A Format of Their Own: The Hundred-Poem Sequences of Sone no Yoshitada, Minamoto no Shitagō, and the Priest EgyōRoselee Bundy

Abstract

In or about 960, the poet Sone no Yoshitada inaugurated the format of a hundred-poem sequence (hyakushu), accompanied by a preface. He was quickly followed by Minamoto no Shitagō, who responded with his own sequence and preface; a decade or more later, the priest Egyō also responded. These are among the first of the early hyakushu composed between 960 and circa 1026. This article examines these three texts—poem sequences and prefaces—first, as vehicles of complaint for mid- to low-ranking courtiers in an age increasingly dominated by the Fujiwara; second, as a departure from much of poetic production of the time; and, finally, as harbingers of a new kind of community of poetic production, one that was separated by time and place yet evident through the echoings of images and topics found in multiple hundred-poem sequences.