Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/83

Rh The italicised portions represent the coupled lines. It would seem that literature in this form had a special charm for the samurai, and that he found it sufficiently interesting to occupy his brief intervals of leisure even on campaign. History tells of a military noble, Miyoshi, who attended a renka party where the theme to be capped was

While the convives sat searching for an apt couplet, a letter was handed to Miyoshi. He read it, and after a moment's thought composed these lines,

The couplet having been received with acclaim, Miyoshi said quietly: "This letter brings me news that my troops have been defeated and that my brother Saneyoshi was killed in the fight. Our verse, then, is the last gift I shall receive in my lifetime." Thereupon he went out and fell in battle.

In the Military epoch there was constant display of a satirical habit of mind, which has always marked the Japanese people, and is at least as strong to-day as it ever was. The Chinese language, and the Japanese in a lesser degree, lend themselves readily to a species of irony which owes its force almost entirely to plays