Tōin senzai awase (‘Eastern Mansion Garden Match’) – alternately known as the ‘Garden Match held by Tadahira, Koichijō Minister of the Left’ (Koichijō sadaijin tadhira senzai awase 小一条左大臣忠平前菜) or the ‘Garden Match held by the Chancellor at the Eastern Mansion’ (Daijō daijin-dono tōin senzai awase 大政大臣殿東院前栽合), these variant titles have given rise to a range of theories and explanations about the match’s timing and sponsor. Hagitani (1957, 247–249) provides a summary of these, before arguing that the strongest evidence for this comes from the headnote to a selection of poems contained in Tsurayuki-shū, the personal poetry collection of the eminent poet and compiler of the first imperial poetry anthology, Kokinshū, Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945), which reads:
Presented to the losing side, attached to the diorama prepared by Taji no Sukenawa, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Palace Storehouses for the Garden Match held by the Minister of the Left in the 9th Month, Enchō 5.
Enchō 5 corresponds to 927, and other records confirm that Fujiwara no Tadahira 藤原忠平 (880-949), was both Minister of the Left and resident at the ‘Eastern Mansion’ at this time, so combined with the other evidence and versions of the match’s title – it was common for important personages to be referred to posthumously by the highest position they obtained, rather than by the position they occupied at the time an event took place, and Tadahira was appointed Chancellor (daijō daijin) in 936 – this argument is convincing.
From the headnote to the match, we know that the event was attended by Tadahira and his sons: Saneyori 実頼 (900-970), Morosuke 師輔 (909-960), Moroyasu 師保 (910?-?), Moro’uji 師氏 (916-970) and Morotada 師尹 (920-969). Given its location at Tadahira’s personal residence, it would have been a private and relatively informal event, but the host’s high status and position meant that it would still have been a grand affair as evidenced by the construction of a diorama, in addition to the preparation of plants for the garden.
The authorship of the poems for the match is not listed in its surviving texts, although the headnote implies that they were produced by Tadahira’s sons. Given the very young age of at least two of them, it seems likely that they will have had some assistance with their compositions. The judgements of which poems won and lost were not recorded either, again something characteristic of a private event held for entertainment, so we do not know which team, Left or Right, received Tsurayuki’s poems. It seems unlikely that Tsurayuki would have produced poems for an event at which he was not present, and thus Hagitani argues that he would have performed the role of Reciter, chanting the poems aloud for the assembled company to hear and enjoy.
Unsurprisingly for a senzai awase, the topics for the poems cover a range of plants which would have been encountered in an aristocratic garden of the time. Not all topics have two poems – there are a number of lacunae in the text which means that poems for the Right team are absent – so it is possible that the match was originally had more than the surviving twenty-two poems. A key feature of the composition, however, is that several of the poems are acrostics, which contain the name of a plant within them. There are also two variant texts of the match with some differences between the poems included.
