This is a relatively small-scale contest with forty-six poems sponsored by Emperor Yōzei 陽成 (869-949; r. 876-884) in 913. It was a privately organised and sponsored event, similar to Yōzei’s earlier contest on ‘Summer Insects’ held in the summer of this, or the previous, year. The extant texts have twenty-three rounds for forty-six poems in total, but as this is an unusual number of rounds for a contest, and given that it is listed in the contents of the early twelfth century compendium of poetry matches, Waka’awase shō  和歌合抄as having thirty rounds, it seems likely that a number of rounds have been lost over the centuries. The contest lacks any indications of judgements, nor are the names of the poets recorded, which is another indication of its nature as a private entertainment, rather than an official event, but it is remarkable among contemporaneous uta’awase for its singular focus on a single topic, and thus the way the poets explore it from a range of varying perspectives.

Go to the contest’s poems.