1. NKBT 73:442.

2. The Zuino is also known as Toshiyori kuden(shu , Toshiyori mumyosho , and Toshi hisho . The two-volume book elucidates different waka forms, prosody, topics, styles, techniques, rhetoric, and ideals. It reinforces the critical contents by selecting examples of superior poems under each heading. The work is characterized by its structurally loose, rambling narrative.

3. In the conversation with his son Teika, Fujiwara Shunzei praised Toshiyori as a poetic genius in his use of poetic dictions; see Ichiko Teiji, ed., Nihon bungaku zenshi , 6 vols. (Gakutosha, 1978), 2:494. It is no wonder, therefore, that Shunzei selected in Senzaishu fifty-two poems by Toshiyori, the largest number by any single poet represented in the anthology.

4. Zuino contains fifty such poems based on historical or legendary narratives from China or Japan, as well as nineteen poems that share similar story origins with Konjaku monogatari ; see Ikeda Tomizo, Minamoto Toshiyori no kenkyu (Ofusha, 1973), pp. 906-10, 989.

5. Ibid., pp. 903-5.

4. Zuino contains fifty such poems based on historical or legendary narratives from China or Japan, as well as nineteen poems that share similar story origins with Konjaku monogatari ; see Ikeda Tomizo, Minamoto Toshiyori no kenkyu (Ofusha, 1973), pp. 906-10, 989.

5. Ibid., pp. 903-5.

6. NKBT 73:469.

7. Ibid., p. 470. It was only in 1178 that imayo transmission began in earnest with Minamoto Suketoki and Fujiwara Moronaga.

6. NKBT 73:469.

7. Ibid., p. 470. It was only in 1178 that imayo transmission began in earnest with Minamoto Suketoki and Fujiwara Moronaga.

8. The following observation owes much to Walter Ong's insights into oral tradition and literacy as presented in his book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London: Methuen, 1982).

9. NKBT 73:440. Nothing is known about mononoyo . Tauta , rice planting songs, also belong to the folk song genre.

10. NKBZ 25:22. The regent Fujiwara Michinaga is supposed to have written the text himself.

11. Ibid., p. 117. One notable textualization of saibara was done by Fujiwara Moronaga, Go-Shirakawa's imayo successor. The saibara texts are preserved in his musical score collections: Inchiyoroku (Compendium of Benevolence and Wisdom) for koto and Sangoyoroku (Compendium of Fifteen Eras) for biwa .

12. Between the reigns of Emperor Seiwa (r. 858-76) and Emperor Daigo (r. 897-930), the court kagurauta repertoire was believed to have been fixed; see ibid., pp. 16-17.

10. NKBZ 25:22. The regent Fujiwara Michinaga is supposed to have written the text himself.

11. Ibid., p. 117. One notable textualization of saibara was done by Fujiwara Moronaga, Go-Shirakawa's imayo successor. The saibara texts are preserved in his musical score collections: Inchiyoroku (Compendium of Benevolence and Wisdom) for koto and Sangoyoroku (Compendium of Fifteen Eras) for biwa .

12. Between the reigns of Emperor Seiwa (r. 858-76) and Emperor Daigo (r. 897-930), the court kagurauta repertoire was believed to have been fixed; see ibid., pp. 16-17.

10. NKBZ 25:22. The regent Fujiwara Michinaga is supposed to have written the text himself.

11. Ibid., p. 117. One notable textualization of saibara was done by Fujiwara Moronaga, Go-Shirakawa's imayo successor. The saibara texts are preserved in his musical score collections: Inchiyoroku (Compendium of Benevolence and Wisdom) for koto and Sangoyoroku (Compendium of Fifteen Eras) for biwa .

12. Between the reigns of Emperor Seiwa (r. 858-76) and Emperor Daigo (r. 897-930), the court kagurauta repertoire was believed to have been fixed; see ibid., pp. 16-17.

13. NKBT 73:467.

14. Ibid., pp. 467-68.

13. NKBT 73:467.

14. Ibid., pp. 467-68.

15. Two legends explain the circumstances of Atsuie's death in 1090. According to one, he died on Mount Kinbu on a pilgrimage; the other relates that he died on a pilgrimage to Kumano, because the deities there wished to keep him with them, so impressed were they by his music. See NKBT 73:467.

16. Fujiwara Michisue (d. 1128), assistant middle councillor, was an elder brother of Taikenmon-in and, therefore, Go-Shirakawa's maternal uncle. The song he sang is the same as no. 160 in Ryojin hisho .

17. Koryuji Temple is located in the western part of Kyoto.

18. The song may have been no. 235 of Ryojin hisho . The story of Tonekuro is included in well-known Buddhist setsuwa collections such as Hobutsushu (A Collection of Treasures), compiled by Taira Yasuyori (fl. 1190-1200), and Jikkinsho (A Treatise of Ten Rules, ca. 1252) compiled by Rokuhara Jirozaemon (fl. mid-Kamakura). According to these sources, an asobi named Tonekuro from Kanzaki was mortally wounded in an ambush by pirates on her way to Tsukushi by boat in the company of a male companion. Before she died, she reportedly sang this song and achieved rebirth in the Pure Land. See NKBT 73:468.

