The Kokin Wakashū and Ki no Tsurayuki — 150 Years After the Man'yō, a Turn to Fine, Technique-Rich Aesthetic

The Position of the Kokin Wakashū

The Kokin Wakashū was compiled by imperial decree of Emperor Daigo in 905 (Engi 5) — the first imperially commissioned anthology (chokusen wakashū). From the Man’yōshū (compiled around 759), 150 years, in the middle Heian period.

20 volumes in total, about 1,100 poems. The editors were four: Ki no Tsurayuki, Ki no Tomonori, Ōshikōchi no Mitsune, and Mibu no Tadamine.

If the Man’yōshū was a “gathered-everything” comprehensive anthology, the Kokinshū is a “selected, refined” anthology. The formality of “imperial commission” born under imperial will created a tradition of 300 years and 21 imperial anthologies to follow.

From the Man’yō to the Kokin — 150 Years of Rupture and Turn

The Blank 150 Years (759-905)

From the Man’yōshū’s last poem (759, Ōtomo no Yakamochi) to the compilation of the Kokinshū, 150 years of blank. Waka was composed in private venues of aristocratic society during this time, but no public anthology was compiled. Reasons:

• Emperor Saga’s Chinese-poetry preference (809-823) — compilation of Chinese-poetry anthologies such as Ryōunshū and Bunka Shūreishū as state projects
• Waka went underground — male aristocrats used Chinese poetry in public and waka in private (love exchanges and the like) — the two divided
• Kana not yet established — hiragana and katakana emerged in the late 9th century; before that, recording waka was difficult

The Turning Era (890s-900s)

Change comes in the late 9th century:

• Spread of kana — hiragana makes daily writing of waka possible
• Emperor Uda’s (887-897) encouragement of waka — the emperor himself composed waka and held utaawase (poetry contests)
• Activity of the Six Poetry Immortals — Ariwara no Narihira, Ono no Komachi, and others active in the late 9th century
• Emperor Daigo’s (897-930) accession — the beginning of the golden age of Heian culture

These converged in the 905 compilation of the Kokinshū.

The Aesthetic of the Kokinshū — Contrasted with the Man’yō

Element	Man’yōshū (c. 759)	Kokinshū (905)
Total	about 4,500	about 1,100
Range of contributors	emperors to sakimori	mostly aristocracy
Writing	man’yōgana (kanji-borrowed)	hiragana (even the “Kana Preface” is hiragana)
Rhythm	go-shichi-chō (5-7 / 5-7 / 7)	shichi-go-chō (5 / 7-5 / 7-7)
Style	simple, direct, big scenes	fine, technique-rich, interior
Subjects	nature, love, elegy (broad)	four seasons, love, miscellaneous (narrow)
Techniques	mostly makura-kotoba, jokotoba	kakekotoba, engo, mitate developed
Aesthetic	masuraoburi (Kamo no Mabuchi)	taoyameburi (Kamo no Mabuchi)

If the Man’yō composes “what it saw” in a great voice, the Kokin inscribes “what is felt” in a fine technique. This is not a mere shift of style but a fundamental turn of aesthetic accompanying the maturation of aristocratic culture.

Ki no Tsurayuki — Life of the Chief Editor

Ki no Tsurayuki (872?-945?) was the central figure of the Kokinshū compilation and its most important poet.

Background and Career

• The Ki clan — an old clan since the Yamato court, but a middle-ranking clan that declined amid the rise of the Fujiwara
• Various dates for birth and death; roughly around 872 for birth and around 945 for death is common
• From his youth he gained fame as a poet (active in the 890s utaawase of Emperor Uda)
• Governor of Tosa (930-934) — served in Tosa (present-day Kōchi)
• After returning to the capital, wrote the Tosa Nikki (935) — a great work of kana diary literature in the guise of a woman

Tsurayuki composed many poems throughout his life, with 104 in the Kokinshū — about 10% of the whole, showing his presence as editor.

