Kawabata Yasunari

JAPANESE AUTHOR

WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

See Article History

Kawabata Yasunari, (born June 11, 1899, Ōsaka, Japan—died April 16, 1972, Zushi), Japanese novelist
who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. His melancholic lyricism echoes an ancient Japanese
literary tradition in the modern idiom.

Kawabata Yasunari

QUICK FACTS

Kawabata Yasunari, 1968.

BORN

June 11, 1899

Ōsaka, Japan

DIED

April 16, 1972 (aged 72)

Zushi, Japan

NOTABLE WORKS

“Thousand Cranes”

“Snow Country”

“The Sound of the Mountain”

AWARDS AND HONORS

Nobel Prize (1968)

FOUNDER OF

“Izu no odoriko”

The sense of loneliness and preoccupation with death that permeates much of Kawabata’s mature
writing possibly derives from the loneliness of his childhood (he was orphaned early and lost all near
relatives while still in his youth). He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1924 and made his
entrance into the literary world with the semiautobiographical Izu no odoriko (1926; The Izu Dancer). It
appeared in the journal Bungei jidai (“The Artistic Age”), which he founded with the writer Yokomitsu
Riichi; this journal became the organ of the Neosensualist group with which Kawabata was early
associated.

This school is said to have derived much of its aesthetic from European literary currents such as Dadaism
and Expressionism. Their influence on Kawabata’s novels may be seen in the abrupt transitions between
separate brief, lyrical episodes; in imagery that is frequently startling in its mixture of incongruous
impressions; and in his juxtaposition of the beautiful and the ugly. These same qualities, however, are
present in Japanese prose of the 17th century and in the renga (linked verse) of the 15th century. It is to
the latter that Kawabata’s fiction seemed to draw nearer in later years.

There is a seeming formlessness about much of Kawabata’s writing that is reminiscent of the fluid
composition of renga. His best-known novel, Yukiguni (1948; Snow Country), the story of a forlorn
country geisha, was begun in 1935. After several different endings were discarded, it was completed 12
years later, although the final version did not appear until 1948. Sembazuru (Thousand Cranes), a series
of episodes centred on the tea ceremony, was begun in 1949 and never completed. These and Yama no
oto (1949–54; The Sound of the Mountain) are considered to be his best novels. The later book focuses
on the comfort an old man who cannot chide his own children gets from his daughter-in-law.

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When Kawabata accepted the Nobel Prize, he said that in his work he tried to beautify death and to seek
harmony among man, nature, and emptiness. He committed suicide after the death of his friend
Mishima Yukio.

This article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering, Executive Editorial Director.

BRITANNICA
Yoshida Kenkō

JAPANESE POET

WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

See Article History

Alternative Title: Urabe Kaneyoshi

Yoshida Kenkō, original name Urabe Kaneyoshi, (born c. 1283, Kyōto?—died c. 1350/52, near Kyōto?),
Japanese poet and essayist, the outstanding literary figure of his time. His collection of essays,
Tsurezuregusa (c. 1330; Essays in Idleness, 1967), became, especially after the 17th century, a basic part
of Japanese education, and his views have had a prominent place in subsequent Japanese life.

Yoshida Kenkō

QUICK FACTS

BORN

c. 1283

Kyōto?, Japan

DIED

c. 1350 or c. 1352

Kyōto or near Kyōto, Japan

NOTABLE WORKS

“Essays in Idleness”

He early served at court and took Buddhist orders after the death of the emperor Go-Uda in 1324; but
becoming a priest did not cause him to withdraw from society. On the contrary, he continued to take
active interest in all forms of worldly activities, as his essays indicate. His poetry is conventional, but the
essays of Tsurezuregusa display a perceptiveness and wit that have delighted readers since the 14th
century. Lamentations over the passing of old customs express his conviction that life had sadly
deteriorated from its former glory.
Tsurezuregusa has also been acclaimed for its sections treating aesthetic matters. Beauty for Yoshida
implied impermanence; the shorter-lived a moment or object of beauty, the more precious he
considered it.

