Kanpyō no ōntoki chūgū uta’awase

Shinpen kokka taikan no.5
Heian-chō uta’awase taisei no.6
Title寛平御時中宮歌合
Romanised TitleKanpyō no ōntoki chūgū uta’awase
Translated TitlePoetry Contest held by the Empress during the Reign of the Kanpyō Emperor
Alternative Title(s)后宮胤子歌合 Kisai no miya inshi uta’awase (‘Poetry Contest held by Empress Dowager Taneko’)
DateBefore 6 Kanpyō 8 [7.896]
Extant Poems32
SponsorPrincess Nakako (Hanshi) 班子女王 (833-900); Fujiwara no Taneko (Inshi) 藤原胤子 (?-986); Fujiwara no Yoshiko (Onshi) 藤原温子 (872-907)
Identifiable ParticipantsMinamoto no Masazumi 源当純; Ariwara no Motokata 在原元方; Ki no Tomonori 紀友則; Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之; Ōshikōchi no Mitsune 凡河内躬恒; Fujiwara no Toshiyuki 藤原敏行; (Kiyowara no) Fukayabu 深養父; Fujiwara no Okikaze 藤原興風; Sakanoue no Korenori 坂上是則; 
JudgementsN
TopicsSpring; Summer; Autumn; Winter; Love

As can be seen from the fact that there are three potential candidates for the ‘Empress’ who sponsored this contest, there remain features of it which are unclear. The earliest extant texts of this uta’awase date from the Edo period, at least eight hundred years after it would have taken place, and a number of poems from it occur in other collections with headnotes that make no reference to the contest, so there remains the possibility that the contest was assembled from other sources some considerable time after its supposed date.

Go to the contest here.

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