The Shinkokin Wakashū and Fujiwara no Teika — Peak of *Yūgen* and *Yojō*, Summit of Medieval Waka

The Position of the Shinkokin Wakashū

The Shinkokin Wakashū was compiled by imperial decree of Retired Emperor Go-Toba (1180-1239) in 1205 (Genkyū 2), the 8th imperial anthology. Three hundred years after the Heian’s Kokin Wakashū (905), it forms the peak of medieval waka.

20 volumes in total, about 1,978 poems. The editors were six:

• Fujiwara no Teika (Sadaie) — chief editor, son of Fujiwara no Shunzei
• Fujiwara no Ariie
• Asukai no Masatsune
• Minamoto no Michitomo
• Jakuren
• Fujiwara no Ietaka

Retired Emperor Go-Toba himself continued editorial interventions called “kiritsugi” (replacing poems by his own decision even after completion), and it is said that the actual completion may have been around 1216.

“Yūgen” and “Yojō” — the Peak of Aesthetic

The aesthetic of the Shinkokinshū develops “yūgen” — proposed by Fujiwara no Shunzei (Teika’s father) in the Senzai Wakashū (1188) — as “yojō” (lingering feeling) deepened further by Teika.

Yūgen

• Express without expressing everything, leaving deep dimness
• The boundary “visible yet not visible,” “audible yet not audible”
• Borrowed from the Chinese Buddhist term “yūgen” (the deep teachings of the Buddha)

Yojō (Lingering Feeling)

• Leave feeling not fully spoken behind the words
• Space for the reader to complete with imagination
• Layered sounds, images, and atmospheres above clear meaning

Representative Beauty of the Shinkokin — the Three Twilight Poems (Sanseki no Uta)

Especially famous within the Shinkokinshū are the three poems ending in “aki no yūgure” (autumn dusk):

“Sabishisa wa / sono iro to shi mo / nakarikeri / maki tatsu yama no / aki no yūgure” (Jakuren)

The loneliness has no particular color. Autumn dusk in the mountain where the maki (evergreen) trees stand. Because the mountain is evergreen there are no autumn leaves either, no special scene — and yet there is loneliness — abstract “loneliness with no color.”

“Kokoro naki / mi ni mo aware wa / shirarekeri / shigi tatsu sawa no / aki no yūgure” (Saigyō)

Even a body without heart (=I, the ordained) knows sorrow. Autumn dusk of the marsh where a snipe rises. Feeling that moves even in a monk removed from the world — the signature poem of Saigyō, treated in the next article.

“Miwataseba / hana mo momiji mo / nakarikeri / ura no tomaya no / aki no yūgure” (Teika)

Looking out, there was neither flower nor autumn leaf. Autumn dusk of the poor thatched hut on the shore. To find beauty in a scene where nothing showy remains — the germ of Teika’s “wabi-sabi.”

All three end with “aki no yūgure” (autumn dusk), and compose the beauty that arises within negation and lack — “nothing,” “unseen,” “unknown.” This is the core aesthetic of the Shinkokin.

Fujiwara no Teika — Life of the Chief Editor

Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241) was a representative poet of the late Heian to early Kamakura. His father was Fujiwara no Shunzei, editor of the Senzai Wakashū; his son was Fujiwara no Tameie, who led the poetry scene after Shinkokin. He is the core of three generations of a poet’s household.

Life — Between Politics and Poetry

• Born in Kyoto in 1162
• From his youth gained fame as a poet; in his 20s at the center of the poetic scene
• 1201, summoned by Retired Emperor Go-Toba, took part in compiling the Shinkokinshū
• 1235, single-handedly compiled the Shinchokusen Wakashū (the 9th imperial anthology)
• Meigetsuki — a 55-year diary from Teika’s age 19 to 74
• 1241, died at 80

Teika received the elite training of a poet from Shunzei, and drew attention from a young age with his radical style. On the other hand, his temperament was fierce, and he had long spells of political disfavor, including house arrest stemming from a clash with Retired Emperor Go-Toba.

