The Classical Poetry of the Japanese

trigue with the Empress) to the then uncultured regions of Eastern Japan is given in the "Ise Monogatari," the most elegant of the prose classics of the country. Narihira is noted for his conciseness and frequent obscurity. Tsurayuki says of him, "Narihira's stanzas are so pregnant with meaning that the words suffice not to express it. He is like a closed flower that hath lost its colour, but whose fragrance yet remaineth.”

NIBI Taifu (individual name not known). No particulars of this poet have been handed down.

OHOGIMI (NUKADA no OHOGIMI) was sister-in-law to the Prime Minister Prince Kamatari, and mistress successively of the Mikados Teñji and Teñmu. She flourished in the seventh century.

OKIKAZE (FUJIHARA no OKIKAZE) held subordinate posts in the government of the provinces of Shimofusa and Sagami. We find mention of him as late as A.D. 914.

OKURA (YAMAGAMI no OKURA) was an officer in the revenue department, and afterwards Governor of the province of Chikuzen. He flourished during the first half of the eighth century.

SAKANOUHE (OHOTOмO SAKANOUHE no Iratsume*) was daughter of the Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Saho Dainagoñ Ohotomo no Yasumaro. She married the Viceroy of the island of Tsukushi,+ and was both aunt and mother-in-law of the celebrated poet Yakamochi. Her own compositions are much esteemed by the native critics. She flourished during the first half of the eighth century.

SAKIMARO (TANABE no SAKIMARO) was an officer in

* Iratsume was the honorific appellation for ladies of high rank.
+ Called in modern times Shikoku.

the Mikado's Wine Bureau, as we learn by a reference to him in the eighteenth volume of the "Collection of a Myriad Leaves," where he is mentioned as having been sent on business to Yakamochi, Governor of the province of Koshi, in the year 748.

SEKIWO (FUJIHARA no SEKIWO) seems to have held the posts of President of the Board of Rites, Chief Lay Official of the Shintau temples at Ise, and Governor of the province of Shimotsuke during the reign of the Mikado Buntoku (A.D. 851-858).

SHIYAUMU* (SHIYAUMU Teñwau, AME-SHIRUSHIKUNI-OSHI-HIRAKI-TOYO-SAKURA-HIKO no Mikoto) was the forty-sixth Mikado, and reigned from A.D. 724 to 756. As stated in the Introduction, it is to the reign of this prince that the "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves" must almost certainly be referred.

SOSEI (SOSEI Hofushi, i.e., the Buddhist priest Sosei; his original name as a layman was Yoshimine no Hironobu) flourished in the latter part of the ninth century, and is said to have been the son of the more illustrious poet, the Buddhist Bishop Heñzeu, who had been married prior to his entry into religion. Sosei himself was abbot of the monastery of Riyauiñwiñ at Isonokami, a famous religious centre in the province of Yamato.

TADAMINE (NIBU† no TADAMINE). Nothing certain

* Mikados are always known, not by their personal, but by their posthumous names, for which reason, and on account of the unmanageable length of the personal name, the posthumous name has been adopted in the text, and is here, for the sake of clearness, printed in small capitals. Tenwau is the designation of the imperial dignity, meaning, as it does literally, "Emperor of Heaven." Mikoto is equivalent to our title of Highness or Majesty, and is also applied to the gods.

+ Commonly, but incorrectly, called MIBU.

is known of Tadamine but the fact of his having been one of Tsurayuki's three coadjutors in the work of editing the "Odes Ancient and Modern." He is said to have died in 965 at the age of ninety-nine.

TOSHIYUKI (FUJIHARA no TOSHIYUKI Ason), during his short life of seven-and-twenty years held successive important posts in the Imperial Guard, and died in or about A.D. 907. To his other talents he joined the, in Japan, highly prized one, of caligraphy.

TSURAYUKI (KI no TSURAYUKI). The noble house of Ki claimed descent from the Mikado Kaugeñ through Takeusuchi Sukune, the Methusaleh of Japan. Tsurayuki's own history is but a catalogue of the important official posts to which he was raised, and of brilliant literary achievements. He was successively head of the Official Department of Literature, Private Secretary in Chief to the Mikado, Governor of the province of Tosa, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Supervisor of the Imperial Constructions. He died in A.D. 946 at the age of sixty-two. Though much admired as a poet,* his chief glory is that of having been the first prosaist in his native tongue, all prose compositions up to that time, excepting a few liturgies and edicts, having been made in Chinese, or what passed for such. The prose works by which he is best known are, the "Tosa Niki," a charmingly simple and lifelike account of his voyage home by junk from Tosa to the capital, and the extremely elegant Preface to the "Collection of Odes Ancient and Modern," the gathering together and editing of which was intrusted to him and to three other literary men of the period, by the Mikado Daigo.

YAKAMOCHI (Chiyuunagoñ ОHOTOмO no Sukune YAKAMOCHI), the most favourite of the ancient poets with the

* The present writer considers him to be, in point of versification, the sweetest of all the poets of Japan.

modern Japanese, was son of the Prime Minister Tabiudo and grandson of the Prime Minister Yasumaro. He was successively Governor of the province of Koshi, and Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief of the then unsettled country in the east and north of the Empire. He died in A.D. 785.

YASUHIDE (BUNYA no YASUHIDE) was vice-director of the Imperial Bureau of Fabrics, and likewise occupied a post in the administration of the province of Sagami. He flourished during the latter part of the ninth century.

YOSHIKI (WONO no YOSHIKI) is said to have been an excellent Chinese scholar, and to have died in A.D. 902.

YUKIHIRA (Chiyuunagoй ARIHARA no YUKIHIRA Asoň) was half-brother to the more celebrated Narihira, whom he surpassed in practical ability. He died in A.D. 893 at the age of seventy-five, after having occupied distinguished posts under six successive Mikados.

ZHIYOMEI* (ZHIYOMEI Teñwau, TAMURA or OKI-NAGATARASHI-HI-HIRO-NUKA no Mikoto) was the thirty-fifth Mikado, and reigned from A.D. 629 to 641.

* See note to SHIYAUMU.

APPENDIX IV.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES TO FACILITATE REFERENCE TO THE JAPANESE ORIGINALS IN THE 'COLLECTION OF A MYRIAD LEAVES."

[The pages referred to are those of the "Riyakuge" edition.]

Across the bridge with scarlet lacquer glowing
Alas! poor mortal maid, unfit to hold