Hyakunin Isshu Day

What Is Hyakunin Isshu Day?

May 27th is "Hyakunin Isshu Day" (百人一首の日, Hyakunin Isshu no Hi) in Japan. On May 27, 1235, the poet and scholar Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家, 1162–1241), active from the late Heian into the early Kamakura period, is said to have completed the "Ogura Hyakunin Isshu" (小倉百人一首, "One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets") — an anthology of 100 waka (31-syllable classical poems), one each by 100 different poets. The date comes from Teika's diary, Meigetsuki, which records that on this day he sent poem cards bearing "one poem each by poets of old" to Utsunomiya Rensho (Yoritsuna) to decorate the sliding doors of Rensho's villa in Saga, Kyoto. Whether those cards were exactly today's Hyakunin Isshu is still debated by scholars, but it has become the most widely known poetry collection in Japanese history.

The Hyakunin Isshu: Japan's National Poetry

Fujiwara no Teika's selection spans Japanese poetry from the 7th to the 13th centuries, beginning with Emperor Tenji and ending with Retired Emperor Juntoku. The poems cover the full range of classical themes: the seasons, travel, parting, and above all love — 43 of the 100 poems are love poems, more than the 32 seasonal poems combined. The collection also conveys the mono no aware sensibility (物の哀れ, the pathos of transience) that characterizes Japanese classical aesthetics.

The Card Game Tradition

The Hyakunin Isshu is inseparable from the card game "Karuta" (かるた). In the Edo period, woodblock printing helped spread illustrated poem cards among ordinary people. In 1904, the journalist Kuroiwa Ruikō founded the Tokyo Karuta Association and unified the rules, laying the foundation for "Kyōgi Karuta" (競技かるた, competitive karuta), in which players memorize all 100 poems and race to grab the correct card as soon as they recognize the poem being read. Competitive karuta has a national governing body and youth tournaments, and the popular manga and anime "Chihayafuru" (ちはやふる) brought it to a whole new generation.

Fun Facts

• First poem: The first poem is attributed to Emperor Tenji (天智天皇): 秋の田の かりほの庵の 苫をあらみ わが衣手は 露にぬれつつ — roughly, "In the autumn field, the thatch of the harvest hut is coarse, and my sleeves grow wet with dew."
• Chihayafuru effect: Yuki Suetsugu's manga "Chihayafuru" (2007–2022), which dramatizes competitive karuta, attracted many new fans to both the card game and classical poetry.
• Decisive syllables: In competitive karuta, seven poems can be identified from their very first syllable — remembered by the phrase "mu-su-me-fu-sa-ho-se."