Seasonal Poems in the First Eight Imperial Waka Anthologies
Horikawa hyakushu
The hundred topics in Horikawa hyakushu (Horikawa Poems on a Hundred Fixed Topics, 1105) are divided into spring (20 poems), summer (15), autumn (20), winter (15), love (10), and miscellaneous (10).
SPRING
Beginning of spring, pine pulling on the Day of the Rat (Nenohi), mist (kasumi), bush warbler, new herbs, remaining snow, plum, willow, young bracken (sawarabi), cherry blossoms, spring rain, spring horses, returning wild geese, cuckoo (yobukodori), rice-seedling bed (nawashiro), violet (sumire), iris (kakitsubata), wisteria, yellow kerria (yamabuki), last day of the Third Month (sangatsujin)
SUMMER
Changing clothes (koromogae), deutzia flowers (unohana), hollyhock (aoi), sweet flag (ayame), young rice seedlings (sanae), night firelight (tomoshi), mandarin-orange blossoms (hanatachibana), insect-repelling flares (kayaribi), lotus, ice room (himuro), wellspring (izumi), Sixth Month exorcism (aranigo no harae)
AUTUMN
Beginning of autumn, Star Festival (Tanabata), reeds (ogi), yellow valerian (ominaeshi), miscanthus grass (susuki), kangaroo grass (karukaya), boneset (fujibakama), bush clover, wild geese, deer, dew, fog (kiri), morning glory, Greeting Horses (Komamukae), moon, fulling cloth (tōi), insects, chrysanthemum, bright foliage, last day of the Ninth Month (kugatsujin).
Early winter, scattered showers (shigure), frost, hail, snow, cold hut (kanro), plovers, ice, waterfowl (mizutori), wickerwork fish trap (ajiro), god dances (kagura), hawk hunting (takagari), charcoal-making oven (sumigama), charcoal fire in ash (uzumibi), New Year’s Eve (joya)
Roppyakuban uta-awase
The topics in the Roppyakuban uta-awase (Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds, 1193) are divided into spring (15 poems), summer (10), autumn (15), and winter (10).
SPRING
New Year banquet (Gannichi no en), lingering cold (yokan), spring ice (haru no kōri), young grass (wakakusa), Court Archery Festival (Noriyumi), playing in the wild fields (yayū), pheasants (kiji), skylark (hibari), heat shimmer (itoyū), spring dawn (haru no akebono), long spring day (chijitsu), mountain crossing at Shiga (Shiga no yamagoe), third day of the Third Month (Yayoi mika), frog, remaining snow (zanshun)
SUMMER
Green-leafed tree (shinju), summer grass (natsukusa), Kamo Festival, cormorant fishing (ukawa), summer night (natsu no yo), summer robe (natsugoromo), fan (ōgi), evening faces (yūgao), evening shower (yūdachi), cicada (semi)
AUTUMN
Lingering heat (zansho), Star Festival (Tanabata), lightning, quail, tempest (nowaki), autumn rain (akisame), autumn evening (aki no yūbe), autumn rice field (aki no ta), snipe (shigi), distant view of Hirosawa Lake (Hirosawa no ike no chōbō), ivy (tsuta), konara oak (hahaso), ninth day of the Ninth Month (Nagatsuki kokonoka), autumn frost, end of autumn (boshū)
Fallen leaves (ochiba), remaining chrysanthemums (nokori no kiku), withered fields (kareno), sleet (mizore), imperial procession to wild fields (no no miyulk), winter morning (fuyu no ashita), winter pine (kanskō), chinquapin brushwood (shii-shiba), bedclothes (fusuma), Buddha’s Name (butsumyō)*
* Buddha’s Name is a ritual that was held on the fifteenth day of the Twelfth Month, calling on the names of the various buddhas of the Three Worlds, to confess and extinguish the sins of the past year.