Kokin-wakashu

Kokin(waka)sh? (Japanese: ??(??)?, Kokin(waka)shū, "collection of ancient and modern poems") is an early Heian waka anthology, conceived by Emperor Uda (r. 887?897) and ordered by his son Emperor Daigo (r. 897?930) in 905. Its finished form dates to c. 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 including Ki no Tomonori (who died before its completion), ?shik?chi Mitsune, and Mibu no Tadamine.

Related Topics:
Japanese - Heian - Waka - Emperor Uda - Emperor Daigo - 905 - 920 - 914 - Ki no Tsurayuki - Ki no Tomonori - ?shik?chi Mitsune - Mibu no Tadamine

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The Kokinsh? is the first of the nij?ichidaish? (?????), the twenty-one 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. The primacy of poems about the seasons pioneered by the Kokinsh? continues even today in the haiku tradition. 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 traditional Chinese preface authored by Ki no Tomonori.) 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 Kokinsh? 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.

Related Topics:
Nij?ichidaish? - Haiku - Renga - Haikai

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The exact number of poems in the collection is a matter of dispute. The online edition in contains 1,111 poems. The collection is divided into twenty parts, reflecting older models such as the man'y?sh? and various Chinese anthologies. The organisation of topics is however different from all earlier models, and was followed by all later official collections, although some collections like the kin'y?sh? and shikash? scaled the model down to ten parts. The parts of the kokinshū are ordered as follows: 1-2 on Spring (?? haru no uta), 3 on Summer (?? natsu no uta), 4-5 on Autumn (?? aki no uta), 6 on Winter (?? fuyu no uta), 7 about Congratulations (?? ga no uta), 8 on Partings (??? wakare no uta), 9 on Travel (??? tabi no uta), 10 on the Names (?? mono no na), 11-15 on Love (?? koi no uta), 16 on Lamentations (??? aish? no uta), 17-18 on Miscellaneous (?? kusagusa no uta), 19 on Miscellaneous Kinds (??? zattai no uta), and 20 on chiefly traditional and ritual poems from the Bureau of Poetry (????? ?utadokoro no on'uta).

Related Topics:
Man'y?sh? - Kin'y?sh? - Shikash?

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The compilers included the name of the author of each poem, and the topic (? dai) or inspiration of the poem, if known. Major poets of the kokinsh? include Ariwara no Narihira, Ono no Komachi, Henj? and Fujiwara no Okikaze, apart from the compilers themselves. Inclusion in any imperial collection, and particularly the kokinsh?, was a great honour.

Related Topics:
Ariwara no Narihira - Ono no Komachi - Henj? - Fujiwara no Okikaze

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