Essays in Idleness

The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō, With a New Preface

Translated by Donald Keene

Columbia University Press

Essays in Idleness

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ISBN: 9780231112550

235 pages

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REVIEWS

CONTENTS

EXCERPT

LINKS

AWARDS

Despite the turbulent times in which he lived, the Buddhist priest Kenkō met the world with a measured
eye. As Emperor Go-Daigo fended off a challenge from the usurping Hojo family, and Japan stood at the
brink of a dark political era, Kenkō held fast to his Buddhist beliefs and took refuge in the pleasures of
solitude. Written between 1330 and 1332, Essays in Idleness reflects the congenial priest's thoughts on a
variety of subjects. His brief writings, some no more than a few sentences long and ranging in focus from
politics and ethics to nature and mythology, mark the crystallization of a distinct Japanese principle: that
beauty is to be celebrated, though it will ultimately perish. Through his appreciation of the world around
him and his keen understanding of historical events, Kenkō conveys the essence of Buddhist philosophy
and its subtle teachings for all readers. Insisting on the uncertainty of this world, Kenkō asks that we
waste no time in following the way of Buddha.
In this fresh edition, Donald Keene's critically acclaimed translation is joined by a new preface, in which
Keene himself looks back at the ripples created by Kenkō's musings, especially for modern readers.

Examples of Tanka Poetry

2nd grade3rd grade4th grade5th grade6th grade7th grade8th grade9th grade10th grade11th grade12th
gradeElementary SchoolMiddle SchoolHigh SchoolCollege

Tanka poetry refers to a Japanese 31-syllable poem, traditionally written as a single, unbroken line. The
word "tanka" translates to "short song." Similar to haiku poetry, tanka poems have specific syllable
requirements. They also use many literary devices, including personification, metaphors, and similes to
allow ample visualization.

Let's dive a little deeper into the art form and then enjoy some examples of tanka poetry for a better
picture.

What Is Tanka Poetry?

In the 7th century, tanka poetry was so popular that nobles in the Japanese Imperial court would
participate in tanka poetry competitions. These poems were also tender little keepsakes at the start of a
romance. Two lovers would sneak away in the night to be together and send a tanka poem to one
another the next morning to express their gratitude or love. Traditional Japanese tanka poems consist of
31 syllables written in a single, unbroken line. In English translations, the tanka tends to take on a five-
line form, which brings us to this important note. As you study tanka poetry, you'll notice it bears a
resemblance to sonnets. Midway through a tanka poem, there's a change in perception. In a sonnet, it's
called the volta. In a haiku, there's typically a "turn" between lines two and three. As with a sonnet, the
change occurs as a transition from examining an image to examining a personal response. Here's a little
more on the different types of poems.

Examples From Famous Tanka Poets

Tanka poems are, again, similar to haiku poems in that they often discuss the same topics of emotions,
seasons, nature, love and sadness. Let's meet five of the masters.

Takuboku Ishikawa

Takuboku Ishikawa was born in 1882, in the Iwate prefecture of Japan. He dropped out of school at 16 to
become a poet and is touted as a master of the tanka poetry. He published his first collection of poems
at 19 and moved to Tokyo in 1908 to become a part of the bustling literary scene. Sadly, he died young,
at the age of 30, from tuberculosis. Here's a sample of one of his poems:

Lying on the dune sand this day I recall remotely the anguish of my first love.
Machi Tawara

Machi Tawara is a contemporary Japanese poet, writer, and translator. She's credited with revitalizing
tanka poetry for modern audiences. She was born in 1962, in the Osaka prefecture in Japan. In 1981, she
graduated from Waseda University with a degree in Japanese literature. Today, she manages to combine
modern subjects with classic Japanese poetic forms. She has her own website, The Chocolate Box. Here's
a sample of one of her translated poems:

Cherry, cherry cherry trees begin to bloom,

and bloom is over --

In the park where nothing (it seems) ever happened.

Masaoka Shiki

Masaoka Shiki was born in 1867 in the Ehime Prefecture in Japan. He was born to a samurai class family.
His maternal grandfather was a Confucian scholar. Although Shiki was a major figure in the development
of haiku poetry, he also wrote extensively on the reform of tanka poetry. Here's a sample of one of his
poems:

The bucket's water poured out and gone, drop by drop dew drips like pearls from the autumn flowers.

