Makurakotoba

Makurakotoba (枕詞^?), literally pillow words, are figures of speech used in Japanese waka poetry, where epithets are used in association with certain words. Their usage is akin to “grey-eyed Athena” and other epithets in the Ancient Greek epics of Homer. The set phrase can be thought of as a “pillow” for the noun or verb it describes, although the actual etymology is not fully known.

Makurakotoba are most familiar to modern readers in the Man'yōshū and when it is included in later poetry, it is used to make allusions to poems in the Man'yōshū. The exact origin of makurakotoba remains contested to this day. Japanese poets use makurakotoba to refer to earlier poems and show their knowledge of poetry and the imperial poetry collections.

In terms of usage, makurakotoba are often used at the beginning of a poem. The jokotoba is a similar figure of speech used in Man'yōshū poetry, used to introduce a poem. In fact, the 17th century Buddhist priest and scholar Keichū wrote that "if one says jokotoba, one speaks of long makurakotoba" (序(詞)ト云モ枕詞ノ長キヲ云ヘリ) in his Man'yō-taishōki. Japanese scholar Shinobu Orikuchi also echoes this statement, claiming that makurakotoba are jokotoba that have been compressed.

While some makurakotoba still have meanings that add to the meaning of the following word, many others have lost their meanings. As the makurakotoba became standardized and used as a way to follow Japanese poetic traditions, many were used only as decorative phrases in poems and not for their meanings. Many translators of waka poems have a difficult time with the makurakotoba because although the makurakotoba makes up the first line, many makurakotoba have no substantial meaning, and it is impossible to discard the whole first line of a waka.

There are many instances of makurakotoba found in the Man'yōshū . One of the very first poems in the collection demonstrates how the makurakotoba was used:

komo yo mikomochi
fukushimo yo mibukushimochi
kono oka ni na tsumasu ko
ie norase na norasane
soramitsu* Yamato no kuni wa
oshinabete ware koso ore
shikinabete ware koso imase
ware kosoba norame
ie o mo na o mo

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