The , commonly abbreviated as , is an early anthology of the '' waka'' form of Japanese poetry, dating from the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

. An imperial anthology, it was conceived by Emperor Uda () and published by order of his son Emperor Daigo () in about

905 __NOTOC__ Year 905 ( CMV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – King Berengar I of Italy arranges a truce with the Hungarians, on p ...

. Its finished form dates to 920, though according to several historical accounts the last poem was added to the collection in 914. The compilers of the anthology were four court poets, led by Ki no Tsurayuki and also including Ki no Tomonori (who died before its completion),

Ōshikōchi no Mitsune Ōshikōchi no Mitsune (凡河内躬恒) was an early Heian administrator and ''waka'' poet of the Japanese court (859–925), and a member of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals The are a group of Japanese poets of the Asuka, Nara, and He ...

, and Mibu no Tadamine.

Significance

The ''Kokinshū'' is the first of the , the 21 collections of Japanese poetry compiled at Imperial request. It was the most influential realization of the ideas of poetry at the time, dictating the form and format of Japanese poetry until the late nineteenth century; it was the first anthology to divide itself into seasonal and love poems. The primacy of poems about the seasons pioneered by the ''Kokinshū'' continues even today. The Japanese preface by Ki no Tsurayuki is also the beginning of Japanese criticism as distinct from the far more prevalent Chinese poetics in the literary circles of its day. The anthology also included a

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

preface authored by

Ki no Yoshimochi Ki no Yoshimochi (紀淑望, died 919) was a Japanese poet of both ''waka (poetry), waka'' and ''kanshi (poetry), kanshi'' (Japanese and Chinese poetry, respectively). He also composed the Chinese preface (''mana-jo'') to the tenth-century ''waka'' ...

. The idea of including old as well as new poems was another important innovation, one which was widely adopted in later works, both in prose and verse. The poems of the ''Kokinshū'' were ordered temporally; the love poems, for instance, though written by many different poets across large spans of time, are ordered in such a way that the reader may understand them to depict the progression and fluctuations of a courtly love-affair. This association of one poem to the next marks this anthology as the ancestor of the '' renga'' and '' haikai'' traditions.

Structure

The exact number of poems in the collection varies depending on the textual tradition. One online edition,Online edition of th
Kokin wakashu
at th
UVa Library Japanese Text Initiative
. which follows the Date Family text based on a manuscript prepared by

Fujiwara no Teika , better-known as Fujiwara no Teika"Sadaie" and "Teika" are both possible readings of ; "...there is the further problem, the rendition of the name in romanized form. Teika probably referred to himself as Sadaie, and his father probably called ...

, contains 1,111 poems. The collection is divided into twenty parts, reflecting older models such as the '' Man'yōshū'' and various Chinese anthologies. The organization of topics is however different from all earlier models, and was followed by all later official collections, although some collections like the '' Kin'yō Wakashū'' and '' Shika Wakashū'' scaled the model down to ten parts. The following divisions of the ''Kokinshū'' mention the Japanese names of the parts, their modern readings,Miner (1985), pages 186–187McCullough and their English translations.Brower, pg 482 The compilers included the name of the author of each poem, and the or inspiration of the poem, if known. Major poets of the ''Kokinshū'' include Ariwara no Narihira, Ono no Komachi, Henjō and Fujiwara no Okikaze, apart from the compilers themselves. Inclusion in any imperial collection, and particularly the ''Kokinshū'', was a great honour.

Manuscripts

On October 20, 2010, Kōnan Women's University announced the discovery of a complete manuscript dating to c. 1220–1240. It is the oldest manuscript to contain both the Chinese and Japanese prefaces. It is split into two volumes, 15.9 cm tall by 14.6 cm wide, totaling 429 pages containing all 1111 poems. It is thought to be a copy of a manuscript made by

, but the identity of the copier is unknown. The manuscript was purchased from a used book store in 1982 for 4,280,000 yen.

Notes

References

* * * * *

Ichijō Fuyuyoshi , son of regent Ichijō Kaneyoshi, Kaneyoshi, was a ''kugyō'' or court noble of the Muromachi period (1336–1573) of Japan. He held a regent position kampaku two times from 1488 to 1493 and from 1497 to 1501. He adopted Ichijō Fusamichi, Fusamic ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kokin Wakashu Japanese poetry anthologies Late Old Japanese texts Heian period in literature 10th century in Japan Waka (poetry) 10th-century Japanese books

Significance

Structure

Manuscripts

See also

Notes

References

External links