Mokichi Saito

Mokichi Saito was born in 1882 in what is now known as Kaminoyama, Yamagata, Japan. He was both a
poet and a psychiatrist. Saito graduated from Tokyo Imperial University Medical School before joining the
psychiatry staff of Sugamo Hospital. Upon his death, Saito had published over 17 poetry collections,
totaling more than 14,000 poems. Here's a sample of one of his tanka poems:

Coming to a wall,

a lacewing Mayfly is clinging to it -- the sheer transparency Of the wings, their mournfulness.

Tada Chimako

Tada Chimako was born in 1930 in Fukuoka, Japan. She spent most of her childhood on Tokyo, in the
midst of World War II. Chimako graduated from Tokyo Women's Christian University, where she studied
French literature. Then, she moved on to Keio University to continue her degree in literature. She was a
critically acclaimed writer, including haiku and tanka poetry. Here's a sample of one of her poems:

The hot water in the abandoned kettle slowly cools still carrying the resentment of cold water.

Original Tanka Poetry

Kelly Roper, from our sister site LoveToKnow, demonstrates how varied tanka poetry can be with these
examples.
My beloved kissed me, and my soul shivered with delight when our lips met as gently as butterflies
landing on spring blossoms. A common topic among tanka poems is nature, particularly the changing of
the seasons:

The autumn leaf let go of the branch with a whispered sigh and wafted resignedly down to the earth, its
destiny fulfilled. Tanka poetry can evoke some incredible imagery, including how nature can sound:

A resounding crash followed by deafening silence before the wail of sirens singing their mournful song as
Death rears his head. Of course, expressions of love feature prominently in these types of poems as well:

Joy shot into the sky like a rocket when he asked, "Will you marry me?" and she replied, "I will marry
you, my one true love." Poets writing poems about poetry is perhaps the peak of human expression. The
struggle to perfect the craft is a real one:

Sweating bullets, the poet counted the syllables and rearranged her lines until her tanka poem was utter
perfection.

Paint Life Through Poetic Verse

Poetry paints life through colorful verses and enigmatic imagery. Why not see what you can paint with
your pen and paper? Although tanka is a beautiful art form, you can also try your hand at any of these
other types of poetry? You can even let your hair down and dabble in a little free verse from time to
time. See which form captivates your spirit. Happy painting!

Manyoshu

Definition

Mark Cartwright by Mark Cartwright

published on 02 May 2017 Otomo no Yakamochi (by 柑橘類, Public Domain)

The Manyoshu or 'Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves' is an anthology of ancient Japanese poems
compiled c. 759 CE during the Nara Period but including many earlier works. The most likely person to
have assembled the collection is Otomo no Yakamochi, himself a prolific poet who included nearly 500 of
his own works in the Manyoshu. The Manyoshu is regarded as a literary classic and high point of
Japanese poetry.

Otomo no Yakamochi

Many scholars consider the Manyoshu to have been compiled by the poet Otomo no Yakamochi (c. 718-
785 CE). He certainly included plenty of his own works, some 479 or 10% of the collection. Yakamochi
was born into an aristocratic family and his father was also a poet. When he was 30 years old, Yakamochi
was made governor of the then minor and remote province of Etchu (modern Toyama Prefecture). This
posting perhaps explains the poet’s penchant for themes of separation and loneliness, unrequited love
and descriptions of nature.

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On an evening when the spring mists

Trail over the wide sea,

And sad is the voice of the crane,

I think of my far-off home.

Otomo no Yakamochi (Henshall, 316)

Fortunately for Yakamochi, his posting was not permanent, and when he returned to the capital at Nara,
he was given a role in the Ministry of Military Affairs. This did not stop his love of poetry as he was
known to collect poems from the guards around the city. After 750 CE the poems stop, and Yakamochi
died in 785 CE.

THE MANYOSHU ANTHOLOGY CONSISTS OF 4,496 POEMS ORGANISED INTO 20 BOOKS.

The Manyoshu

The Manyoshu collection contains poems which were all written in the Japanese of that time, i.e. using
Chinese characters phonetically. The work consists of 4,496 poems organised into 20 books, the vast
majority being in the tanka (aka waku) style, that is each poem has precisely 31 syllables in five lines
(5+7+5+7+7). 262 poems, in contrast, are written in the longer nagauta style, which can have up to 200
lines. There are also 62 sedoka poems (six-line poems of 38 syllables) and four poems written in Chinese.
The poems come in three broad thematic categories; zoka (miscellaneous), somon (mutual inquiries or
love poems), and banka (elegies). The poems cover a period of four centuries and it is likely they were
intended to be sung.