Teika’s Poetics — Kindai Shūka and Maigetsu-shō

Teika left multiple poetics:

• Kindai Shūka (c. 1209) — a beginner’s manual in the form of a letter to Sanetomo
• Maigetsu-shō (c. 1219) — a systematic poetics at Teika’s age 58
• Eiga Taigai (undated) — the essentials of composition

Claims:

1. “Follow the old in words, seek the new in heart, aspire to a high posture beyond your reach” — words yearn for old tradition, heart seeks new expression
2. Honkadori — composing while intentionally alluding to a past famous poem (not mere imitation but drawing the feeling of the original into the new poem)
3. Ten Postures (jittei) — style-classification of ten types such as yūgen-yō, chōkō-yō, and so on

Teika’s Representative Poems

Representative Poem 1: The Bridge of a Spring Dream (Shinkokinshū 1, 38)

“Haru no yo no / yume no ukihashi / todaeshite / mine ni wakaruru / yokogumo no sora”

• haru no yo no yume no ukihashi — a floating bridge of a spring-night’s dream (borrowing the chapter title from The Tale of Genji)
• todaeshite — breaking off
• mine ni wakaruru yokogumo no sora — a sky of side clouds parting from the peak

The moment the dream breaks off is overlaid on side clouds parting from the peak. Borrowing the topic of the final chapter of The Tale of Genji, “Yume no Ukihashi,” through honkadori, and drawing an entirely different scene. The summit of medieval waka technique.

Representative Poem 2: One of the Three Twilight Poems (Shinkokinshū 4, 363)

“Miwataseba / hana mo momiji mo / nakarikeri / ura no tomaya no / aki no yūgure”

One of the three twilight poems above. Autumn dusk of the poor thatched hut on the shore, with neither showy flower nor autumn leaf. Beauty arising within the negation “nakarikeri (there was none)” — the germ of the later wabi-sabi aesthetic.

Representative Poem 3: The Cherry and Moon (Shinkokinshū 2, 111)

“Koma tomete / sode uchi harau / kage mo nashi / Sano no watari no / yuki no yūgure”

Stopping the horse, no shade even to brush the snow from my sleeve. Snowy dusk at the Sano crossing. Honkadori: alluding to the Man’yōshū’s “Kurushiku mo / furi-kuru ame ka / Kami no saki / Sano no watari ni / ie mo aranaku ni” (Nagano-imiki-no-Okimaro, vol. 3, 265) — changing rain to snow, autumn to winter, making an entirely different scene.

Representative Poem 4: Despair in Love (Shinkokinshū 12, 1130)

“Shirotae no / sode no wakare ni / tsuyu ochite / mi ni shimu iro no / akikaze zo fuku”

• shirotae no sode no wakare ni — at the parting with a pure-white sleeve
• tsuyu ochite — dew (=tears) falling
• mi ni shimu iro no akikaze zo fuku — an autumn wind blows with a color that soaks the body

Condenses the scene of a farewell morning in dew, autumn wind, and a soaking color. To find “color” in a colorless autumn wind — the abstraction typical of Teika.

Representative Poem 5: Hyakunin Isshu (Teika’s own selection)

“Konu hito wo / Matsuho no ura no / yūnagi ni / yaku ya moshio no / mi mo kogare tsutsu” (Teika’s own poem, Hyakunin Isshu No. 97)

• konu hito wo — the person who does not come
• Matsuho no ura — Matsuho Bay (coast of Awaji Island); kakekotoba “matsu (wait/pine)”
• yūnagi ni — at the calm evening
• yaku ya moshio no — like the burning seaweed salt
• mi mo kogare tsutsu — the body burning too

The kakekotoba “matsu (wait/pine-beach)”, and “kogare (burn)” which means both the seaweed salt and love — Teika’s show of technique. Overlays the yearning of love waiting on the smoke of seaweed-salt burning.

Honkadori — Teika’s Technique

Honkadori is a technique of consciously alluding to a past famous poem (honka, “source poem”) to write a new poem, borrowing the feeling of the original. Not mere imitation or plagiarism but a high-level citation providing readers who know the source with the layering of “the feeling of the source + the new situation.”

Example of Honkadori — Teika’s “Koma tomete”

Source: Nagano-imiki-no-Okimaro’s “Kurushiku mo / furi-kuru ame ka / Kami no saki / Sano no watari ni / ie mo aranaku ni” (Man’yōshū)

Okimaro’s poem: the hardship at the Sano crossing in rain, without a house

Teika’s poem (above): dusk with no shade at the Sano crossing in snow

The same place name (Sano crossing), the same “no house/no shade” structure, but rain → snow, day → dusk, a variation. Reading, one thinks of Okimaro’s Man’yō poem, and enters Teika’s new snowy scene. Two layers of feeling arise together.

