Who Is The Poetry-Loving Innkeeper?
A poetry fan fooled by Yaji's lie
The Kyoka Lover
The Poetry-Loving Innkeeper is a lover of kyoka, or comic poetry, who meets Yaji on the Ise road in Book 5 of Tokaidochu Hizakurige (Shank's Mare), believes Yaji's lie that he is the author Jippensha Ikku, and treats him as an honored guest. This site has not yet been able to confirm this character's name or social position in the original.
Taken for a celebrated author, Yaji enjoys a fine feast and is thoroughly pleased with himself. But when he is asked to compose kyoka and write them out with a brush, his cover falls apart, he is exposed as a fake, and he is deeply humiliated. The comedy lies in the terror of a small lie told out of vanity growing so big there is no turning back.
Kyoka are comic or satirical poems in the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable form, and they became hugely popular in the later Edo period. Having a character borrow the author's name and be disgraced for it is a playful device: Jippensha Ikku turned his own name into a joke inside his own work.
