1 Introduction to the Kokinshū The Kokin wakashū, or Kokinshū, is a collection of 1,111 Japanese poems (waka), that was compiled and presented to Emperor Daigo (r. 897-930) in the early 10th century. Its main compiler was the famous poet Ki no Tsurayuki (872?-945?), who also wrote the Kana Preface to the collection and included ninety-nine of his own poems. Literally, Kokin wakashū means “Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese poems.” The Japanese poem, waka or uta, is a 31 syllable form in five measures in a pattern of 5/7/5/7/7 syllables, and was so called to distinguish it from shi, Chinese poetry, which was also commonly practiced by the Heian court. One of the objectives of the Kokinshū was to bring waka to the forefront of the cultural life of the imperial court. The collection is therefore an attempt to create a normative source of poetic associations, motifs, and styles, which would become a standard for composing poetry. It thus includes poems that are representative of a particular topic (eg. “cherry blossoms,” “deer,” “moon”), and/or representative in style, and/or composed by famous poets (both “ancient” and “modern”). The Kokinshū also sets up narrative sequences that affect the meaning of each individual poem by placing it in a particular context relative to other poems. This is a brief selection of twenty-four poems, from Volumes 1-2 (Spring), 4-5 (Autumn) and 11-15 (Love). 2 Volumes 1-2 (Spring) Composed on a day when spring arrived in the old year Ariwara no Motokata 1 Spring has arrived before the end of the year: the year to date, are we to call it “last year”? or do we call it “this year” 1 1 The Heian court used a combination of a lunar calendar to count the months and a solar calendar to mark the seasons. The solar calendar year was made up of 24 seasonal periods of 15 days to make a year of 360 days (which was adjusted periodically to match the actual solar year of 365.2422 days). The lunar calendar year was made up of 12 months of 29.5 days (alternating months of 29 and 30 days) to total 354 days. Because the two calendars are 6 days apart, every two or three years an extra intercalary month would be added to the lunar calendar to adjust it to the solar year. This meant that in years with twelve lunar months the lunar New Year would always arrive before the solar New Year, but in years when intercalary months were used the first day of spring (the beginning of the solar year) would arrive— somewhat paradoxically—before the end of the lunar year. This is the circumstance described in the poem. While the paradox is the result of adjusting the calendar, it produces a (somewhat exaggerated, given that it occurred every two or three years) disconcerting feeling of celebrating the beginning of spring before the lunar new year (the first day of the f ...