The aim of this paper is to interpret the 4229th-4237th poems in the nineteenth volume of Manyō-shū in terms of the place where they were actually rendered. Indeed those poems can be analyzed spatially enough to reconstruct the scene of the New Year’s festival at the provincial office of Etchū in the third year of the Tenpō-shōhō Period. Especially the 4233rd poem written in the form of a party song conveys a vivid image of the festival which was held to pay a tribute to the service of district managers called “gunji” who gathered there for New Year’s greetings to the Emperor.

Compared with studies of poetical writings, those of prosaic writings like novels, narratives, and dairies seem to be only marginally treated. Even Tosa-nikki is poorly evaluated as a prosaic text although it has been almost prejudicially much studied as a poetical work since Kino-Tsurayuki came to be regarded as one of the greatest poets of early modern times. This paper will suggest that Tosa-nikki should be not poetically but prosaically read and studied in order to more adequately understand it.

This paper will consider the political relation between Rokujō-no-Miyasudokoro, Zenbō, and the Rokujō Family in Genji-monogatari. With such an ideological background of aristocracy, I will show why Hikaru-Genji as a politician must deal with the adoption of Akikonomu-Chūgū and the building of Rokujō-In. I will also analyze the complicated character of Rokujō-no-Miyasudokoro who is obsessed both with politics and with passions while interpreting his dream in the Aoi Chapter, his will in the Miotsukusi Chapter, and the storm after his death as well as the appearance of his apparition.

In court literature there are many stories of love and sex which not pornographically but metaphysically represent sexual desire in term of predestined fate. Such a fatalistic outlook on sexuality existed not only in ancient Japan but also ancient Greece. This paper will reconsider the problems of sex and gender with an apparently incompatible combination of the latest queer theory and the ancient idea about sexuality.

In my previous article “An Introductory Essay to Waka Poetry as a Custom,” I described the historical background in which the phrase “waka poetry is a custom of our country” had come to be often used in waka poetry during the tenth and the eleventh century. There I traced its origin to the political activities of district magistrates who also made songs as poets. To make a further inquiry into the significance of the phrase in broad historical contexts, here I will reconsider it in terms of the linguistic theory of the tenth century and the place of Fujiwara-no-Michinaga in the contemporary study of Japanese history.

“Ōgi-no-mato” is a well-known episode of Heike-monogatari in which Nasu-no-Yoichi excellently shoots off a fan on the mast of the enemy’s ship. It is still reprinted in most textbooks, but now instead of his heroic deed which fascinates even enemies, more emphasis has come to be placed on the cruelty of war by adding the scene where Yoichi shoots to death an old warrior who is dancing aboard in praise of his skill. Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune allegedly told Yoichi to kill the “man of around fifty” because, however friendly he looked, he was their enemy after all. But it is more likely that the old man was killed because both Toshitsune and Yoich saw through his evil design to interfere with the shooting to balk Yoichi in his heroic attempt.