Poetry
The manufacture of Tanka at the court of Kiōto continued during this period. Several collections of verses prepared under official auspices were the result; but, as they contain little which is characteristic, it is needless to dwell upon them. The poetry of this time deserves mention chiefly as an indication that culture was not wholly neglected during what was in the main a benighted age.
It was now that the practice began of making anthologies of Tanka consisting of one specimen each of one hundred different authors. These are called Hiaku-nin-is-shiu. The original collection of this kind, which contains Tanka from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, is at this day in the hands of every Japanese schoolgirl. It was compiled about 1235 by a court noble named Sadaiye, one of the great Fujiwara clan, which at this time had almost a monopoly of Japanese poetry. It has been translated into English by Mr. F. V. Dickins.
A new metre appeared during this period, which took the place of the older Naga-uta. It is called Ima-yō or "present fashion," and consists of alternate phrases of seven and five syllables. This arrangement is more or less closely approximated to in the poetical passages which now begin to occur in prose works.
Books in Chinese
The works written in Chinese during the Kamakura period bear witness to the general decay of learning. They are composed in a species of bad Chinese which
