The Akai Shū is a personal collection (kashū) of the waka poetry of Asukai Masachika (飛鳥井雅親).
[1] The name of the collection derives from the tōmei [ja], or equivalent Chinese term, for Masachika's office at court, Acting Major Counsellor (gon-dainagon).
[a][1] The second book consists of 100 poems composed as offerings to Sumiyoshi taisha in Bunmei 11 (1469)[b] and 50 others.
[1] The first text of the work dates to Meiō 1 (1492),[1] but the standard edition was probably completed at some time before Daiei 3 (1523).
[1] Three forms of the 1492 text are in the manuscript held by the Matsudaira Archives in Shimabara, Nagasaki (島原松平文庫),[1] the printed edition from the Kanbun-Jōkyō eras (1661–1688),[1] and the manuscript held by the Archives and Mausolea Department of the Imperial Household Agency.