Empress' Poetry Competition in the Kampyō era

寛平御時后宮歌合 (かんぴょうのおんとききさいのみやうたあわせ)

新編国歌大観V.4

This early example of a poetry contest was held in 892, perhaps in celebration of the Empress Mother's 60th birthday. There are 193 poems in the 新編国歌大観's base text, although it was perhaps intended to be 100 rounds of two poems each. No record of the winner of each round, nor any judgments, survive. This may suggest that it was not an actual poetry competition of the kind that would be held in the next century, but was simply a compilation of poems arranged in pairs. It also seems to have included old poems not composed by any of the participants. The contest seems to have been quite influential not only on future contests, but on the KKS and other imperial collections as well.

Spring

• Round 1: KKS 13 vs KKS 12
• Round 9: KKS 15 vs KKS 110
• Round 11: KKS 11 vs KKS 14
• Round 18: KKS 46 vs (poem not in Imperial collections)
• Round 20: KKS 24 vs (poem not in Imperial collections)