Denryaku: Shōtoku 2 {1098} 2.4

承徳二年二月四日 Shōtoku 2 {1098} 2.4
Translated by Niels van der Salm

Tadazane engages in poetry composition and receives horseriding equipment.

Fourth day. Mizunoto hitsuji. 1 Clear weather.

Early in the morning, there was {a session of} linked verse (renku). 2 Present were the commissioner (daibu) 3 Sir [Ōe no] Michikuni, 4 [Fujiwara no] Muneyoshi, 5 and [Ōe no] Hirofusa. 6

Around the Hour of the Horse {11 a.m.–1 p.m.} I went to the Northern Residence. 7

(On) the back: "[Afterwards] 8 I looked at saddles and {associated equipment}. 9 I was bestowed with two sets and took my leave.

  1. The twentieth cyclical day. ↩

  1. Renku are not confined to either waka or kanshi modes of literary inscription, but given the Ōe lineage's status as scholars of the continental canon, it is likely that with two of its scions present this refers to poetry in literary Sinitic. ↩

  1. The post of daibu could refer to various heads of government offices: the Household of the Queen-Consort; the Household of the Crown Prince; the Left and Right Capital Agencies; the Banquet Office; and the Settsu Office, in charge of the governance of Settsu Province (which included the harbor at Naniwa). It is unclear which post Michikuni held, although it was customary for men trained in the Education Bureau (daigakuryō 大學寮) to be appointed tutor to the Crown Prince, suggesting a possible connection. ↩

  1. Judging by Sonpi bunmyaku, Michikuni was the son of Ōe no Sukekuni (Sonpi bunmyaku, vol. 19, 9–10) and had passed the sakumon (state officials') exam, and although it does not state at which level, the fact that he came to occupy the post of Head of the Education Bureau (daigaku[ryō] no kami 大學頭) suggests he had reached the status of presented scholar (shinshi 進士). ↩

  1. Fujiwara no Muneyoshi (dates unknown) is not well-described in the standard reference works. His nearest ancestor of any note seems to be his great-grandfather Fujiwara no Takaie 藤原隆家 (979–1044), who had served in the Council of State but died well over half a century earlier. Muneyoshi was not entirely unsuccessful, however: Sonpi bunmyaku indicates that at lower fifth rank he had held the post of Governor of Kawachi, a probably coveted position given the importance of zuryō governorships for lower-ranking families by this stage of Heian history. See on mid-Heian era governorships, for instance, G. Cameron Hurst III, "Kugyō and Zuryō: Center and Periphery in the Era of Fujiwara no Michinaga," in Mikael Adolpson, Edward Kamens, and Stacie Matsumoto (ed.), Heian Japan: Centers and Peripheries (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007). ↩

  1. Like Michikuni and Muneyoshi, Ōe no Hirofusa is a mostly faceless name in the annals. He is encountered in the Kamakura-era Gosan buruiki (apparently a description of royal birth ceremonial, included in Zoku gunsho ruijū, vol. 33), first in Kōwa 1 (1099) as a sixth-ranker without a post, and then later in the same year as Student of Literature (monjōshō 文章生). It is likely that this Hirofusa is a son of the famous scholar-writer Masafusa 匡房 (1041–1111); see Sonpi bunmyaku, vol. 19, 13. An Ōe no Hirofusa whose two waka were included in the (much later) private waka collection Zoku gen'yō wakashū 続現葉和歌集 ("Collection of Present-day Leaves of Poetry, Continued"; in Gunsho ruijū, vol. 10) is a different individual: the second of these poems was purportedly written "following the passing of his father, Hiroshige 廣茂," identifying him as an individual from a younger age (see Sonpi bunmyaku, vol. 19, 13 and 22). This data may thus not be used as an indication of the nature of the renku verse. ↩

  1. The identity of this location is uncertain. The phrase is antithetical to the naden 南殿 "southern residence," which refers to one of the halls of state in the royal compound; but the name is unattested, and may well simply refer to Tadazane's family's own residence, or even only a part thereof that happened to be located on the northern edge of the residence's compound. ↩

  1. This adverbial expression (有暫) is not found in the main Denryaku manuscript and was supplied by the editors from a variant manuscript reading. ↩

  1. The word kura 鞍 is defined as referring to either horse-riding accessories in general (i.e., tack) or the saddle more specifically. The use of nado 等 "and so forth" seems to suggest that Tadazane uses kura in the more circumscribed meaning: as he apparently found it necessary to obliquely refer to further implements, the expression kura likely only covered the saddle itself. This use of nado is expressed as "associated equipment" in the English translation. ↩

Original text 原文
四日、癸未、天晴、早旦有連句事、大夫通国（大江）朝臣・宗良（藤原）・広房（大江）是等也、午刻許参北殿、裏云、［有暫］見御鞍等、賜二具、退出、

Kundoku 訓読
四日、癸未みづのとひつじ、天晴はれ。

早旦さうたん、連句れんくの事有り。大夫たいふ［大江］通国みちくに朝臣あそん・［藤原］宗良むねよし・［大］広房ひろふさこれらなり。

午うまの刻ばかりに、北殿きたどのに参る。

裏うらに云はく、［暫しばらく有りて］御鞍みくら等を見て、二具にぐを賜たまはり、退出す。