Representative Poem 1: The Plum on a Spring Night (Kokinshū vol. 1, 42)

“Hito wa isa / kokoro mo shirazu / furusato wa / hana zo mukashi no / ka ni nioikeru”

• hito wa isa — as for people, well
• kokoro mo shirazu — I do not know their hearts
• furusato — (an old place I know, i.e., the inn at Hasedera)
• hana zo mukashi no ka ni nioikeru — the flowers still bloom with their old scent

When on a pilgrimage to Hasedera the host of the inn where Tsurayuki used to stay ironically said “It must be that your heart has changed,” Tsurayuki replied with this poem. “I do not know human hearts, but the plum blossoms still keep their old scent” — a contrast of human and nature, with subtle irony and feeling.

Representative Poem 2: Spring Haze (Kokinshū vol. 1, 22)

“Sakurabana / chirinuru kaze no / nagori ni wa / mizu naki sora ni / nami zo tachikeru”

As a lingering trace of the wind that scattered the cherry blossoms, waves were rising in the sky where there is no water. The cherry-blossom storm likened to “waves in the sky” — a mitate (likening) technique. An abstraction not found in the Man’yō, unique to the Kokin.

Representative Poem 3: Autumn Sorrow (Kokinshū vol. 5, 302)

“Omoitsutsu / nureba ya hito no / mietsuran / yume to shiriseba / samezaramashi wo”

Was it because I fell asleep still thinking of him that he appeared in my dream? If I had known it was a dream, I would not have awakened. A fine introspection that ruminates on a dream of love after waking. A representative love poem of Tsurayuki.

The Tosa Nikki — Ancestor of Kana Diaries

The Tosa Nikki records the 55-day journey (December 21, 935 to February 16, 936) of Tsurayuki’s return to the capital after his term as governor of Tosa.

Feature 1: “It is said that men write things called diaries; a woman will try one too”

With this opening sentence, Tsurayuki declares the literary device of writing in kana in the guise of a woman. In fact, Tsurayuki, a man, writes in a woman’s voice recording the journey.

Why the guise of a woman:

• At the time, men’s aristocratic diaries were written in Chinese as the official standard (e.g. Midō Kanpaku-ki)
• Tsurayuki wanted to write daily feeling in Japanese (kana)
• He borrowed the fiction of “a woman’s diary” to test the possibility of kana literature as a man

Feature 2: Mourning a Deceased Daughter

His young daughter had died in Tosa, and even on the boat home Tsurayuki keeps thinking of her. This is the emotional core of the Tosa Nikki.

“Miyako he to / omou mono no / kanashiki wa / kaeranu hito no / areba narikeri”

Even thinking “back to the capital” is sad, because there is one who cannot return (my dead daughter). Grief for the daughter runs through all 55 days of the diary, pouring the feeling of the individual into a kana diary.

Influence

The Tosa Nikki:

• Forerunner of the Heian women’s diary literature — precedent for Kagerō Nikki, Izumi Shikibu Nikki, Murasaki Shikibu Nikki
• Demonstrates the possibility of kana prose — opens the way to The Tale of Genji (c. 1000)
• Establishes the world of private kana as distinct from public Chinese prose

The Kana Preface — Japan’s First Poetics

The Kana Preface appended to the head of the Kokinshū is Japan’s first poetics, written by Tsurayuki. A landmark essay discussing “what is waka” in kana.

Famous Opening

“Yamato-uta wa, hito no kokoro wo tane to shite, yorozu no kotoba to zo nareri keru”

“Japanese poetry (yamato-uta) grows from the human heart as its seed and becomes the ten thousand leaves of words.” It defines waka as “kotonoha (leaves of words = natural expression that grows from the heart)”. This metaphor is the core of Japanese poetics for the next 1000 years.

Evaluation of the Six Poetry Immortals

In the Kana Preface, Tsurayuki criticizes six poets (the Six Poetry Immortals) of his own (slightly earlier) generation:

• Bishop Henjō — “In form well done, but little sincerity”
• Ariwara no Narihira — “The heart has too much, the words are not enough”
• Fun’ya no Yasuhide — “Words are skilled but form does not carry the substance”
• Kisen the priest — “Words obscure, beginning and end uncertain”
• Ono no Komachi — “Moving in a sad way, but not strong”
• Ōtomo no Kuronushi — “The form is low; as one might say, like a mountain man carrying firewood, resting under a flower”

These criticisms seem too harsh from a modern viewpoint, but the significance of establishing waka as an object of criticism is great. Tsurayuki evaluates the previous generation from the standard of his own style (fine and technique-rich).

