The Tales of Ise
"The Tales of Ise" may have developed from specific poetry sets, but with accretions of later narratives, intending to ground the poems in a specific historical time and place, and develop an overall theme. "Kashu", private or individual poetry collections, provide a journal of selected works, with headnotes covering the circumstances of the composition; it is possible Narihira may have created such a collection, which was subsequently adapted to portray an idealised vision of the poet. Volume 16 of the "Man'yōshū" also has a large selection of poems preceded by narratives in classical Chinese, bearing a similarity to the narrative style of the "Tales of Ise".