Meet the subject
小倉百人一首
Ogura Hyakunin Isshu gathers one waka poem from each of one hundred poets. Traditionally attributed to Fujiwara no Teika’s selection, it includes work from several centuries. Manuscripts, commentary, printed editions and poetry cards gave readers different ways to encounter it; modern competitive karuta added its own rules.
An anthology, a historical edition and a game are related but distinct objects.
The tanka in this collection use 5–7–5–7–7 morae, rather than counts of written characters.
A diary entry from 1235 is important evidence, rather than an uncontested date for every detail of the present collection.
Hyakunin isshu can describe an anthology format: one poem from each of a hundred people. The Ogura collection is the best-known example. Its selections range from poems attributed to early figures such as Emperor Tenji to poets of the early Kamakura period. The compilation date does not date the writing of all its poems.
The tanka in this collection have five phrases with 5–7–5–7–7 morae, or Japanese sound units. The first three make the upper phrase and the last two the lower phrase. Morae are not counts of printed kanji or kana. The division explains how a poem can be recognized from its reading and matched to its ending.
The first three phrases are the upper part; the final two, highlighted, are the lower part.
Poem 14, attributed to Kawara no Sadaijin, reads: みちのくの／しのぶもぢずり／たれゆゑに／乱れそめにし／我ならなくに. Its pronunciation is michinoku no / shinobu mojizuri / tare yue ni / midare somenishi / ware naranaku ni, in 5–7–5–7–7 morae. In sense: my heart is as disordered as the patterned Shinobu cloth of Mutsu—and you are the reason. The association’s commentary links the tangled pattern with troubled love; it does not establish that the poet travelled there.
The first three phrases are the upper part; the final two, highlighted, are the lower part.
The collection’s range is visible in specific poems. The first describes dew-wet sleeves in a temporary autumn field hut; the fourth presents snow on Mount Fuji; the fourteenth uses a tangled pattern to speak of love. Landscapes and feelings therefore matter alongside the text memorized for a game.
A reading card carries the poet and full poem; a taking card normally gives the lower phrase in hiragana. In one-to-one competitive karuta, each player starts with 25 randomly selected taking cards. Players race to the matching card; taking one from the opponent’s side also allows a card to be sent from one’s own side. The first player to empty their side wins. Other household games use different formats.
みちのくの
しのぶもぢずり
たれゆゑに
乱れそめにし
我ならなくに
みだれそめにし
われならなくに
Recognize the lower phrase from the reading of the upper phrase.
Teika’s diary Meigetsuki records a request on the twenty-seventh day of the fifth month in 1235, using the contemporary Japanese calendar, to inscribe poets’ waka for screens in Utsunomiya Yoritsuna’s villa. This is closely connected with the anthology’s formation. How it relates to the similar Hyakunin Shūka and the present Ogura collection remains debated. Traditional attribution and the development of the final text are separate questions.
The series is catalogued as a Kyōhō-period copy, while this volume has no individual copying date. The diary entry and surviving copy have different dates.
Commentaries, calligraphy and printing circulated the collection, while cards provided another encounter with its poetry. A 1680 edition illustrated by Hishikawa Moronobu is a concrete example of Edo publication. Its arrangements of poets and poems belong to that edition, rather than being Teika’s original handwritten screens.
The All Japan Karuta Association identifies Kuroiwa Ruikō’s rule organization and competition in 1904 as important steps towards modern competitive play. Activities recovered after the war, with a unified national organization established in 1954. The familiar hundred poems therefore have a longer history than today’s competitive format.
B: 25 cards
A: 25 cards
Outside play: 0 cards
B: 24 cards
A: 25 cards
Outside play: X, 1 card
X: B → outside play
B: 25 cards
A: 24 cards
Outside play: X, 1 card
Y: A → B
A is below and B above, each with three rows in one example arrangement. X leaves play. Y is a different card moved from A to B.
No. The collection selects one poem per poet across several centuries; Teika is traditionally its selector.
It counts Japanese morae, not printed kanji or kana characters.
It normally gives the lower phrase in hiragana; the reading card carries the full poem.
No. Its relationship to related collections and the present text remains a question of formation history.
Poets and poems in the 1680 Hyakunin isshu illustrated by Hishikawa Moronobu. National Diet Library.
National Diet Library: Public Domain Mark.
Late-Edo cards presented by the National Institute of Japanese Literature: illustrated reading cards with poets and complete poems.
No open licence established from the source website.