The Imperial Mode of Sinitic Poetry: Literacy and Authority in Early Heian Japan

The Rise of Sinitic Poetry in JapanThe beginning of the Heian period (794-1185) in Japan ushered in an era of renovation and expansion in the ceremonial life of the imperial court.The construction of the Nagaoka 長岡 capital, first, and of the Heian capital later, made new ritual structures available for accommodating the ceremonies performed on the occasion of the annual state festivities. 1Thus, the ritual manual Dairishiki 内裏式 (Ritual Ceremonies of the Imperial Court), completed in 821 (Kōnin 弘仁 12), prescribes that the newly built Burakuden 豊楽殿 (Hall of Abundant Pleasures) at the Heian court, situated to the west of the central Chōdōin 朝堂院 (State Halls Compound), host such ceremonies as the banquet customarily held on the seventh day of the first month, which later developed into the so-called Horse-Watching Ceremony (aouma no sechie 青馬節会), the "stomping song" (tōka 踏歌) ritual on the sixteenth day of the first month, and the archery shooting ritual ( jarai 射礼) on the seventeenth day of the first month. 2 Another significant architectural and urbanistic feature of the new capitals was a large imperial garden, adjacent to the imperial court and extending south of it, that soon came to be associated primarily with imperially sponsored poetry composition.During the ten years the court spent at the Nagaoka capital (784-794), the park is referred to as the Southern Garden (nan'en 南園) in historiographical works; in the Heian capital, it was instead called the Shinsen'en 神泉苑 (Park of the Divine Spring). 3 In both cases, the imperial gardens gradually became the