Classic Japanese Poetry

THE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE POETRY

Compiled sometime after 759, the oldest poetic anthology of waka is the 20 volume Man'yōshū, in the early part of the Heian period, it gathered ancient works. The order of its sections is roughly chronological. Most of the works in the Man'yōshū have a fixed form today called chōka and tanka. But earlier works, especially in Volume I, lacked such fixed form and were attributed to Emperor Yūryaku. In In the middle of the Heian period (905) Waka revived with the compilation of the Kokin Wakashū. It was edited on the order of Emperor Daigo. About 1,000 waka, mainly from the late Nara period till the contemporary times, were anthologized by five waka poets in the court including Ki no Tsurayuki who wrote the kana preface (仮名序 kanajo)

The Kana preface to Kokin Wakashū was the second earliest expression of literary theory and criticism in Japan (the earliest was by Kūkai). Kūkai's literary theory was not influential, but Kokin Wakashū set the types of waka and hence other genres which would develop from waka.  Emperor Daigo assigned a group of famous poets , led by Ki and Tsurayuki, to compose a new anthology, which is called Kokinwakash. A collection of old and new Japanese songs, but is better known as Kokinishu.