Man'yōshū

An eighth-century anthology of more than 4,500 Japanese poems composed from the fourth through eighth centuries. Its poems use manyōgana, Chinese characters employed to represent Japanese sounds and words.

Waka: A Japanese poetic tradition characterized by forms including tanka and chōka. Man'yōshū gathers early examples of the poetic tradition later called waka.
Ōtomo no Yakamochi: An eighth-century Japanese poet and official associated with the compilation of the Man'yōshū. He is traditionally credited with bringing the anthology to completion.
Nara period: A period of Japanese history from 710 to 794, when the capital was at Nara. The anthology took shape in the political and literary world of this period.
Poem 1 of the Man'yōshū: A poem attributed to Emperor Yūryaku that opens the Man'yōshū. Its place at the beginning gives a legendary ruler’s voice a framing role.
Kokugaku: An early modern Japanese intellectual movement that studied classical texts and indigenous traditions. Its scholars treated the anthology as evidence of ancient Japanese language and thought.
Tanka: A five-line Japanese poetic form with a 5–7–5–7–7 syllable pattern. Many anthology poems use the compact form that became known as tanka.
Poetic envoy: A short poem appended to a longer poem, often condensing or reframing its themes. Envoys frequently follow the anthology’s chōka and provide a pointed close.
Asuka period: A period of Japanese history preceding the Nara period, conventionally dated from the late sixth to early eighth century. Some poems preserve traditions associated with the era before Nara.
Poem 4094 of the Man'yōshū: A long poem by Ōtomo no Yakamochi, composed during his service in Etchū. It exemplifies the personal and provincial writing found near the anthology’s end.
Keichū: A seventeenth-century Japanese Buddhist scholar and philologist who studied classical texts. His textual scholarship helped establish rigorous study of the Man'yōshū.

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