The title of this fascinating match, Ronshunjū uta’awase means the ‘Poetry Match Debating Spring and Autumn’. There are a number of doubts about the attribution of the poems in this match and conflicting theories, as a result about when it was put together, but it remains the first example of an extended dialogue in waka form and thus a landmark in Japanese poetic history.

Superficially, it has three participants: Ōtomo no Kuronushi (dates unknown), one of the Six Poetic Immortals mentioned by Ki no Tsurayuki in his preface to Kokinshū, the first imperial poetry anthology; Fujiwara no Toyonushi ( -847), an early Heian noble, poet and likely contemporary of Kuronushi; and Ōshikōchi no Mitsune (859?-925?), one of the compilers of Kokinshū.

The match has three sections each with the same structure. Each begins with a poem by Kuronushi posing a question about which of two things is better. This is then followed by nine poems alternating between Toyunushi and Kuronushi making the case for one of the things being better, before Mitsune provides a further poem giving a judgement on the matter. Despite the match’s title, it is not just spring and autumn which is discussed – this only occupies the first section. The second section deals with summer and winter, while the third discusses ‘feeling’ and ‘loving’.