On the 7th day of the Third Month, Engi 21[1], when the Kyōgoku Lady of the Bedchamber[2] to the former Teiji Emperor[3] accompanied His Majesty and sundry others to Kasuga, a man named Fujiwara no Tadafusa,[4] the Governor of Yamato, took charge. Needless to say, his arrangements were exhaustive—notably that he had charming baskets prepared with fruit inside, for the upwards of twenty carriages he ordered for the event.
Many people produced poems, which they wrote on slips of thick paper. It was a busy event and thus there was no time for people to compose poems in reply, so after returning to the Lady’s residence, all were divided into teams of Left and Right and commanded to compose poems, which were then matched.
The Left were led by His Majesty’s daughter who had been granted the Minamoto surname,[5] while the Right were led by the Lady’s fifth younger sister,[6] with both ladys’ court ladies included in the teams.
The Left wore layered Cathay-style robes of red and indigo touched with scarlet; the Right’s robes were also in the Cathay-style, but of blue with a russet underlayer, while their pleated skirts were also of blue, shading more darkly into light indigo at the hem, decorated with reed-style characters in vibrant yellow.
The princes and senior courtiers all wore red and blue for Left and Right—red for the Left and blue for the Right.
Three pagegirls for Left and Right collected the poems. Those of the Left wore outer robes of thin, mesh silk in red and indigo touched with scarlet, with striped trouser-skirts; the tally-girls wore short singlets of reddish russet, with jackets of indigo touched with scarlet and striped with blue and over-trousers of woven silk. The pages of the Right wore outer robes of blue, with seasonally appropriate cherry-coloured jackets layered on top and woven silk over-trousers; the tally-girls wore singlets of blue and yellow thin mesh silk, bright yellow striped jackets, and over-trousers of light indigo with paintings of some sort drawn upon them.
Wearing such striped patterns, the glossy scarlet silk of their robes made the girls charmingly mature.
The Left brought in their diorama. Four men of the Fifth Rank preceded it, and four men from the headquarters of the palace guards carried it. Music was performed as they did. The poems had been placed in silver baskets, and women brought them in and placed them on the diorama.
The Right’s diorama was carried in by four women. While it had some refinement to it, it was inferior to the Left’s in terms of charm. The Right’s was a lotus leaf of beaten silver, with poems written upon it.
While there were many superlative poets present, the Lady summoned Tadafusa in particular and had him judge the poems. As the young women were unable to recite the poems very well, Middle Captain Korehira[7] performed this duty for the Left, and Minor Counsellor Ki no Yoshimitsu[8] did it for the Right.
The Lady awarded prizes to both Left and Right together.
[1] 17.4.921
[2] Fujiwara no Hōshi/Yoshiko 藤原褒子 (dates unknown), the eldest daughter of Fujiwara no Tokihira 藤原時平 (871-909).
[3] Emperor Uda 宇多 (867-931; r. 887-897)
[4] Fujiwara no Tadafusa 藤原忠房 (?-929), was the son of Master of the Right Capital Office Fujiwara no Okitsugu 藤原興嗣. He held the position of Governor of Yamato between 920-925.
[5] Minamoto no Nobuko (Junshi) 源順子 (dates unknown), the wife of Fujiwara no Tadahira 藤原忠平 (880-949).
[6] Name and dates unknown, but it is known that she became the consort of Imperial Prince Yoshi’akira/Katsu’akira 克明 (903-927), and the mother of Minamoto no Hiromasa 源博雅 (918-980).
[7] Fujiwara no Korehira 藤原伊衡 (876-939), the third son of the famous poet, Fujiwara no Toshiyuki 藤原敏行 (?-901/07). He did not, in fact, become Supernumerary Middle Captain in the Inner Palace Guard, Right Division, until 924, three years after this contest took place.
[8] Ki no Yoshimitsu/Yoshiteru 紀淑光 (869-939), the third son of another famous poet, Ki no Haseo 紀長谷雄 (845-912).