Like Yakamochi’s contributions, many of the poems deal with sadness and melancholy. Other famous
names in the collection include Kakinomoto Hitomaro (active 685-705 CE) and Yamanoue Okura (660 - c.
733 CE). The former was only a low-ranked official at court, but he was regarded as the finest poet of the
period. He has more than 80 of his poems in the anthology. Yamanoue Okura, another government
official, but this time with experience of China (he may have come to Japan as a refugee from the Korean
state of Baekje), is represented by 70 poems. He was tutor to the crown prince (future Emperor Shomu),
and his work is noted for its social element, notably on poverty. Other poets who contributed to the
Manyoshu include less well-known poets, diplomats, princesses, emperors, soldiers, peasants, and many
works are anonymous.

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Example Poems

Countless are the mountains

in Yamato,

but perfect is

the heavenly hill of Kagu:

When I climb it

and survey my realm,

Over the wide plain

the smoke wreaths rise and rise,

over the wide sea

the gulls are on the wing;

a beautiful land it is,

Akitsushima,

the Land of Yamato.

Emperor Jomei (Keene, 96)

When, loosened from the winter’s bonds,

The spring appears,

The birds that were silent

Come out and sing,

The flowers that were prisoned

Come out and bloom;

But the hills are so rank with trees

We cannot seek the flowers,

And the flowers are so tangled with weeds

We cannot take them in our hands.

But when on the autumn hill-side

We see the foliage,

We prize the yellow leaves,

Taking them in our hands,

We sigh over the green ones,

Leaving them on the branches;

And that is my only regret -

For me, the autumn hills!

Princess Nukata (Keene, 101)

Our great Sovereign, a goddess,

Of her sacred will

Has reared a towering palace

On Yoshino’s shore,

Encircled by its rapids;

And, climbing, she surveys the land.

The overlapping mountains,

Rising like green walls,

Offer the blossoms with spring,

As godly tributes to the Throne.

The god of the Yu River, to provide the royal table.

Holds the cormorant-fishing

In its upper shallows,

And sinks the fishing-nets

In the lower stream.

Thus, the mountains and the river

Serve our Sovereign, one in will;

It is truly the reign of a divinity.

Kakinomoto Hitomaro (Keene, 103-4)

There I found you, poor man! -

Outstretched on the beach,

On this rough bed of stones,

Amid the busy voices of the waves.

If I but knew where was your home,

I would go and tell;

If your wife but knew,

She would come to tend you.

She, not knowing the way hither,

Must wait, must ever wait,

Restlessly hoping for your return -

Your dear wife - alas!

Kakinomoto Hitomaro (Keene, 111)

Will ever there be

Someone else who will rest

Her head on my arms

As once my beloved wife

Made her pillow there?

Otomo no Tobito (Keene, 133)

Keeping glum silence

In the role of a wise man

Is still not as good

As drinking one’s own sake

And weeping drunken tears.

Otomo no Tobito (Keene, 137)

…And in the cauldron

A spider spins its web.

With not a grain to cook,

We moan like the “night-thrush.”

Then, “to cut”, as the saying is,

“The ends of what is already too short,”

The village headman comes,

With rod in hand, to our sleeping-place,

Growling for his dues.

Must it be so hopeless -

The way of this world?

Yamanoue Okura (Keene, 145)

If it were death to love,

I should have died -

And died again

One thousand times over.

Otomo no Yakamochi (Keene, 151)

Legacy

The poems of the Manyoshu inspired many later poets who copied the styles, imagery, and even phrases
of the great masters. Some later poets wrote extensions of earlier works or their own 'replies' too. Even
in structure the book has been influential, for, although it is not clear why the Manyoshu was divided
into 20 books, it was a model followed by nearly all subsequent Japanese anthologies. The Manyoshu
has been endlessly studied ever since its publication, not only regarding the meaning of the poems but
also to create specialised studies on the biographical details, religious practices, and even the plants
mentioned throughout this most important of Japanese anthologies.

