@article{oai:nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp:00006029,
 author = {MEHL, Scott},
 journal = {Japan review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies},
 month = {Dec},
 note = {In his essays on the dynamics of cultural change, the semiotician Yuri Lotman proposes a model to explain the fact that when an area of culture—poetry, for example—develops a set of self-descriptions—such as poetry criticism, histories of poetry, and so on—that area of culture (or semiotic system, to use Lotman’s term) is in a position to become rigidly self-repeating: once it draws up rules for itself, then there is the possibility that it will follow those rules. The semiotic system is described as having become rigidified, under such circumstances. Lotman posits another alternative: the semiotic system might instead choose to break or alter its own rules, renovating and transforming itself by incorporating elements from other semiotic systems. In this essay I argue that the appearance of modern Japanese free-verse poetry can be explained using a modified version of Lotman’s model. It is common for historians of modern Japanese poetry to say that the poet Kawaji Ryūkō was the first to publish free-verse poetry in Japanese (in 1907). This essay places Ryūkō’s work in context, characterizing it as a synthesis of a number of elements from the contemporary criticism—the principal among these being the current of negative criticism of Japanese poetry, on the one hand, and the current of positive response to Western free-verse poetry, on the other. By synthesizing elements from various strands of poetry and poetry criticism, Ryūkō created a poetic form that is now prevalent in the Japanese poetry establishment today.},
 pages = {103--132},
 title = {The Beginnings of Japanese Free-Verse Poetry and the Dynamics of Cultural Change},
 volume = {28},
 year = {2015}
}