Sumiyoshi Shrine Poetry Match 9^th day, Tenth Month, Kaō 2[1]

Topics

The moon over the shrine

Showers at one’s lodgings on a journey[2]

Personal grievances[3]

Reader

Reciter[4]

Left	Lord Fujiwara no Kunisuke, Supernumerary Senior Secretary of the Empress Household Office, Exalted Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade[5]
Right	Lord Fujiwara no Asamune, Supernumerary Governor of Suruga Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade[6]

Judge

Lord Fujiwara no Toshinari, Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office and Master of the Right Capital Office, Exalted Senior Third Rank[7]

Go to the contest.

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[1] 18.11.1170 (Wednesday)

[2] Tabiyado no shigure 旅宿時雨

[3] Jukkai 述懐

[4] It is relatively unusual for participants in an uta’awase to be listed in rank order along with all their official titles. Kubota et al. (2024, 427) suggest that this is so that in the section of personal grievances, the deity knew who to give priority to in His response.

[5] Jūgoige-gyō kōgōgū gontaishin Fujiwara ason Kunisuke 従五位下行皇后宮権大進藤原朝臣邦輔 (dates unknown). Kunisuke took part in this match, and also the later Hirota-sha uta’awase, but was not considered a sufficiently accomplished poet to warrant inclusion in an imperial anthology. His appointment as reciter here, though, suggests he was thought to have a clear and loud enough voice to perform in public.

[6] Suruga no gonkami jūgoige Fujiwara ason Asamune 駿河権守従五位下藤原朝臣朝宗 (dates unknown): also known by the name Asanaka 朝仲, Asamune took part in this contest, the Hirota-sha uta’awase, and Shunzei included a single poem of his in Senzaishū (V: 375): Composed on the conception of scarlet leaves showing through the pines. 色かへぬ松ふく風のおとはしてちるはははそのもみぢなりけり iro kaenu / matsu fuku kaze no / oto wa shite / chiru wa hahaso no / momiji narikeri ‘Hues unchanging / Pines blown by the wind / Make a sound, but / What scatters are the oaks’ / Scarlet leaves.’

[7] Shōsan’i-gyō kōgōgū  taifu ken sakyō taifu Fujiwara ason Toshinari正三位行皇后宮大夫兼右京大夫藤原朝臣俊成 (1114-1204): Better known as Shunzei, he was the most influential poetic figure of his age and ‘probably the most accomplished critic in the history of Japanese poetry’ (Huey 2002, 56). He founded the Mikohidari 御子左 poetic house, whose descendants were to dominate the waka tradition for centuries, while his poetry contest judgements became the model for later critics and judges to follow. See Royston (1974) for a full account of his life and importance.

What can I say about the path to Waka Bay: immeasurable as the depths of the sea whose bed is impossible to plumb, and as distant as a myriad leagues across the waves—an ending none can know. Verily, it draws folks’ hearts as a net pulled in across the distant tideways, but the nature of its heart is as indeterminable as a drifting fisher boat. Just as what is named ‘beach grass’ on the isle of Ise, brushed by divine winds, and magnificent reeds around Naniwa are called stubby stalks in the Eastlands, so in addition to the same poem being received differently according to folks’ hearts, there may also be flaws among the jewels of diction or gold found among the pebbles, and to close oneself off on Mount Oshio, and only mention the high points of the River Yoshino, would be a source of grief at such as degradation of the Way; thus, in awe of the divine guardian of Way, and in deference to those who love it, have I allowed the shallow spring of my own words to express the waters of my foolish heart, that the sight of them may, perhaps, be of some effect, turning my night-robes inside out, time and time again, feeling the sleeves stiff with ice.

Round Twenty-Three

Left (Win)

つのくにのなにはのこともあしのねのこのよはかくてかれはてねとや

tsu no kuni no naniwa no koto mo ashi no ne no kono yo wa kakute karehatene to ya

In the land of Tsu At Naniwa, all things Are ill, as the reeds roots, In this world have I thus Withered all away?

Chūnagon
145

Right

いかでなほまどふうきよをそむきなばまことのみちをふみもたがへじ

ikade nao madou ukiyo o somukinaba makoto no michi o fumi mo tagaeji

Should, somehow, yet This confusing cruel world I depart, then On the path of truth Would I make no mistaken steps.

Sokaku
146

These poems of the Left and Right both appear to have extremely moving conceptions, but with that being said, the poem of the Left, beginning with ‘At Naniwa, all things / Are ill, as the reeds roots’ and following this with ‘In this world have I thus / Withered all away?’ has a configuration and conception that makes me feel the waves of Naniwa Bay upon my sleeves. Thus, the Left wins.