The Gosen and Shūi Anthologies — 300 Years from the Kokinshū to the Shinkokinshū, Poets of the Middle Heian: Izumi Shikibu, Priest Nōin, and Others

300 Years from the Kokin to the Shinkokin

Between the Kokin Wakashū (905) and the Shinkokin Wakashū (1205), over 300 years, six imperial waka anthologies were compiled successively:

#	Anthology	Year	Compiler	Feature
1	Kokin Wakashū	905	Ki no Tsurayuki and others	Establishment of fine, technique-rich style
2	Gosen Wakashū	951	Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu and others	Enrichment of love poems
3	Shūi Wakashū	1005-1007	Fujiwara no Kintō (presumed) and others	Splendor and refinement
4	Goshūi Wakashū	1086	Fujiwara no Michitoshi	Middle-Heian poets: Izumi Shikibu, Nōin
5	Kin’yō Wakashū	1127	Minamoto no Toshiyori	Difficulty and experiment
6	Shika Wakashū	1151	Fujiwara no Akisuke	Return to plainness
7	Senzai Wakashū	1188	Fujiwara no Shunzei	Germ of yūgen
8	Shinkokin Wakashū	1205	Fujiwara no Teika and others	Peak of yūgen and yojō

Together they are called the “Eight Great Anthologies (Hachidaishū)” and form the peak of waka from the Heian into the early Kamakura. The Kokin (1) and the Shinkokin (8) are the two pillars at either end; the 6 anthologies between are a time of varied experiments.

This article traces the poets active in the 6 middle anthologies between Kokin and Shinkokin.

Fujiwara no Kintō and the Sanjūrokunin-sen

Fujiwara no Kintō (966-1041) was a representative cultural figure of the middle Heian. Chief editor (or, at least, central figure — various views exist) of the Shūi Wakashū, and author of the poetics Shinsen Zuinō and of Wakan Rōeishū (a collection setting Chinese and Japanese poetry side by side).

Sanjūrokunin-sen (“Selection of 36 Poets”)

An anthology Kintō compiled, selecting 36 representative poets of the middle Heian and giving 3-10 poems each. The 36 chosen are called the “36 Poetry Immortals (Sanjūrokkasen)”, and later became the standard poet list.

Main selections:

• Ki no Tsurayuki (Kokinshū editor)
• Ōshikōchi no Mitsune (Kokinshū editor)
• Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (greatest of the Man’yō)
• Yamabe no Akahito (Man’yō, nature poet)
• Ariwara no Narihira (Six Poetry Immortals, poet of love)
• Ono no Komachi (Six Poetry Immortals, poet of love)
• Bishop Henjō (Six Poetry Immortals, ordained priest)
• Izumi Shikibu — middle-Heian woman poet of love
• Murasaki Shikibu — author of The Tale of Genji, excellent poet too
• Sei Shōnagon — author of Makura no Sōshi
• Priest Nōin — travel poet
• and 25 others

The Sanjūrokunin-sen institutionalized the ranking of poets, and formed later traditions of the “36 Poetry Immortals” paintings and shrine plaques.

Kintō’s Own Representative Poem (Shūi vol. 1, 42)

“Taki no oto wa / taete hisashiku / narinuredo / na koso nagarete / nao kikoekere”

• Though long ago the sound of the waterfall has ceased, the name still flows and can even now be heard

Composed on visiting the old waterfall site at Daikaku-ji. Kakekotoba “oto = flow of sound” and “na = flow of name” overlay: past splendor remains as words. Hyakunin Isshu No. 55.

Izumi Shikibu — Woman Poet of Passionate Love

Izumi Shikibu (dates unknown, active 970s-1030s) was a middle-Heian woman poet. One of the 36 Poetry Immortals. With passionate and direct love poems, she is one of the peaks of the Heian women poets.

Life — Amorous Life

• Married Tachibana no Michisada, governor of Izumi (whence “Izumi Shikibu”)
• Fell in love with Prince Tametaka, third son of Emperor Reizei
• After the prince’s death, fell in love with his younger brother Prince Atsumichi
• After the death of Prince Atsumichi, served Empress Shōshi (same court as Murasaki Shikibu)
• Remarried Fujiwara no Yasumasa

These affairs are depicted in Izumi Shikibu Nikki (whether by her or another is debated).

Representative Poem 1: The Heat of Love (Goshūi vol. 12, 763)

“Arazaramu / kono yo no hoka no / omoide ni / ima hitotabi no / au koto mogana”

• arazaramu — I will probably no longer exist
• kono yo no hoka no omoide ni — as a memory of a world beyond this one
• ima hitotabi no au koto mogana — I wish to meet once more, now

Even as the death premonition rises, she wants to meet her love once more. The direct wish “au koto mogana (I wish to meet)” is exceptionally frank for a Heian woman’s poem. Hyakunin Isshu No. 56.

Representative Poem 2: Firefly and Soul (Goshūi vol. 20, 1162)

“Mono omoeba / sawa no hotaru mo / waga mi yori / akugare izuru / tama ka to zo miru”

When I am absorbed in longing, even the fireflies of the marsh look like souls departing from my own body. A famous poem that concretizes the Heian idea of “akugaru” (the soul departs from the body) in the anguish of love.

