Poetry Contest at the Residence of Fujiwara no Tsunehira

Poetry contests are a game in which poets divide into two teams, called “left” and “right,” and compose poems on a set theme. In each round of the contest, a poet from each team composes a poem, which is then judged. They were a popular pastime among the aristocracy from the 9th to the 12th century. Records of poetry contests were also compiled and given to skilled calligraphers to make copies of. This scroll is part of a record of a poetry contest held at the home of a nobleman named Fujiwara no Tsunehira. It is thought to have been a rough draft based on the fact that it is written on plain, ruled paper. The poetry contest was held at Tsunehira’s home on March 19th, 1086. The poets competed on a total of ten themes—two themes each relating to spring, summer, fall, and winter, as well as one on love and another on celebration.

The poets’ names are not recorded. The poems were judged by Tsunehira’s son, Michitoshi. For each theme, he recorded the poems composed, noted the winner, and then added his reasons for the judgement. If you look closely at the way the poems composed under the first theme are written, you can see a difference in the thickness of the lines and the way ink blotted. A different person took over the writing duties at this point. We know that multiple people took part in transcribing records of poetry contests, and that some records, like this example, were written by two people.

— Museum description: Tokyo National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.