“Rikugi” (Six Kinds)

The Kana Preface borrows the “six kinds” (fū, ga, sō, fu, hi, kō) of the Chinese Book of Songs and argues that waka has six styles too. This is an attempt to give waka the prestige of Chinese classics.

The Composition of the Kokinshū — 20 Volumes’ Design

The Kokinshū clearly designs its 20 volumes:

Vol.	Content
1-2	Spring poems I, II
3	Summer poems
4-5	Autumn poems I, II
6	Winter poems
7	Congratulatory poems
8	Parting poems
9	Travel poems
10	Wordplay (mononoka) poems
11-15	Love poems I-V
16	Lament poems
17-18	Miscellaneous I, II
19	Miscellaneous forms (chōka etc.)
20	Ōutadokoro poems (official verses)

Four seasons in 6 volumes + love in 5 volumes is the core. Far more finely divided than the Man’yō’s tripartite classification (miscellaneous, love, elegy), especially institutionalizing the four seasons and love as themes. This becomes the standard composition of the 21 later imperial anthologies.

Significance of Tsurayuki and the Kokinshū

1. Establishment of Kana Literature

Through the Kana Preface and the Tosa Nikki, Tsurayuki established the expression of thought and feeling in kana. This connects to The Tale of Genji (Murasaki Shikibu) and Makura no Sōshi (Sei Shōnagon) of the Heian women’s literature.

2. Tradition of Imperial Anthologies

Following the Kokinshū as precedent, over the next 300 years and 8 centuries, 21 imperial waka anthologies were compiled (Gosen Wakashū, Shūi Wakashū, Shinkokinshū, and so on). Imperial anthologies are the institution that links imperial authority to waka.

3. Establishment of the Technique-Rich Aesthetic

Kakekotoba, engo, mitate, honkadori — the techniques developed in the Kokinshū reach their peak in the Shinkokinshū (1205). Tsurayuki’s style is the seed and model of this.

4. Beginning of “Poetics” as an Enterprise

The Kana Preface is Japan’s first systematic poetics. From then on, the tradition of poetics continues: Fujiwara no Kintō’s Shinsen Zuinō (c. 1000), Fujiwara no Shunzei’s Korai Fūtei-shō (1197), Teika’s Maigetsu-shō (early 13th century).

Reception in Later Ages

Age of Praise (Heian to Kamakura)

The Kokinshū was a standard. Even the editors of the Shinkokin — Fujiwara no Shunzei and Teika — started from studying the Kokinshū. Tsurayuki was praised as “the father of poetry.”

Age of Criticism (Meiji)

In 1892, Masaoka Shiki in Utayomi ni Atauru Sho (Letters to a Waka Poet) criticized the Kokinshū harshly:

“Tsurayuki wa heta-na uta-yomi nite Kokinshū wa kudaranu shū ni koreari-sōrō” (“Tsurayuki was a poor poet, and the Kokinshū is a worthless anthology”)

He rejected the technique-rich fineness of the Kokinshū as “worthless,” claiming the true nature of waka lay in the Man’yō’s strength. Groundwork for Shiki’s Man’yō-style revival (Araragi school).

Modern Reappraisal (Late 20th Century-)

After the late 20th century, the Kokinshū has been re-evaluated:

• Its technicality itself represents the maturity of Heian culture
• Tsurayuki’s fine feeling is another lineage of beauty, distinct from the Man’yō’s power
• The poetics of the Kana Preface is the foundation of Japanese literary history

The modern mainstream reconciles the Man’yō and Kokin sides, with a view placing the two side by side.

Toward the Next Article

The most individual poets in the Kokinshū are the “Six Poetry Immortals” (rokkasen). Especially Ariwara no Narihira’s amorous life and poems (825-880) and Ono no Komachi’s peerless-beauty legend and poems (dates unknown) — the two became symbols of Heian love stories and had great influence on the later Tales of Ise and Tale of Genji. The next article traces the Six Poetry Immortals, centered on Narihira and Komachi.