SOURCE: "The Two Prefaces of The Kokinshu," Asia Major, Vol. VII, No. I & 2, 1959, pp. 40-51.

In the following excerpt, Ceadel contends that the Chinese preface to the Kokinshu predates the Japanese one, and offers internal evidence from the prefaces themselves to support his claim.

The Japanese poetic anthology the Kokin wakashū, from which Dr. Waley translated thirty-five poems in his book Japanese Poetry, the "Uta" (Oxford, 1919) was compiled as a result of an Imperial order of 905 A.D. by Ki no Tomonori, Ki no Tsurayuki, Ōshikōchi no Mitsune, and Mibu no Tadamine. Of these four poets, Ki no Tsurayuki undoubtedly took the largest part in the compilation, as may be judged from the fact that out of the 1,111 poems in the collection as many as 102 are his own poems, compared with 60 by Mitsune, 45 by Tomonori and 38 by Tadamine.

Ki no Tsurayuki holds a significant place in early...