The Manyoshu

The Manyoshu 万葉集 / 萬葉集

Gengo System Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves Plum Blossoms Translation History Ian Hideo Levy
Man'yo Luster

Johannes Schonherr

Emperor Heisei is the first Japanese emperor in about 200 years who retires from his position before
passing away. On May 1st 2019, his son Naruhito will take over the reign.

The Manyoshu.

A Manyoshu poem on ume plum blossoms contained the Chinese characters making up the new era
name Reiwa

Gengo System

Since this was a planned abdication, scholars and political advisers had plenty of time to decide on a new
era name under the gengo system. The gengo system attributes a particular name to the era during
which an emperor sits on the throne. The emperor bears this name only following his death. (From the
day of his coronation until either his death or retirement he is known as Kinjo Tenno ["the current
emperor"] or Tenno Heika ["His Majesty the Emperor"]).
On April 1st 2019, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced the name for the era of upcoming
emperor Naruhito: Reiwa (令和).

The two Chinese characters spelling the name and creating the officially announced meaning of
"Beautiful Harmony" were taken from the Manyoshu, the first great collection of Japanese poems,
published in about 759 A.D.

That was a first. Previously, the names for the reigning periods of Japanese emperors had always been
taken from classical Chinese literature.

The two characters forming the word reiwa appear in the introduction to the section "Thirty-Two Poems
on Plum Blossoms":

It was in new spring, in a fair (Rei) month,

When the air was clear and the wind a gentle (wa) breeze.

Plum flowers blossomed a beauty's charming white

And the fragrance of the orchids was their sweet perfume.

Reiwa era from the Manyoshu.

On smart phone TV: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga holds sign showing the Chinese characters
for Reiwa. Both upper and lower lines read: "The new era name Reiwa was taken from the Manyoshu."

Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves

The Manyoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves or Collection of Multiple Leaves) is a collection of
4,516 poems in 20 volumes covering a wide range of topics, from life in the imperial capital of Nara to
travel to the beauty of nature to the pleasures of sake, just to mention a few.

The poems were written by emperors, court ladies and other members of the nobility, by poets famous
at their time as well as by a good number of common people.
Otomo no Yakamochi (718-785), a Nara Period government official, wrote some of the latest entries and
it was he who completed the collection in about the year 759.

The Manyoshu was originally written entirely in Chinese characters. Some of them were used for their
meaning, some for their sounds. The latter ones became over time more and more simplified until they
turned into the hiragana and katakana letters used today.

Many Chinese characters were however used in both capacities, they were used for plays on words and
meanings, as puns and to provide additional layers of interpretation.

Scholars have been arguing from the time of publication about the meaning of many of those
expressions.

The Manyoshu is still very popular in Japan today. A multitude of pocket books offering "best of"
selections of the Manyoshu poems is available in Japanese bookstores. People take those pocket books
on hiking trips, people recite from them. They are part of daily life.

The Manyoshu does offer quite a few fun poems after all. "The Thirteen Poems in Praise of Wine" (or
rather sake) written by Lord Otomo no Tabito (665 - 731), the father of Otomo no Yakamochi, are eternal
favorites. This is one of them:

How ugly!

Those men who,

with airs of wisdom

refuse to drink wine.

Take a good look,

and they resemble apes.

(translation by Ian Hideo Levy)

Many of the selections also contain the "Thirty-Two Poems on Plum Blossoms". They are considered
especially beautiful.

The imperial era name Reiwa was thus not taken from some obscure part of the Manyoshu but from one
of its still most popular poems.

Japanese edition of the complete Manyoshu printed in 1981.

Japanese edition of the complete Manyoshu printed in 1981

Manyoshu poems on the pleasures of sake.

Manyoshu poems on the pleasures of sake written in Chinese characters with Japanese hiragana letters
next to them

Plum Blossoms

In the Nara Period (710 - 794), plum blossoms were considered the most beautiful of blossoms.

They marked the beginning of the year according to the Chinese Calendar, as well as the beginning of
spring. References to plum blossoms are made throughout the whole Manyoshu.

It was in Heian Times (794 - 1192) that the attention shifted to the still celebrated cherry blossoms.

