Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the erudition of the scholar-official Minamoto no Shitagō, in which legal knowledge, lexicography, and literary production merge together, as exemplified by the Minamoto no Shitagō no uma no ke no na utaawase.

Paper long abstract:

The Minamoto no Shitagō no uma no ke no na utaawase (Poetry Contest on Horse Coat Names, 966) is a fictitious ten-round poetry contest putting imaginary poets of the left and of the right against each other on the theme of horse coat colors. The work follows the canonical rules of poetic competitions (utaawase), but it also recalls the tradition of horse races (kurabeuma), where riders are divided into two matched teams and compete one-on-one. Actually, the text is nothing more than an example of linguistic fun by Minamoto no Shitagō (911-984), a state official, distinguished scholar, and poet of the mid-Heian period.

In the Uma no ke no na no utaawase, Shitagō uses as kakekotoba many coat-color terms which can be found as vernacular equivalents to Sinitic terms in the section on "Bovine and Equine Coats" of the Wamyōruijushō (Classified Notes on Japanese Nouns, 933 ca.), the Sino-Japanese encyclopedic dictionary compiled by the same Shitagō when he was young. Conversely, Shitagō excerpts these vernacular terms from other previous Nara-period dictionaries used by low-rank officials, such as the Yōshi kangoshō (Notes on Chinese Words by Master Yako, 918 ca.) or the Benshiki rissei (Compendium of Classifications, 720 ca.). These vernacular terms are rarely attested in poetry but can be extensively found in several types of official documents (on wooden tablet or on paper) written down in Sinitic. Registering coat colors of horses in official documents is required by some articles in the Kūjikiryō (Law on Official Documents) and in the Kyūmokuryō (Law on Pastures and Stables), respectively sections 21 and 23 of the Yōrōryō (Administrative Code of the Yōrō Era, 718).

In this paper, after some notes on the textual transmission of the work, I will show how Shitagō's vast erudition, ranging from law to lexicography, was merged and conveyed into poetry, and how this can be regarded as an example of an intersection between legal background, technical knowledge, and literary production that go back to the Nara-period erudition.