift reduces a renku sequence to nonsense. But it does mean that poets are obliged to find different ways in which to make sense.

Kannonbiraki is the Japanese term used to describe what happens when there is insufficient shift between an added verse and its respective leap-over verse. The word means 'double doors' and refers to the tabernacle of a Buddhist altar. This tabernacle has doors which open outwards to either side, symmetrically framing the centerpiece. Generally the inner surfaces carry complimentary or matching pictorial motifs, as in the photograph at the head of this page.

When verse A and C, for example, display an unfortunate degree of similarity, the effect is to form a symmetrical frame around B... a clear case of kannonbiraki, double doors. Rather confusingly the word uchikoshi is sometimes used as an alternative to kannonbiraki, so in general usage uchikoshi may refer either to the last-but-one verse position or to the undesirable similarity between added verse and leap-over verse.