Poetry Contest held by Lord Minamoto no Hirotsune, Ranked without Office
Alternative Title(s)
Date
5/Chōji 1 [5.1104]
Extant Poems
32
Identifiable Participants
N
Judgements
N
Topics
Pine seedlings on the Day of the Rat (子日小松); Being quiet in company with a bush warbler (鶯閑中友); A mountain hut concealed by haze (霞隔山家); Distant colours of blossom in full bloom (花満遠色); Summer grasses as the season wears on (夏草漸滋); Wisteria blooming by a river bank (藤花廻岸); A profusion of deutzia flowers in full bloom (卯花盛開); Cicadas singing between the trees (林間蝉声); Quiet thoughts at Tanabata 閑思七夕; Insects’ songs from behind thickets of grass (叢裏虫声); The scent of blossom in the fields at dusk (野花暮馥); Scarlet leaves dyed with dew (露染紅葉); Colours of chrysanthemums at the base of a fence (籬菊色色); First snow seen at dawn (暁見初雪); Fulling cloth late at night (深夜擣衣); Cranes in a garden (庭上鶴馴)
[1] Fujiwara no Tadataka 藤原忠隆 (1102-1150).Tadataka was known for love of hawking, his skills as a rider and, unusually for a court noble, his military prowess. He is described in Honchō seiki 本朝世紀 (‘A Chronicle of the Reigns of our Court’; 1150-1159) as ‘acquiring great wealth for his House through postings in a number of provinces. He loved learning, dogs and hawks, as well as charitable giving without thought of reward. All the world respected him.’
[2] Fujiwara no Tametada 藤原為忠 (1095-1136). Tametada had a relatively successful court career, serving as governor to a number of provinces besides Aki, although it was this post which reputedly allowed him to amass considerable wealth. His wife served as a lady-in-waiting to both Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba, and both emperors held him in high regard resulting in him eventually reaching Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade with a post as Supernumerary Director of the Bureau of Carpentry in 1134. He was active in poetic circles, taking part in a number of contests as well as this one, as well as other poetic events. He has a respectable ten poems in imperial anthologies from Kin’yōshū to Shinshoku kokinshū.
kesa mireba hagi ominaeshi nabikashite yasashi no nobe no kaze no keshiki ya
This morn when I look out Are the bush clovers and maidenflowers Waving Gently in the fields A vision of wind?
Lord Toshiyori 15
Right (Win)
高円の野路の篠原末騒ぎそそや秋風今日吹きぬなり
takamado no noji no shinohara sue sawagi sosoya akikaze kyō fukinu nari
In Takamado,
At Shinohara in Noji,
Noisy in the treetops
Rustles the autumn wind
As it blows today.
Lord Mototoshi 16
In the Left’s poem, from the phrase ‘bush clovers and maidenflowers’ (hagi ominaeshi) and to the following ‘gently in the fields’ (yashi no nobe) seem singularly unremarkable. In fact, the diction seems so out of place as to be comic. The Right’s poem has an elevated style and charming diction, so one would think it should win, should it not?
The Gentlemen of the Left: the Right’s poem does use the comically forceful diction ‘rustles’ (sosoya).
In judgement: the Left’s ‘waving’ (nabikashite) is an expression giving the poem an extremely idiosyncratic style. The initial section also appears to be lacking in force. As for the Right’s poem, ‘rustles’ (sosoya) is used by Sone no Yoshitada in his poem ‘rustling, the autumn wind has blown’ (sosoya akikaze fukinu nari),[1] so it is not as if there is not a prior example of usage. Thus, it seems to me that the Right’s poem is superior.
[1]The judge, Fujiwara no Mototoshi, is mistaken here, as the poem he is remembering is by Ōe no Yoshitoki 大江嘉言 and can be found in Shikashū (III: 108). Yoshitada is the author of SKS III: 110, however, so it seems he has simply made a mistaken identification of authorship over two poems which are more or less adjacent to each other in that anthology.