Gosenshu 5

Gosen wakashu Volume 5: Autumn 1 後撰和歌集巻第五　秋上

The importance of autumn to the waka poets of the Heian period cannot be overstated. The 227 poems in the three autumn volumes comprise nearly half of the seasonal poems, a similar ratio to the KKS. The GSS uses not only the autumn imagery from the KKS, but liberally includes love poems. Many of them rely on a pun with the word aki, which can mean the season of autumn, or a lack of fulfillment. In love poetry, the latter typically refers to the feeling one party has when the love affair is not going well, or the idea that one of the members has become tired of the other.