Translation History

The first attempt at translating a longer poem from the Manyoshu into a western language was
undertaken by the German linguist Julius Klaproth (1783 - 1835). Klaproth spoke fluent Chinese,
Mongolian, Sanskrit and other Asian languages.

Japan was still closed to foreigners during Klaproth's lifetime. Klaproth traveled, however, to Siberia in
1834 and worked there on his translation with Japanese fishermen who had drifted off their homeland
and who were forbidden to return.
Those illiterate fishermen were not exactly reliable partners when it came to the interpretation of 8th
century poetry.

From the Meiji Period (1868 - 1912) on, numerous translations of Manyoshu poems were published,
most notably by the British scholar and Japanologist Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850 - 1935).

The most widely available English-language edition of the Manyoshu dates back to 1940. In that year, a
selection of 1000 Poems from the Manyoshu was published under the title The Manyoshu: The Nippon
Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation of One Thousand Poems. It was the work of a group of Japanese
scholars, named the Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Japanese Classics Translation Committee, working in
close collaboration with Tokyo resident English poet Ralph Hodgson (1871 - 1962).

Re-issued by Columbia University Press in 1965 and continually in print since then, the Nippon Gakujutsu
Shinkokai edition is currently the most easily available and most affordable English translation of the
Manyoshu.

A complete translation of all the 4516 poems in the Manyoshu titled The Manyoshu: A New and
Complete Translation was published by Japanese scholar H.H. Honda in 1967 through Hokuseido Press.
The book has long been out of print and purchasing a copy today is rather costly.

Selected Manyoshu poems published as pocket book in 1984.

Selected Manyoshu poems published as pocket book in 1984

Ian Hideo Levy

A more recent Manyoshu scholar is Ian Hideo Levy. Known in Japan as Ribi Hideo (リービ 英雄), Levy
was born in Berkeley, California in 1950. His father was a diplomat deployed to East Asia. Thus, Levy grew
up in Taiwan, Hong Kong and from 1967 on, in Japan.

His translation of a selection of Manyoshu poems, titled The Ten Thousand Leaves, won him the 1982
National Book Award in the Translation Category.
Levy gained fame in Japan for his Japanese-language fiction writing which won him several prestigious
Japanese literary prizes. He was for example the first foreigner to win the Noma Literary New Face Prize
in 1992, he was a nominee for the Akutagawa Prize in 1996.

Man'yo Luster cover.

Man'yo Luster cover

Man'yo Luster

Over the years, Levy returned again and again to the Manyoshu, publishing short selections in English
and reflecting in Japanese-language publications on the challenges of such translations.

Levy provided the English translations for the Manyoshu poem collection Man'yo Luster (Pie Books,
Tokyo, 2002).

The Man'yo Luster is a bilingual edition of about 200 Manyoshu poems combined with fitting
atmospheric photos of traditional Japanese sceneries by Hakudo Inoue. Kazuya Takaoka designed the
book and its cover.

The book is a piece of art in itself. As such, it's not a pocket book you might want to take with you on
your travels.

Ideally, it's a book you keep in that tatami floor room of your house with the view onto the Japanese
garden outside.

Sit down with a traditional Japanese tea set and a few Japanese sweets, pour a cup of hand-picked
quality green tea and casually peruse the pages.

Hakudo Inoue's photographs feel timeless. They depict Japan today, of course, but Inoue could just as
well have been called in by a Nara era emperor to take the same images. Images of nature, images of
ancient rituals, images of the rice harvest, most of them taken in and around Nara.
The page-filling images correspond perfectly to Levy's translations of the ancient poems - poems that, as
noted by Levy in the introduction, seem to have been written only yesterday.

Their deep spiritual connection to nature and their depth of understanding human desires and sorrows
make them quite contemporary.

Man'yo Luster

Bilingual edition in English and Japanese

Published by Pie Books, Tokyo, 2002

392 pages

ISBN-10: 4894441861

ISBN-13: 978-4894441866

Man'yo Luster is available from Amazon

On the Amazon site, it says "Japanese edition." The book is however in English and Japanese.

The Manyoshu contains many poems on the rice harvest (photo by Johannes Schonherr)

The Manyoshu contains many poems on the rice harvest (photo by Johannes Schonherr)