Man'yoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves)

Otomo no Yakamochi and others (compilers) · after 759

Overview

Twenty scrolls with about 4,500 poems, covering some 130 years from the early seventh century to a poem by Otomo no Yakamochi in the first month of 759. It includes long poems (choka), short poems (tanka) and other forms, and the contents fall broadly into miscellaneous poems, love poems (somon) and laments for the dead (banka). The poets range from emperors, princes and officials to ordinary people of the eastern provinces in the "eastland poems" and the poems of frontier guards. It is written in man'yogana, which uses the sounds and meanings of Chinese characters to write Japanese, and Otomo no Yakamochi is thought to have played a large part in its final form.

Background

This was the age when the state under written law was taking shape, as the capital moved from Asuka and Fujiwara to Heijo (Nara). At court, poets such as Kakinomoto no Hitomaro sang of imperial journeys and the deaths of princes, and poetry was tied to state ritual. More officials were posted to the provinces, and poetry banquets were held at Dazaifu in Tsukushi and at the provincial office of Etchu. The poems of the frontier guards, sent from the east to defend Kyushu, carry the voices of people who bore the heavy burdens of the new system.

Highlights

  1. Princess Nukata and Prince Oama"Going through the madder-red purple fields…" and "You, glowing like the purple flower…", exchanged at the medicine hunt on Gamo Plain. They can be read as banquet entertainment, or as a secret love.Read “Gamo Plain” →
  2. Setting sail from Nikitatsu"At Nikitatsu, as we wait for the moon… Now, let us row out!" A powerful poem announcing the departure of the fleet sent to rescue Paekche.Read “Nikitatsu (Matsuyama)” →
  3. The plum-blossom banquet at DazaifuThe preface written for the banquet at Otomo no Tabito's house is the source of the era name Reiwa. The refinement of officials far from the capital.Read “Thirty-two Poems on Plum Blossoms” →
  4. Legends of the east in verseTakahashi no Mushimaro's poem on the legend of Tekona of Mama, and the kagai of Mount Tsukuba. Local traditions survive in the form of poems.Read “Mama (Ichikawa)” →