19. Shirogimi was probably an asobi from Takasago, a seaside village in Hyogo Prefecture.

20. The Kumano pilgrimage tops the list, with such incidents happening on three occasions, in 1160, 1162, and 1169. On pilgrimages to the following shrines, such an incident occurred once: Kamo Shrine in 1169, Itsukushima Shrine in 1174, and Yawata Shrine in 1178. See NKBT 73: 460-67.

21. See ibid., p. 463. In fact, Go-Shirakawa's recital of imayo on this occasion included thirteen of the twenty known imayo forms. This variety indicates how seriously he took the occasion: as if to display the best of his performing art as well as to experience the climax of his musical career as a layperson, he seems to have covered as exhaustively as possible the ground he had cultivated for so many years.

20. The Kumano pilgrimage tops the list, with such incidents happening on three occasions, in 1160, 1162, and 1169. On pilgrimages to the following shrines, such an incident occurred once: Kamo Shrine in 1169, Itsukushima Shrine in 1174, and Yawata Shrine in 1178. See NKBT 73: 460-67.

21. See ibid., p. 463. In fact, Go-Shirakawa's recital of imayo on this occasion included thirteen of the twenty known imayo forms. This variety indicates how seriously he took the occasion: as if to display the best of his performing art as well as to experience the climax of his musical career as a layperson, he seems to have covered as exhaustively as possible the ground he had cultivated for so many years.

22. NKBT 73:463. Ichiko is one form of imayo , but nothing is known

     about it. Fujiwara Chikanobu (dates unknown), chief of the Right Bureau of Horses, was dismissed from his post during Kiyomori's coup in 1179. The original sentence beginning "It may be the flapping sound ... "is garbled, making it difficult to decipher the exact meaning.

23. Ibid., p. 468-69.

22. NKBT 73:463. Ichiko is one form of imayo , but nothing is known

     about it. Fujiwara Chikanobu (dates unknown), chief of the Right Bureau of Horses, was dismissed from his post during Kiyomori's coup in 1179. The original sentence beginning "It may be the flapping sound ... "is garbled, making it difficult to decipher the exact meaning.

23. Ibid., p. 468-69.

24. Suzuki Hideo and Fujii Sadakazu, eds., Nihon bungeishi , vol. 2 (Kawade Shoboshinsha, 1986), p. 333. The group comprised forty members, half of whom were poets and half priests from Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei. The first meeting was held in 964 at Gatsurinji Temple in Nishisakamoto. Although subsequent meetings were occasionally disrupted, they continued until 1122 at various locations. Yasutane was a famous scholar of Chinese studies during the reign of the Emperor Kazan. Shitago was the compiler of Wamyo (ruiju)sho (Japanese Names for Things Classified and Annotated, ca. 931-37), the first Japanese dictionary of encyclopedic scope. Tamenori was Shitago's disciple and the compiler of Samboe(kotoba) (Illustrated Words on the Three Treasures, 984), a setsuwa collection.

25. The passage is included in the section titled "Hsiang Shan ssu pai shih luo chung chi chi" (Preface to Luo chung-chi by Po Chü-i Dedicated to the Hsian Shan-ssu Temple) in book 71 of his Pai shih wen chi (The Collected Writings of Po Chü-i). At the Kangaku-e gathering, the mem-bers chanted the phrase kyogen kigyo along with Po Chü-i's poems. A detailed description of the Kangaku-e meetings is included in Samboe by Minamoto Tamenori. See Ichiko, ed., Nihon bungaku zenshi 2:258-59.

26. See Kikuchi Ryoichi, "Bungei daiichigitei o enzu: kyogen kigyo sokubutsudo," Bukkyo bungaku kenkyu 11 (1972): 9-10. The Muryojukyo Sutra (Amitayus Sutra) condemns false words and showy language as one of the ten vices.

27. Among them, the Parable of the Burning House in the Lotus Sutra is usually taken as the most effective illustration of this point. For an English translation, see Leon Hurvitz, trans., Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), pp. 49-83.

28. Kikuchi, "Bungei," p. 47.

29. In the preface to his Koraifuteisho , Shunzei advocates the kyogen kigyo ideal; Saigyo in his Sankashu (Collection from a Mountain Hut) also talks about the same concept. See Kikuchi, "Bungei," pp. 24-26.

30. See poem no. 588, NKBT 73:200.

31. Kudenshu , book 1, NKBT 73:440; italics added.

32. A similar concept is echoed in the preface to Kanginshu (Songs for Leisure Hours), a mid-Muromachi collection of popular songs. See NKBZ 25:384. In some popular song genres such as wazauta , songs were consid-ered to have prophetic or premonitory power, usually warning of events

     of grave political consequence. See Misumi Haruo, Geinoshi no minzokuteki kenkyu (Tokyodo Shuppan, 1976), p. 42.

33. Obayashi Taryo, ed., Ensha to kankyaku: seikatsu no naka no asobi , Nihon Minzoku Bunka Taikei, vol. 7 (Shogakkan, 1984), p. 90.

34. Geinoshi Kenkyukai, ed. Nihon geinoshi 1:215.

35. Ibid.

34. Geinoshi Kenkyukai, ed. Nihon geinoshi 1:215.

35. Ibid.