Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Upper Counselor Tsunenobu

Meaning

As evening falls, the breeze comes rustling through the rice stalks by the gate, and the autumn wind blows through the reed-thatched hut.

Commentary

This poem was composed at a poetry gathering held at the country villa of Minamoto no Morokata in Umezu — a relative of the poet — on the theme "Autumn Wind at a Farmhouse." At the time, a love of simple rural scenery, a taste for the pastoral, was fashionable among the aristocracy. The poem vividly captures the atmosphere of country life and the melancholy of arriving autumn through vivid, sensory imagery: rice leaves rustling at the gate in the evening, and that same wind blowing through his own reed-thatched hut.

The poet, Minamoto no Tsunenobu, was of noble birth, descended from the Uda Genji line, and was renowned for his remarkable learning and versatility. He excelled in waka, Chinese poetry, and music alike. According to a well-known anecdote, when he arrived late to a boat outing hosted by the retired Emperor Shirakawa, he declared, "I can board any boat," demonstrating that he was equally accomplished in every artistic discipline represented there. This episode later came to symbolize the ideal of mastery in waka, Chinese poetry, and music—the so-called "talent of three boats"—and reflects both his extraordinary accomplishments and his confident, spirited character.

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