| Shinpen kokka taikan no. | 147 |
| Heian-chō uta’awase taisei no. | 311 |
| Title | 永縁奈良房歌合 |
| Romanised Title | Eien narabō uta’awase |
| Translated Title | Eien’s Nara Cell Poetry Match |
| Alternative Title(s) | Gon-sōjō eien kerin’in uta’awase 権僧正永縁花林院歌合 Supernumerary Archbishop Eien’s Kerin’in Poetry Match |
| Date | Spring Tenji 1 [1124] |
| Extant Poems | 70 |
| Identifiable Participants | Y |
| Judgements | Y |
| Topics | Cherry [blossom] (sakura 桜); cuckoos (hototogisu 郭公); the moon (tsuki 月); snow (yuki 雪); felicitations (iwai 祝) |
Monthly Archives: January 2026
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 37
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 36
Round Twelve
Left (T – Win)
わが恋はたかしの浜にゐる田鶴の尋ねてゆかん方もおぼえず
| wa ga koi wa takashi no hama ni iru tazu no tazuneteyukan kata mo oboezu | My love is Upon Takashi Beach A resting crane— He will go a’visting, but Where? No one knows… |
Lord Tamezane
71
Right (M – Win)
あふことのたのむる人のなきときはよをうき物と思ひぬるかな
| au koto no tanomuru hito no naki toki wa yo o uki mono to omoinuru kana | To meet with me Is there no one I can trust— At such times The world is such a cruel place I feel! |
Lord Tokimasa
72
Toshiyori states: the poems of both Left and Right seem to be of about the same standard. The first poem displays slightly better technique, but there’s nothing to point out about it. The later poem doesn’t do anything. I would say ‘A resting crane— / He will go a’visiting’ wins.
Mototoshi states: as for the poem about ‘My love is / Upon Takashi Beach’: it really seems to me that if you mention Takashi – heights – then you need to mention waves. After all, in reply to Tadafusa Tsurayuki composed, ‘The waves offshore / Rise high; on the beach at Takashi’, and while there are many beaches, I recklessly feel its mistaken not to have waves linked with Takashi Beach—although, of course, this may be a failing of my elderly mind. The poem of the Right’s ‘feeling in a cruel place’ seems a bit smoother in the current context.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 35
Round Eleven
Left (T – Win; M – Tie)
逢ふことをその年月と契らねば命や恋の限なるらむ
| au koto o sono toshitsuki to chigiraneba inochi ya koi no kagiri naruramu | That we might meet For months and years She has not promised, so My life will my love’s Limit be, no doubt! |
Lord Shigemoto
69
Right
よとともにもえこそわたれ我が恋は不二の高根のけぶりならねど
| yo to tomo ni moe koso watare wa ga koi wa fuji no takane no keburi naranedo | With the coming of the night Ever burning is My love, though From Fuji’s peak Smoke it is not… |
Lord Toshitaka
70
Toshiyori states: the first poem doesn’t seem bad. The second poem nothing but cliched. Thus, the first poem should win.
Mototoshi states: while love lasting lifelong without even a promise to meet over years and months is a painfully moving conception, someone burning every night is dear, too. Thus, it’s not inferior and these are of the same quality.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 34
Round Ten
Left (T – Tie; M – Win)
憂き人をわすれはてなで忘川なにとて絶えず恋わたるらん
| ukibito o wasurehatenade wasuregawa nani tote taezu koi wataruran | That cruel girl I am unable to ever forget, Even by Wasure—Forgetting—River Why is it that endlessly My love continues on? |
Lord Tadafusa
67
Right
恋すてふこひはこれにて限りてん後にもかかる物をこそおもへ
| koisu chō koi wa kore nite kagiriten nochi ni mo kakaru mono o koso omoe | Love, they say, Of love right here Let’s make an end! But later, still such Painful feelings will I have… |
Lord Munekuni
68
Toshiyori states: the first poem has nothing special about it—poems of this quality are unremarkable. The later poem says, ‘Of love right here / Let’s make an end!’—is it saying that the poet will fall in love with someone else? It’s difficult to say that he’d do that from the following day. It’s vague and doesn’t sound clear. These poems are of the same quality, aren’t they.
Mototoshi states: while neither of these has any faults, the Right’s ‘right here let’s make an end’ seems particularly undesirable. ‘Why is it that endlessly’ is slightly more poetic in the current context, I feel.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 33
Round Nine
Left (M – Win)
逢ふことの今はかたのとなりぬればかりに問ひこし人もとひこず
| au koto no ima wa katano to narinureba kari ni toikoshi hito mo toikozu | Meeting Now hard as crossing Katano Has become, so he who once Briefly hunted me out Never comes to call. |
Lord Michitsune
65
Right (T – Win)
おさふればあまる涙はもる山のなげきにあたる雫なりけり
| osaureba amaru namida wa moruyama no nageki ni ataru shizuku narikeri | I hold them in, but, Overflowing, my tears Drip down—on Mount Moru Gathering kindling—grief is plain In every droplet. |
Lord Tadataka
66
Toshiyori states: the first poem says ‘hard as crossing Katano has become’, but emphasizes that the lover did come briefly. It’s a mistake to then say that he ‘never comes’. The second poem has ‘Overflowing, my tears / Drip down—on Mount Moru’—it’s certainly not the case that feeling is lacking in the conception here, and it does sound like this is what one feels, so it’s not difficult at all to say this is the winner.
