The only surviving poem from this match[i] occurs in the personal collection of Fujiwara no Takamitsu 藤原高光 (939-?), Takamitsu-shū (11), with the headnote, ‘From a scarlet plum blossom match.’

うぐひすのすをくひそむるむめの花いろもにほひもをしくも有るかな

1

While scarlet plum (kōbai 紅梅) is used as a topic for acrostics in Uda’in uta’awase (905), there are no other examples of it being used in any other poetry match, nor are there any other examples of ‘scarlet plum matches’ (kōbai awase 紅梅合) recorded. Given what we know of the details of Takamitsu’s life and career (see below), Hagitani (1958, 419) suggests that it is most likely that this was a private event for Takamitsu’s intimate circle, held in late 960 or early 961.

Takamitsu was the eighth son of Fujiwara no Morosuke 藤原師輔 (909-960) and was appointed to the position of Minor Captain of the Inner Palace Guards, Right Division (Ukonoe shōshō 右近衛少将) in 960; he is also listed among the participants in the Dairi uta’awase – Tentoku yo-nen. In 961, however, he took orders under the name of Jokaku 如覚, settling in Tōnomine 多武峰 in what is now Nara prefecture the following year.[ii] The poems he exchanged here with his wife and sister formed the basis for Tōnomine shōshō monogatari 多武峯少将物語 (‘Tale of the Minor Captain in Tōnomine’), a short work thought to be produced a few years afterwards. Despite his limited poetic oeuvre, Fujiwara no Kintō regarded him sufficiently highly to include him as one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, although perhaps this is unsurprising as Takamitsu’s daughter was the mother of Kintō’s wife; he has a total of twenty-three poems in imperial anthologies, including four in Shūishū, under both his lay and religious names.[iii]

[i] Aru tokoro no kōbai awase 或所紅梅合

[ii] Eiga monogatari relates the events surrounding Takamitsu’s taking orders, remarking, ‘Someone is sure to mention Takamitsu whenever people speak of sad things’ (McCullough and McCullough 1980, 92)

[iii] The poems are: Rhododendron [sakunamusa]. 紫の色にはさくなむさしのの草のゆかりと人もこそ見れ murasaki no / iro ni wa saku na / musashino no / kusa no yukari to / hito mo koso mire ‘In violet hues / It must bloom not— / Lest on Musashi Plain / With the grasses a bond / Folk, too, imagine!’ Dharma Master Jogan (VII: 360); When gazing at the moon, around the time he got the idea to become a monk. かくばかりへがたく見ゆる世の中にうら山しくもすめる月かな kaku bakari / hegataku miyuru / yo no naka ni / urayamashiku mo / sumeru tsuki kana ‘When so very / Hard it seems to pass through / This mundane world / Indeed, I envy / The moon, dwelling there, so clear!’ Fujiwara no Takamitsu (VIII: 435); While he was residing at Mount Hiei, and someone asked him for some incense, he sent this, attached to a branch of plum from which the blossom had scattered. 春すぎてちりはてにける梅の花ただかばかりぞ枝にのこれる haru sugite / chirihatekeru / mume no hana / tada ka bakari zo / eda ni nokoreru ‘Spring is gone and / All scattered are / The plum blossoms: / Only their fragrance / Lingers on the branch!’ Dharma Master Jogan (XVI: 1063); and: Written down on a pieice of folded paper when the snow was falling, around when he was deciding to become a monk. 世の中にふるぞはかなき白雪のかつはきえぬる物としるしる yo no naka ni / furu zo hakanaki / shirayuki no / katsu wa kienu / mono to shirushiru ‘Through this mundane world / Fleetingly falling / The snow, so white, / Is swift to vanish— / That I know only too well…’ Fujiwara no Takamitsu (XX: 1332)