The
Danrin school (談林派) is a school of
haikai poetry founded by the poet Nishiyama Sōin
[Sargent, G.W. and Ihara Saikaku. The Japanese Family Storehouse; Or the Millionaires Gospel Modernised; Nippon Eitai-Gura or Daifuku Shin Choja Kyo 1688. Cambridge University Press, 1959 xv] (1605 to 1682). The name literally means 'talkative forest' – in other words a ‘Literary Forest’.
[l Zolbrod, Haiku Painting (1982) p. 7]
Origins
The school arose in reaction against the serious "bookishness" and concern for traditional culture popular in Japanese poetry at the time, under the influence of Matsunaga Teitoku and the
Teimon school.
[R H Blyth, A History of Haiku Vol I (1963) p. 64-6] In place of their formalism and didacticism, the new school looked to humour and low comedy for fresh inspiration,
[Peipei Qiu, Basho and the Dao (2005) p. 6] as well as to becoming more in touch with the common people, and therefore infusing a greater spirit of freedom into their poetry.
Themes and language
The Danrin school favored plain language, everyday subjects, and the use of humor, often mocking or debunking the elegance of court waka.
[Makoto Ueda, Matsuo Bashō (1982) p. 40] Its members explored people's daily life for sources of playfulness, but while opening up the world of haiku to fresh influences, they ran the risk of ending up with mere frivolity.
[Nobuyuki Yuasa trans., The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1983) p. 19]
Bashō/Tosei
The renowned poet Matsuo Bashō had begun his poetic training in the Teimon school; but was much impressed by his meeting with Sōin, changing his pen name from Sōbō to Tosei, and becoming a member of the Danrin school.
[Nobuyuki Yuasa trans., The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1983) p. 23] Though he later broke away from the latter, his mature style was to benefit from his ability to blend the seriousness of such earlier figures as Saigyō and Sōgi with the artistic freedom nurtured by the Danrin poets.
[Nobuyuki Yuasa trans., The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1983) p. 19 and p. 152]
See also