Mototoshi states: neither of these poems has any particular faults or anything outstanding between them, but that there is no one to visit the poet briefly appears, at present, to be slightly more desolate.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 32
Round Eight
Left (T – Tie; M – Win)
山のはにはつかの月のはつはつにみしばかりにやかくは恋しき
| yama no ha ni hatsuka no tsuki no hatsuhatsu ni mishi bakari ni ya kaku wa koishiki | By the mountains’ edge The Twentieth’s moon Just for a moment Did I simply see, so how Am I so in love? |
Lord Morikata
63
Right
恋すてふ皆人ごとにとひみばやいと我ばかりあらじとぞおもふ
| koisu chō mina hito goto ni toimiba ya ito ware bakari araji to zo omou | Saying they are in love— To all those folk Would I enquire, for Surely, I, alone Do not endure such feelings? |
Lord Nobutada
64
Toshiyori states: I may be mistaken, but I get the feeling the first poem resembles an earlier work, with only the ending changed somewhat. The second poem sounds stilted. They are of the same quality.
Mototoshi states: the poem of Left lacks originality, being based earlier poems from the emergence ‘the Twentieth’s moon’ at the beginning, then continuing with ‘for coarse cloth a bobbin turning’ and then finally ‘here at Isonokami, in the ancient’ at the end, yet this is more poetic than ‘To all those folk’, so this is still win for the Left.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 31
Round Seven
Left
恋せじとおもひなるせによる浪のかへりてそれもくるしかりけり
| koiseji to omoinaru se ni yoru nami no kaerite sore mo kurushikarikeri | I’ll love you no more, Did I come to think, the crash of Breaking waves Returning, but that, too Has brought me pain. |
Lord Kanemasa
61
Right (Both Judges – Win)
玉藻かる忍ぶの浦の蜑だにもいとかく袖はぬるるものかは
| tamamo karu shinobu no ura no ama dani mo ito kaku sode wa nururu mono ka wa | Reaping gemweed On Shinobu shore, Do even the fisherfolk Have sleeves so very Drenched, indeed? |
Lord Masamitsu
62
Toshiyori states: both of these are charming, however, a line from a famous poem is used for as the initial section, and in such cases the new poem should not closely evoke the source. Someone once said something similar, a long time ago. It’s a bit inferior, isn’t it.
Mototoshi states: neither of these contain any errors, yet the section following the central ‘crash of / Breaking waves’ seems intermittently painful, with sleeves damper than those of the fisherfolk on Shinobu shore. It seems a bit better at present.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 30
Round Six
Left (T – Tie)
うかりける汀におふるうきぬ縄くることなくていくよ経ぬらん
| ukarikeru migiwa ni ouru uki nunawa kuru koto nakute ikuyo henuran | Downcast, By the water’s edge a’growing, Drifting, a water-shield am I— Since he has ceased to come, How much time has passed? |
Lady Shōshō
59
Right (M – Win)
夜とともに袖のみぬれて衣川こひこそわたれ逢瀬なければ
| yo to tomo ni sode nomi nurete koromogawa koi koso watare ause nakereba | With the coming of night My sleeves are simply soaked— The River Robe Goes on does my love, Though meetings are there not… |
Lady Shinano
60
Toshiyori states: neither Left nor Right appears to have any faults. They are, as expected, somewhat trite, so I would say they are equivalent.
Mototoshi says: both of these poems seem pleasant. ‘Love going on without a meeting’ is particularly charming.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 29
Round Five
Left (T – Tie)
つれなさのためしは誰ぞたれにても人なげかせてはてはよしやは
| tsurenasa no tameshi wa ta zo tare nite mo hito nagekasete hate wa yoshi ya wa | For cold cruelty Who is your exemplar? Whoever it might be, Is causing one such grief A good thing, in the end? |
Lord Morotoshi
57
Right (M – Win)
逢ふ事をまつの汀に年ふればしづえに波のかけぬ日ぞなき
| au koto o matsu no migiwa ni toshi fureba shizue ni nami no kakenu hi zo naki | For a meeting Pining by the waters’ edge As the years go by— Lower boughs by waves Washed not on any day, at all… |
Lord Sadanobu
58
Toshiyori states: it is impossible to say that that the configuration and diction of the first poem is anything special. In the second poem, ‘For a meeting / Pining by the waters’ edge’ has poetic qualities, but continuing with ‘Lower boughs by waves / Washed not on any day, at all’ does not seem like a love poem, and if the poet had wanted to allude to tears here, well, it just doesn’t sound like it, does it. The Left has the conception of a Love poem, but it language lacks elegance; the Right is smooth, but has only a faint conception of love, and thus these tie.
Mototoshi states: this poem’s diction is particularly bizarre. What an objectionably unpleasant feeling of love! One does see this in the passage giving the reply by Nakatomi no Tokuin, and then there seems to have been the poem ‘go on then, you creeper’, but that one continues extremely charmingly, while this sounds ghastly. Then ‘For a meeting / Pining by the waters’ edge’, truly is a charming composition, and the subsequent ‘Lower boughs by waves / Washed not on any day, at all’ seems entirely clear. It seems to approach the quality of Komachi’s poem, to me! This is a win for the Right, I have to say.
