KKS 18

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One of Teika's manuscripts has 18 and 19 in the opposite order, and a few modern editions follow this ordering.

Text

[題しらず]

[Topic unknown]

[よみ人しらず]

[Poet unknown]

春日野の飛火の野守出でて見よ　今いくかありて若菜積みてん

kasugano no tobuhi no nomori ide-te miyo ima ikuka ari-te wakana tsumi-ten

O guardian of Tobuhi field in Kasuga Come forth and look! After how many more days Can we pick the young shoots?

Notes

Tobuhi field in Kasuga

A tobuhi is is a fire used to signal danger or warning across distances. The Shoku nihongi records such a signal fire being set up in Kasuga in 712. However, such a fire would presumably be on a mountain rather than in the fields, so that it could be seen better. Commenters have dealt with this in two ways: the first is simply to say that even if the beacon is on a hill or mountain it is still within Kasuga Fields. The other is take Tobuhi is a place name within Kasuga, and this "guardian" is in the fields rather than in the signal fire area. The latter seems to be the predominant explanation.

Other sources:

• Kokin waka rokujō | Shinsen waka
• Shūka daitai | Teika hachidaishō

Analysis

Mabuchi praised this poem along with 16 and 17 as excellent examples of old-style poems, a reflection of his admiration for the Man'yōshū. The simplicity and folk song nature of the poem are acknowledged by most other commentators as well. Kaneko(1927) thinks the poem sounds like it's written by young girls going out from the Nara capital to pick shoots, calling to the guard to come out into the cold and tell them about the shoots. He also questions whether the signal fires would still have been used once the court moved to Kyoto. Katagiri, while noting there is no proof for this kind of reading, acknowledges that the folk song feel of a poem like this encourages you to think of a setting like the one Kaneko describes. It also connects to the Heian-period custom of going out to pick the young shoots at the beginning of spring.

When this poem follows 17, as in most manuscripts, there's a clear link between the fires being set on Kasuga field and then asking the guardian if the shoots have grown yet. It also may work better in this place because this poem is asking when shoots will grow, while 19 indicates they're already being picked.

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