Among the courtiers in service to His Majesty, former Emperor Uda, it was possible to pick out those who had some sensitivity and those who did not, so in a certain year, when the kōshin rite came around on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, those gentlemen who were thought to have this sensitivity spent the day composing poems on the topic of ‘feelings after meeting at Tanabata’ which were divided into teams and matched.
Left
としごとにこりずやあるらんたなばたのあひてこひしきわかれのみする
toshigoto ni korizu ya aruran tanabata no aite koishiki wakare nomi suru
Every single year Does she never learn, I wonder? The Weaver Maid Meets and then with love Does simply part.
1
Right (Win)
おもひやる心のそらにしらるればたなばたつめのわかれかなしな
omoiyaru kokoro no sora ni shirarureba tanabatatsume no wakare kanashiki
Yearning fills The heavens of her heart— How well she knows it, for The Weaver Maid’s Parting is so sad.
This is a small-scale contest containing only twenty-six poems. It was held on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, Engi 16 [8.8.916] (Hagitani 1957, 205), when the kōshin rite fell on that day, meaning that those participating had to stay up throughout the night. As the name of the contest suggests, the poets were courtiers in the service of former Emperor Uda, although their names have not been recorded; nor has the identity of the judge, but given the context, it seems likely that this will have been Uda himself. The 7th day of the Seventh Month was when Tanabata, the meeting between the celestial lovers, the Weaver Maid and the Herd Boy, was celebrated, and so it is unsurprising that the topic set for the match was ‘feelings after meeting at Tanabata’.