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13th century AD
Criticism, Spring, 1997 by James A. Wren
(2.) There are a total of twenty-one chokusen wakashu, or imperial anthologies. The first, the Kokinwakashu, was compiled in 905 under the aegis of the Wakadokoro, the Imperial Office of Poetry, and includes some 1100 poems; the final anthology, the Shinzokukokinshu, was completed in 1439 and includes over 2100 poems. To be selected to compile such an anthology represented the pinnacle of one's career at court; prestige is the name of the game here. Tameie's grandfather Toshinari had been ordered to compile the seventh imperial anthology, the Senzaishu, while his father Sadaie was commissioned first in 1201 by retired emperor Go-Toba to compile the eighth imperial anthology, the Shinkokinshu, and again in 1232 to compile the ninth, the Shinchokusenshu. Continuing the hereditary lineage of the poetic tradition, Tameie had been ordered by the retired emperor Go-Saga to compile the tenth imperial anthology, the Shokugosenshu, in 1248, and the eleventh, the Shokukokinshu, in 1259.
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(3.) For a detailed treatment in English of the historical records of the Mikohidari (and later the Reizei) line, see Robert H. Bower, "The Reizei Family Documents" Monumenta Nipponica 36 (1981) 4: 445-61.
(4.) As the widely accepted judicial authority of the day, the Kamakura shogunate played an active role in the resolution of such disputes. The wheels of justice, however, need not always turn quickly, as this case illustrates. Within a decade, a judgment was rendered against Tamesuke's line, although some five years later in 1291, a secondary ruling granted his family the legal rights as caretakers (in opposition to direct ownership) of the Hosokawa Estate. Ironically, this decision would provide the legal basis for the family to continue their claims of ownership. It would take almost a century and a half before the courts would finally render a judgment in favor of Tamesuke's progeny. Whether the extraordinary length of time required is itself suitable commentary on the importance placed on this particular issue or its relative lack thereof in the eyes of the Kamakura government is quite another matter.
(5.) For examples of the standard interpretation of the Izayoi nikki, see the following: Eguchi Masahiro, "Izayoi nikki no denhon to seiritsu ni "suite," Kokugo to Kokubungaku (1972); Nakamura Kikuichi and Iwakabe Seikichi, Hiso kara wakaru nihon bungakushi (Tokyo: Nichieisha, 1982), 45; Tamai Kosuke, Nihon bungaku no kenkyu (Tokyo: Hanawa shobo, 1965); and Taniyama Shigeru, "Izayoi nikki seiritsu nendai kangae," Kokugo kokubun (1949).
(6.) See, for example, Fujimura Saku, Izayoi nikki, in Gendaigoyaku kokubungaku zenshu, vol. 8 (Tokyo: Iwanami bunko, 1937); and Kamazaki Keijiro, "Abutsu-ni no bungaku (toku ni `Izayoi nikki' ni oite)," Kokugo to kokubungaku 6 (1929) 10: 1917-40. Fukuda Hideichi has argued, however, that the Yakumo kuden, known among specialists as the Eiga no ittei ("The Foremost Style of Poetic Composition"), was written as an educational aid for his younger sons. See Fukuda Hideichi, Chusei wakashi no kenkyu [Tokyo: Kadogawa, 1972], 559-96. For an excellent English translation of the Eiga no ittei, see Robert H. Bower, "The Foremost Style of Poetic Composition: Fujiwara Tameie's Eiga no Ittei," Monumenta Nipponica 42 (1987) 4: 391-429.
