The pages on this website devoted to the imperial anthology called the Kokin waka shu were originally made in the spring of 2004 as part of a course taught at the University of California, Berkeley. We read in the original all of the poems of this collection contained in the two Books of the anthology devoted to Spring. We also read autumn poems, but these pages focus on the spring poems. While the pages were made for students who were reading the poems in their original classical Japanese, there is a considerable amount of information that does not require knowledge of Japanese. When time permits, I intend to rework this group of pages to more fully include non-specialists interested in relatively rigorous information regarding this important poetry anthology. For now I retain these pages as they were for the class. (Previous students: please note that the assignments are no longer available online. Please contact me directly should you wish to revisit them.) -- November 10, 2004

The primary content of these pages is the collection of images and comments and other multimedia that support reading the books of the Kokinshu devoted to Spring. It includes illustrations of birds and flowers, and animal sounds where relevant. There is a list of links related in one way or another to the Kokinshu at the top of this page. Go here: Kokin waka shu, Spring Book One Reading Companion -- Comments and multimedia

For a basic bibliography of translations of the Kokinshu and suggested further reading and some internet links, go here: Bibliography and Further Reading Suggestions

For a chart putting the Kokinshu in the context of the Man'yoshu, an earlier anthology, and the Shin-Kokinshu, a later anthology, go here: Chart comparing the Manyoshu, Kokinshu and ShinKokinshu

Also of perhaps general interest are the student photographs of the Berkeley campus that helped illustrate some of the poem content we were reading -- primarily photos of plum and cherry blossoms. Go here: J130 Photos, poems, etc.

For the original course description, go here: J130 Course Description

For archived class announcements, go here: J130 Announcements

For the class schedule, go here: J130 Schedule

For student working groups, go here: J130 Groups