Teika’s Principles of Honkadori (from Maigetsu-shō)

1. Choose an old, well-known source poem (Man’yō or Kokin representative poems, etc.)
2. Change the theme of the source (spring → autumn, love → parting, etc.)
3. Borrow only 2-3 words from the source; keep the rest new
4. Change the season or place of the source, making a different scene

These principles influence later waka, renga, and haikai (through Bashō’s “fueki ryūkō”).

The Meigetsuki — 55-Year Diary

Teika kept a 55-year diary in Chinese from age 19 (1180) to 74 (1235). This is Meigetsuki. In total, more than 300 volumes of enormous record.

Content

• Records of politics and court — the actual condition of the court from the late Heian to the early Kamakura
• Movements of the poetic scene — records of poetry gatherings and contests
• Family and everyday life — exchanges with his wife and sons, records of illness
• Astronomy — Teika was interested in astronomy, and even a record of the crab-nebula supernova of c. 1230 (present-day SN 1054) is included

Meigetsuki is a prime source for medieval waka, and also a globally important source for the history of astronomy — a rare document.

Characteristic Passages

Teika frankly wrote in his diary about frustration in the poetry world, clashes with Retired Emperor Go-Toba, complaints of ill health, and so on. “The moon is beautiful tonight too” or “I did not go to the gathering because I have a cold” — a way of writing close to a modern diary sensibility.

“The way of poetry is not a tool for the world; it is a tool for cleansing the heart” (a phrase in Meigetsuki, paraphrased) — he repeatedly declares his view of the purpose of poetry: not as an instrument of politics, but of clarifying the heart.

Retired Emperor Go-Toba and Teika — Rupture

During the compilation of the Shinkokinshū, Retired Emperor Go-Toba and Teika clashed repeatedly. The retired emperor continued to change poems after completion (kiritsugi); Teika insisted on the editor’s autonomy.

In 1220, Teika received a penalty of confinement (from Retired Emperor Go-Toba). The next year, in 1221, the Jōkyū War — Retired Emperor Go-Toba was defeated by the Kamakura bakufu and exiled to Oki. Teika escaped consequences by chance.

After that, Teika compiled his own Shinchokusen Wakashū (1235) by imperial decree of Emperor Go-Horikawa. It is a successor to the Shinkokin but an anthology excluding the shadow of Retired Emperor Go-Toba.

Significance of the Shinkokin Wakashū

1. Peak of Medieval Waka

The Shinkokinshū is the summit of technique-rich waka. Kakekotoba, engo, honkadori, mitate, and other techniques are used with the highest sophistication. The imperial anthologies after this (from Shinchokusen on) only imitate and continue the Shinkokin style, never reaching a new height.

2. Establishment of the Aesthetic of “Yūgen” and “Yojō”

The aesthetics of yūgen and yojō raised by Shunzei and Teika are inherited by later:

• Nō drama (the “yūgen” of Zeami’s Fūshi Kaden)
• Tea ceremony (the “wabi-sabi” of Sen no Rikyū)
• Haikai (Bashō’s “wabi”)

One of the core aesthetics of Japanese culture.

3. Tradition of Honkadori

Teika’s technique of honkadori secures the continuity of waka. Because one alludes to a past famous poem, a new poem becomes possible. This is the East Asian cultural stance of citation and creation, different from the Western notion of “originality.”

4. Teika’s Descendants — the Nijō, Kyōgoku, and Reizei Houses

Teika’s son Fujiwara no Tameie, and his descendants, split into the Nijō, Kyōgoku, and Reizei houses, and for the next 500 years bore the iemoto (household head) system of waka. The Reizei house continuing today is the direct line of Teika.

Toward the Next Article

The most individual poet in the Shinkokinshū is Saigyō (1118-1190). A former warrior (of the Northern Guard) who took the tonsure and spent his life in travel — the “sage of poetry.” “Kokoro naki mi ni mo aware wa shirarekeri shigi tatsu sawa no aki no yūgure” — the next article traces the life, journeys, and thought of Saigyō, who composed one of the three twilight poems.