Utakai Hajime

The exact origins of the tradition are unclear, though it is known that the Emperor Kameyama convened a January poetry reading, at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, as early as 1267.^[1] Sometime during the Edo period the practice became more regular, and since the Meiji restoration of 1869, it has been held almost every year.^[1]

Poems written by the general public were admitted for consideration for the first time in 1879.^[1] Since 1946, any poet whose work is selected is invited to attend. In 1957 American poet Lucille Nixon became the first non-Japanese person to do so.^[2]

Poems read at the ceremony belong to the tanka genre.^[1]