■ Explanation
This book was written and published by Aisaburo Akiyama, who researched Japanese culture from the folklore perspective from the middle part of the Meiji period into the Taisho period. He was extremely proficient in English, and wrote other books in English as well.
The title refers to the six poets critiqued by Ki-no-Tsurayuki in his preface to the Kokin Wakashu, Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry, which was put together in the early part of the Heian era. (The six are Ono-no-Koma-chi, Ariwara-no-Narihira, Sojo Henjo, Bunya-no-Yasuhide, Kisen Hoshi, and Otomo-no-Kuronushi.) The book allots one page to each poet, and presents one of the major poems of each. On the opposite page is an illustration.
In its explanation of the pictures of the six poets on the front cover, the preface exhibits some confusion with the "thirty-six poetry immortals" taken up in the Sanjurokuninsen, a completely different collection compiled by Fujiwara-no-Kinto. Similarly, the descriptions of the poets err in claiming that Ariwara-no-Narihira was the lover of Ono-no-Komachi, for example. Nevertheless, the commentary is right on the mark in its description of the difficulty of reproducing the elegant sound of the syllables and subtle wordplays in English.
Although the illustrator is unnamed on the title page and in the colophon, seal impressions bearing names such as Shizan are visible on the illustrations themselves. While the particulars of these illustrators are not known, the illustrations were clearly produced by more than one. |