Tsukubashū

Tsukubashū (菟玖波集, "The Tsukuba Anthology", compiled c. 1356) was the first imperial anthology of renga.^[1] The collection was compiled by Nijō Yoshimoto. Provincial lord Sasaki Takauji played an active role in its production with 81 of his poems appearing in the final version.^[1] In addition to courtly renga, the anthology contains, in Book 19, the earliest known collection of haikai no renga.^[2]

Title

The title of the work refers to Tsukuba, a location in the east Japan at which, according to the Kojiki, Yamato Takeru and an elderly interlocutor composed a two-part poem together, this story being where practitioners of renga traced their tradition's origins.

References

^ ^a ^b Watanabe, Takeshi (2009). Breaking Down Barriers: A History of Chanoyu. Yale Art Gallery. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-300-14692-9.
^ Horton, H. Mack. 'Early Haikai Linked Verse', in Journal of Renga & Renku, Issue 2, 2012. p79