Kokin Wakashu
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An imperially ordered anthology of Japanese verse comes with a preface in Japanese arguing that poetry begins in the human heart, the first sustained work of criticism in the language.
- a preface in Japanese claiming literary seriousness for native verse
- arrangement by season and by the progress of a love affair
- imperial commission legitimising kana as an official medium
- poetry derived from feeling rather than from learning
The collection's eleven hundred poems are arranged by season and by the stages of love, an ordering that itself became a convention. Tsurayuki's Japanese preface claims for native verse a seriousness previously granted only to Chinese poetry, describing poetry as growing from the heart like a seed and taking the form of words. Compiling it by imperial command settled that Japanese, written in kana, was a fit medium for official literary culture.
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