Izumi Shikibu’s Style

• Direct wishing in love — exceptional frankness for a woman poet
• Separation of body and soul — frequent themes of “akugaru,” disappearing, dying
• Passion over technique — techniques such as kakekotoba are used, but passion is at the fore
• Passion of an intellectual court lady — as a member of Empress Shōshi’s salon, rich in education too

Murasaki Shikibu in her Nikki writes of Izumi Shikibu with somewhat sharp praise: “There are objectionable aspects, but when she opens up and dashes off letters, the scent of a person of that talent shows in even careless words.”

Priest Nōin — Poet of Travel

Nōin (988-c. 1050) was a middle-Heian monk-poet. Lay name Tachibana no Nagayasu. Ordained young, he traveled to Mutsu (Tōhoku) and Iyo (Shikoku) and other places to compose — a founding figure of the travel poet.

He is the source of the lineage of traveling poets that continues later through Saigyō (12th century), Sōgi (15th century), and Bashō (17th century).

Representative Poem 1: Journey to Mutsu (Goshūi vol. 9, 518)

“Miyako wo ba / kasumi to tomo ni / tachishikado / akikaze zo fuku / Shirakawa no seki”

• I set out from the capital together with the spring mist
• (Now) the autumn wind blows at the Shirakawa Barrier (the gateway to Mutsu)

Departing the capital in spring and arriving at the Shirakawa Barrier of Mutsu in autumn — a long journey condensed through the contrast of “mist (spring)” and “autumn wind.” A famous poem that was once considered for Hyakunin Isshu No. 69.

Representative Poem 2: Autumn Leaves of Mount Mimuro (Goshūi vol. 5, 366)

“Arashi fuku / Mimuro no yama no / momijiba wa / Tatsutagawa no / nishiki narikeri”

The autumn leaves of Mount Mimuro under a stormy wind were the brocade of the Tatsuta River. Responding to Ariwara no Narihira’s “Chihayaburu / kamiyo mo kikazu / Tatsutagawa,” Nōin recomposes Narihira’s flashy Tatsuta River in a calmer “brocade.” Hyakunin Isshu No. 69.

Nōin’s Legends

Traditions about Nōin include:

• Nōin utamakura — a dictionary of utamakura (places sung of in poetry) Nōin compiled
• A rumor of staged travel — the suspicion that he wrote poems at home about lands he had not actually visited (no clear basis)
• Influence of Narihira, Motozane and other earlier poets — establishment of the style of visiting the remains of earlier poets to compose

Nōin was a poet who established “land” as material for poems, and this connects to the later “utamakura pilgrimages” of Saigyō and Bashō.

Sagami — A Woman Poet

Sagami (998?-1061?) was a middle-Heian woman poet. Wife of Ōe no Kinshiro, governor of Sagami (whence “Sagami”). One of the 36 Poetry Immortals.

Representative Poem (Goshūi vol. 14, 815)

“Uramiwabi / hosanu sode dani / aru mono wo / koi ni kuchinamu / na koso oshikere”

• Even to have sleeves that do not dry (with tears) is one thing
• What is truly bitter is that my name should decay through love

Even to have sleeves wet with sorrow-tears is a thing to be borne, but more than the sorrow of love, she regrets that love will damage her reputation — a poem in the manner of a court lady. Hyakunin Isshu No. 65.

Fujiwara no Shunzei — Editor of the Senzai, Germ of Yūgen

Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114-1204) was a representative poet of the late Heian to early Kamakura. Father of Fujiwara no Teika. In 1188 he compiled the Senzai Wakashū.

Shunzei’s importance is twofold:

1. Proposal of the aesthetic of “yūgen” — the germ of the Shinkokin’s central aesthetic of “expressing without expressing everything, leaving lingering feeling”
2. He raised the successor Teika — Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241) becomes editor of the Shinkokinshū

Representative Poem (Senzai vol. 17, 1148)

“Yo no naka yo / michi koso nakere / omoi iru / yama no oku ni mo / shika zo naku naru”

In this world, there is no way (of salvation). Even in the depths of the mountain where I have retreated, the deer are crying. A sense of impermanence: even in the mountain far from the world, there is the sound of grief. Hyakunin Isshu No. 83.

The Thought of “Yūgen”

Shunzei, in the poetics Korai Fūtei-shō (1197), (drawing on Tsurayuki’s Kana Preface) argues “song is heart as seed, words as flower,” especially valuing “yūgen” — beauty that does not express everything, that is deeply dim, that has lingering feeling.

This becomes the basis of the Shinkokin aesthetic of Teika and Retired Emperor Go-Toba to come.

The 200 Years Connecting Kintō to Teika

In the 300 years from the Kokinshū’s Tsurayuki (10th century) to the Shinkokinshū’s Teika (13th century), the middle-Heian poets Fujiwara no Kintō (11th century), Izumi Shikibu (11th century), Priest Nōin (11th century), Fujiwara no Shunzei (late 12th century) served as bridging figures.

They:

• Carried on the Kokin’s technique
• Delved more deeply into individual feeling (Izumi Shikibu)
• Established the poetry of travel and land (Nōin)
• Made the germ of the yūgen aesthetic (Shunzei)

These fruits crystallize in Fujiwara no Teika and Retired Emperor Go-Toba’s Shinkokin Wakashū (1205).

Toward the Next Article

In the late Heian to early Kamakura, the Shinkokin Wakashū (1205) is compiled by imperial decree of Retired Emperor Go-Toba. The editors are five, centered on Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241). The aesthetics of “yūgen” and “yojō” reach their peak, and the travel poems of Saigyō, the introspective love poems of Princess Shokushi, and Teika’s own abstract scenery stand side by side. The next article traces the Shinkokinshū and Fujiwara no Teika.