Kishotenketsu
Encyclopedia
describes the structure and development of Chinese
and Japanese
narrative
s. It was originally used in Chinese poetry as a four-line composition, such as Qijue, and is also referred to as . The first Chinese character
refers to the introduction or , the next: development, , the third: twist, , and the last character indicates conclusion or . 句 is the , and means "meeting point of 起 and 転" for conclusion.
The following is an example of how this might be applied to a fairytale.: Topic toss or introduction, what characters
appear, era, and other important information for understanding the setting of the story
.: Receives or follows on from the introduction and leads to the twist in the story. Major changes do not occur.: Turn or twist to another, new or unknown topic. This is the crux of the story, which is also referred to as the or climax. It has the biggest twist in the story.: Resultant, also referred to as the or ending, it wraps up the story by bringing it to its conclusion.
A more specific example:: Daughters of Itoya, in the Motomachi
of Osaka
.: The elder daughter is sixteen and the younger one is fourteen.: Throughout history, generals (daimyo
) killed the enemy with bows and arrows.: The daughters of Itoya kill with their eyes.
The same pattern is used to arrange arguments:: In old times, copying information by hand was necessary. Some mistakes were made.: Copying machines made it possible to make quick and accurate copies.: Traveling by car saves time, but you don't get much impression of the local beauty. Walking makes it a lot easier to appreciate nature close up.: Although photocopying is easier, copying by hand is sometimes better, because the information stays in your memory longer and can be used later.
In the structure of narrative and yonkoma
manga
, and even for document
and dissertation, the style in Kishōtenketsu applies to sentence or sentences, and even clause
to chapter
as well as the phrase for understandable introduction to conclusion.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
s. It was originally used in Chinese poetry as a four-line composition, such as Qijue, and is also referred to as . The first Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
refers to the introduction or , the next: development, , the third: twist, , and the last character indicates conclusion or . 句 is the , and means "meeting point of 起 and 転" for conclusion.
The following is an example of how this might be applied to a fairytale.: Topic toss or introduction, what characters
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
appear, era, and other important information for understanding the setting of the story
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
.: Receives or follows on from the introduction and leads to the twist in the story. Major changes do not occur.: Turn or twist to another, new or unknown topic. This is the crux of the story, which is also referred to as the or climax. It has the biggest twist in the story.: Resultant, also referred to as the or ending, it wraps up the story by bringing it to its conclusion.
A more specific example:: Daughters of Itoya, in the Motomachi
Motomachi
is a district of Naka Ward in Yokohama, Japan, located immediately west of Yamate and east of Chinatown. It consists mainly of the Motomachi Shopping Street, a five-block long stretch of boutiques and shops, well known in Japan for its cosmopolitan atmosphere, original fashion, and Western...
of Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
.: The elder daughter is sixteen and the younger one is fourteen.: Throughout history, generals (daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
) killed the enemy with bows and arrows.: The daughters of Itoya kill with their eyes.
The same pattern is used to arrange arguments:: In old times, copying information by hand was necessary. Some mistakes were made.: Copying machines made it possible to make quick and accurate copies.: Traveling by car saves time, but you don't get much impression of the local beauty. Walking makes it a lot easier to appreciate nature close up.: Although photocopying is easier, copying by hand is sometimes better, because the information stays in your memory longer and can be used later.
In the structure of narrative and yonkoma
Yonkoma
thumb|right|150px|Traditional Yonkoma layout, a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom...
manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, and even for document
Document
The term document has multiple meanings in ordinary language and in scholarship. WordNet 3.1. lists four meanings :* document, written document, papers...
and dissertation, the style in Kishōtenketsu applies to sentence or sentences, and even clause
Clause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
to chapter
Chapter (books)
A chapter is one of the main divisions of a piece of writing of relative length, such as a book. Chapters can be numbered in the case of such writings as law code or they can be titled. For example, the first chapters of some well-known novels are titled:*"The Boy Who Lived" – Harry Potter...
as well as the phrase for understandable introduction to conclusion.
See also
- Composition (language)Composition (language)The term composition , in written language, refers to the collective body of important features established by the author in their creation of literature...
- Contrastive rhetoricContrastive rhetoricContrastive rhetoric is the study of how a person's first language and culture influence his or her writing in a second language.Research began in the 1960s, started by the American applied linguist Robert Kaplan...
- Cross-cultural communicationCross-cultural communicationCross-cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavour to communicate across cultures.- Origins :The Cold War, the United States economy...
- Jo-ha-kyūJo-ha-kyuis a concept of modulation and movement applied in a wide variety of traditional Japanese arts. Roughly translated to "beginning, break, rapid", it essentially means that all actions or efforts should begin slowly, speed up, and then end swiftly...
, contrasting 3-part structure - WritingWritingWriting is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
- YonkomaYonkomathumb|right|150px|Traditional Yonkoma layout, a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom...