The Shin Kokinshu of 1205 is among…

The Shin Kokinshu of 1205 is among the most celebrated of the imperially commissioned anthologies of Japanese waka poetry.

It is the eighth in a series of twenty-one imperial anthologies of waka poetry compiled by the Japanese court, beginning with the Kokin Wakashū circa 905 CE; the series will end with the Shinshokukokin Wakashū circa 1439.

The name can be literally translated as “New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems” and bears an intentional resemblance to that of the first anthology.

Together with the Man'yōshū and the Kokinshū, the Shin Kokinshū is widely considered to be one of the three most influential poetic anthologies in Japanese literary history.

It had been commissioned in 1201 by the retired emperor Go-Toba (r. 1183-1198), who has established a new Bureau of Poetry at his Nijō palace with eleven Fellows, headed by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, for the purpose of conducting poetry contests and compiling the anthology.

Despite its emphasis on contemporary poets, the Shin Kokinshū covers a broader range of poetic ages than the Kokinshū, including ancient poems that the editors of the first anthology had deliberately excluded.

It is officially presented in 1205, on the three hundredth anniversary of the completion of the Kokinshū.