2015 Volume 64 Issue 7 Pages 15-25
The first series of miscellaneous poems in Yoritomo-shū consists of those rendered at the time of the editor Minamoto-no-Yoritomo's long-waited-for promotion to a higher rank. Therefore they contribute much to creating his image of a “patient poet in the reign of the Heike Family,” as is shown in the phrase “a mountain guard silently looking up at the moon from the woods.” In compiling the collection of private poems, Yoritomo included some works by Hachijō-In's acquaintances because he was then patronized by her. But their poems were strategically separated from his to leave no trace of political influence. Such an editorial manipulation indicates Yoritomo was actually not so much a naive man of letters as a politically resourceful person.
