Category: Poetry
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Poetry Contests in the Heian Period
Throughout this blog, I’ve alluded many times to poetry contests, called uta-awase (歌合), as the origin of many of the poems of the Hyakunin Isshu. These contests were a popular past-time among the nobility of Nara and Heian periods of Japanese history, and onward. The first such contest was recorded as far back as 885,…
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April 2023 Update: Mental Blocks and Review
Hello Readers, The good news is that I cross the halfway point in late March and memorized 50 of the poems! 🎉 When I started in January, I wasn’t I’d get very far before life got in the way. It has gotten in the way since returning to the US, but I have been able…
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Memorization Progress, February 2023
Hello dear readers, My progress in memorizing the Hyakunin Isshu poems, for the sake of learning to play karuta, continues, but since returning to the US, it has taken some twists and turns. When I got back home, it became clear how busy my day to day life is compared to Japan, where I didn’t…
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So You’ve Decided to Memorize the Hyakunin Isshu
I started this blog in 2011, and after a long lull, I have picked it up again and added a lot more to it. One thing I never did though was memorize the Hyakunin Isshu anthology. I had a poem or two (poems 24 and 33) that I kind of remembered, but never really put…
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My SECOND Karuta Set and More!
While here in Japan for a couple weeks, I picked up my first karuta set of the Hyakunin Isshu at the local bookstore when I realized that getting to the more famous store was harder than I expected, and I just won’t be here long enough for local delivery. However, my interest in the Hyakunin…
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Hyakunin Isshu Crackers, Redux!
In Japan, gift-giving (omiyagé お土産) among friends and relatives is a common tradition, and recently a friend returned from Japan and gave us some special crackers (senbei) featuring poems from the Hyakunin Isshu. The crackers come in different flavors, and the wrapper each has a random poem. I got a curry-flavored one: The first two…
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Getting a Much Needed Update
Hello Readers, I started this blog as far back as 2011, and it was only today that I noticed that the blog template is super old and doesn’t work well with WordPress features anymore. Further, a number of images and links are broken. Such is life on the Information Superhighway. I am working on updating…
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Hyakunin Isshu: Splatoon Style
Hello readers! It’s been a while (almost 10 years in fact) since I last posted to this blog. My interest in the Hyakunin Isshu has not diminished during that time, but I had reached the end of the initial project, and then focused on other things at the time. Now, things have somewhat come full-circle…
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Bozu Mekuri: Karuta for Beginners
Wow, it’s been a while. Recently, while playing with my wife and kids a game of karuta with our hyakunin isshu set, I learned about a simple, introductory way to enjoy the game without spending a lot of time learning the poems or mastering the rules of the competition. This simple game is called bōzu-mekuri…
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Mount Ogura
Hi Folks, Although I’ve finished all the poems in the Hyakunin Isshu, I wanted to share this cool photo I found on Twitter: This is Mount Ogura (小倉山) also called Arashiyama (嵐山) near the city of Kyoto. The place name “Ogura” is where the Hyakunin Isshu gets its full-name: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. At that time,…
The Hyakunin Isshu 