KKS 52

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Text

染殿そめどのの后きさきの御前に花瓶がめに桜の花をささせ給へるを見てよめる　

In the presence of the Somedono Empress he saw a vase with a branch of cherry blossom in it, and read this

前太政大臣さきのおほきおほいまうちきみ

The Former Chancellor

年経れば齢は老いぬしかはあれど花をし見れば物思ひもなし

toshi fure-ba yowai wa oi-nu shika are-do hana o shi mire-ba monoomoi mo nashi

As the years advance I grow older in age. Though that is the case When I see this flower I have no worries at all.

Notes

Somedono Empress

Fujiwara no Akirakekio 藤原明子 (826-900). She was the daughter of Yoshifusa, the Empress of Emperor Montoku, and the mother of the future Emperor Seiwa.

The Former Chancellor

This is Fujiwara no Yoshifusa 藤原良房 (804-872). When his grandson became Emperor, he became the first Fujiwara regent; the beginning of their ascendance to power in the Heian court.

Other sources:

• Shinsen waka
• Shūka daitai | Teika hachidaishō

Analysis

This is a celebratory poem in which Yoshifusa compares his daughter to the cherry blossom, and her success in becoming Empress to the flower's blossoming. This poem was probably read the spring after the birth of the future Emperor Seiwa (in 852), and thus there is the suggestion of the glory of the "spring" (the 春宮, Heir Apparent) visiting Yoshifusa. The first two lines of the poem suggest a poem of lament or worry about aging, but the third line pivots to the joy of the last lines. In contrast to the previous poem, the poet here is able to take in the beauty of the blossoms with no hindrance.

The poem's expression requires the prose preface to be fully understood, which situates this poem closer to the poem-tale tradition than the formal public poem that so dominates the KKS.

Sakura_branch_(52013006251)

Yoshifusa was the first Fujiwara regent, and later sources like the Okagami and Konjaku Monogatari include this poem as an expression of the beginning of the glory of the Fujiwara dominance in the mid-Heian period court. However, an Edo period treatise by Nakanoin Michishige called Keiun mondō faults the poem for ignoring the Emperor in favor of Yoshifusa's own glory, thus foretelling the fall of the court's power and the rise of the military government.

The poem also appears in the Pillow Book, in a scene where Teishi asks her gentlewomen to write down the first ancient poem that comes to mind. Sei Shonagon writes this poem down, changing the fourth line to read "Your face, my lady," instead. This scene took place at the height of Teishi's power.

Finally, McCullough highlights this poem as a notable example of a high-ranking man using Japanese poetry rather than Chinese to express his feelings, during the period usually known as the "Dark Age of Public Waka" (see McCullough 198-199). She attributes this possibly to the greater allowance in Japanese verse for direct expression of feeling compared to the more indirect and allusive nature of contemporary Chinese verse.

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