winding stream party
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File:Meandering Stream at Lan-ting Yamamoto Jakurin Hanging scroll color on silk.jpg, hosted by Wang Xizhi in 353]]
File:Guilin Guihai Beilin Bowuguan 2012.09.28 15-38-45.jpg
A winding stream party ({{Lang-zh|t={{linktext|流觴曲水}}/{{linktext|曲水流觴}}|hp=liúshāngqūshuǐ}}) is an old Chinese custom in which the participants wait by a winding stream and compose poems before their cups full of rice wine float down to reach them. It was popularized by Wang Xizhi, and dates back as far as 353; poems composed at this event were recorded in Wang's famous work, the Lantingji Xu.{{cite book|author=Helaine Selin|title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kt9DIY1g9HYC&pg=PA959|date=12 March 2008|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4020-4559-2|page=959}}
File:Korea-Gyeongju-Poseokjeong site 3832-06.JPG ruins in Gyeongju, Korea]]
This Chinese custom was adopted by the Koreans, such as the party in 927, hosted by King Gyeongae of Silla, in Poseokjeong, Gyeongju.
File:A Winding Stream Party.jpg]]
It was also adopted by the Japanese and was called {{nihongo|Kyokusui-no-en|曲水の宴|Winding stream party|lead=y}}, a party game played by the nobility. Participants must compose a tanka poem beside a stream, within a time limit set by the passage of a lacquer cup of sake floating towards them on the water.{{cite book|author=Brian Bocking|title=A Popular Dictionary of Shinto|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6d-RAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA86|date=30 September 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79739-3|page=86}} When the cup reached the poet, they were expected to drink its contents, either as a celebration of the poem's completion or as a forfeit if they had not composed a suitable verse in time.{{cite book|author=Karen Brazell|title=Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tolUUrDT19MC&pg=PA217|year=1998|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-10873-7|page=217}}{{cite book|author=Frank & Kikuchi Brinkley|title=A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bzRen1dcdTwC&pg=PT375|year=1912|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=978-1-4655-1304-5|page=375}} The first kyokusui-no-en events were reportedly held in the Kofun period during the reign of Emperor Kenzō, making the ceremony around 1,500 years old.{{cite book|author1=Jien|author2=Delmer Myers Brown|author3=Ichirō Ishida|title=The Future and the Past: A Translation and Study of the Gukanshō, an Interpretative History of Japan Written in 1219|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4f5FrmIJKIC&pg=PA259|year=1979|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-03460-0|page=259}} Other sources, however, suggest that the game originated in the Heian period, around 500 years later; it appears in scrolls from that period and is mentioned in The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon.{{cite web|title=Kyokusui no En Festival|url=http://www.crossroadfukuoka.jp/en/event/?mode=detail&id=4000000001369|website=Cross Road Fukuoka|publisher=Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Association|accessdate=10 May 2017}}{{cite web|last1=Luchinskaya|first1=Daria|title=Report: Kyokusui no En (曲水の庭) – a Heian Poetry Festival|url=http://st-annes-mcr.org.uk/old-site/documents/staar/issue1/heian_poetry_festival_luchinskaya.pdf|publisher=St Anne’s Conferences|accessdate=10 May 2017}}
The ceremony is still performed at the Tenman-gū Shrine in Dazaifu and also in Kyoto. The modern Japanese version of the ceremony was created in 1963; participants dress in Heian era costumes of the nobility and musical accompaniment is provided on the koto.