Come schiuma d’acqua - Il concetto di mujo nella poesia Heian tra kanshi e waka

“Like Water Foam”: the Introduction of Buddhist Expressions in Heian Literature With a comparative approach between kanshi and waka, I intend to address the problem of the import of Buddhist terms and expressions in Japanese poetry. rough the study of the image “water foam” (Minawa or mizu no awa), often used as a metaphor of the short life of man, I want to demonstrate the impor- tance of a conception of literature that transcends the division into genres. We will follow the development of this expression starting from the sutras, and analyzing Man’yōshū, Kūkai, Sugawara no Michizane, Bai Juyi and Ōe no Chisato, and finally the Kokinshū.