Shin Kokin Wakashū

The Shin Kokin Wakashū (新古今和歌集^?, "New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern"), also known in abbreviated form as the Shin Kokinshū (新古今集^?) or even conversationally as the Shin Kokin, is the eighth imperial anthology of waka poetry compiled by the Japanese court, beginning with the Kokin Wakashū circa 905 and ending with the Shinshokukokin Wakashū circa 1439. The name can be literally translated as "New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems" and bears an intentional resemblance to that of the first anthology. Together with the Man'yōshū and the Kokinshū, the Shin Kokinshū is widely considered to be one of the three most influential poetic anthologies in Japanese literary history. It was commissioned in 1201 by the retired emperor Go-Toba (r 1183-1198), who established a new Bureau of Poetry at his Nijō palace with eleven Fellows, headed by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, for the purpose of conducting poetry contests and compiling the anthology. Despite its emphasis on contemporary poets, the Shin Kokinshū covered a broader range of poetic ages than the Kokinshū, including ancient poems that the editors of the first anthology had deliberately excluded. It was officially presented in 1205, on the 300th anniversary of the completion of the Kokinshū.

Although Go-Toba retained veto power over the poems included in the anthology as well as the order in which they were presented, he assigned the task of compilation to six of the Fellows of the Bureau of Poetry. These were Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241), Fujiwara no Ariie (1155–1216), Fujiwara no Ietaka (1158–1237), Jakuren (c. 1139-1202), Minamoto no Michitomo (1171–1237) and Asukai Masatsune (1170–1221). The anthology was also given a preface in Japanese prose by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune and a preface in Chinese—the scholarly language of the Court—by Fujiwara no Chikatsune, in a manner reminiscent of the Kokinshū.

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