| Shinpen kokka taikan no. | 1 |
| Heian-chō uta’awase taisei no. | 1 |
| Title | 民部卿家歌合 |
| Romanised Title | Minbukyō-ke uta’awase |
| Translated Title | Poetry Contest at the House of the Minister of Popular Affairs |
| Alternative Title(s) | 民部卿行平歌合 Minbukyō yukihira uta’awase (‘Poetry Contest held by Minister of Popular Affairs Yukihira’) |
| Date | Summer, Ninna 1-3 [885-887] |
| Extant Poems | 23 |
| Sponsor | Ariwara no Yukihira 在原行平 |
| Identifiable Participants | N |
| Judgements | Y |
| Topics | Nightingales (hototogisu 郭公); Love without meeting (awanu koi あはぬ恋) |
The earliest extant poetry contest and a small-scale affair with ten rounds on ‘cuckoos’ (hototogisu) and two on ‘love without meeting’ (awanu koi). Nevertheless, this event has many of the features which are typical of later competitions, such as the division of participants into teams of the Left and Right, and poems being ajudged as winning, or tying, the rounds in which they appear. The identities of the poets and the judge have not survived, but it is probable, if not certain, that the sponsor of the contest, Ariwara no Yukihira (818-893), would have performed the latter role.
Yukihira has been much overshadowed as a poet by his famous brother Narihira 業平 (825-880), but was, unusually for a senior noble of his time, well-regarded as a poet, being praised for the ‘elegant sentiment’ of his poetry in the Chinese preface to Kokinshū.