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The degree to which Bai Juyi's poetry outshone that of his Tang contemporaries in the Japanese constellation of the poetic universe is quite remarkable and is not merely a reflection of the contemporary Chinese canon. The incorporation of Bai's poetry, and by extension other literary texts from China, into the Heian literary world view is reflected by Wakan roeishu, edited by Fujiwara no Kinto. Wakan roeishu is an anthology of poetry in Chinese or Sino-Japanese and Japanese organized in thematic rubrics. Compiler Fujiwara no Kinto juxtaposed waka with over eighth hundred couplets by Japanese and Chinese kanshi poets. Wakan roeishu is divided into two books, or volumes. The first book covers the four seasons, in gradual procession from early spring to the end of winter and the end of the year. The second book is a miscellaneous arrangement of often intriguing categories, from monkeys and recluses to courtesans and the color white.
Genji monogatari or The Tale of Genji was composed by Murasaki Shikibu around the first decade of the eleventh century. Genji monogatari is divided into two major sections: chapters 1 to 41, which describe the story of Genji and the women in his life, and chapters 42 to 54, which deals with Genji's progeny. The first section is subdivided into: chapters 1 to 33, narrating the rise, fall, and rise again of the young Genji, and chapters 34 to 41, which portray him becoming increasingly introspective and contemplative. The story begins with a love affair between the emperor and Kiritsubo. Captivated by her close resemblance to the late Kiritsubo, Genji's father takes in a new consort, known to as Fujitsubo. The earliest documented evidence of Genji reading is found in the diary of the author herself, which claims that figures like the poet Fujiwara no Kinto, Fujiwara no Michinaga, and the Ichijo Emperor read at least parts of Genji monogatari.
Dating from the late Nara period, Fujiwara no Hamanari's Kakyo hyoshiki is regarded as the oldest extant karonsho. Written in kanbun, it is heavily indebted to Chinese poetic theory, particularly that of the Six Dynasties period. The Kokin wakashu was the first anthology of Japanese poetry to be compiled by imperial commission. The next major karon text after Tsurayuki's Kokinshu preface is the Shinsen zuino of Fujiwara no Kinto, the leading waka poet of his age and a noted polymath whose talents extended to poetry in kanbun and court music. The poet Minamoto no Toshiyori is thought to have completed his lengthy treatise Toshiyori zuino about a century after Kinto was at the height of his influence. The Rokujo house flourished for almost a century, and its members produced a number of poetic treatises, the best known of which are the Ogisho and Fukurozoshi. Shunzei's son Teika occupies a uniquely influential position in the history of classical Japanese literature.
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