Manyoshu

Asian History Japan

From the Manyoshu Adulation for the Emperor: During her reign, Empress Jito (r. 686-697) made thirty-one imperial visits (kunimi) to different parts of the land. They were conducted to survey the general state of affairs, agricultural production, or matters relating to the subjugation of alien or local chieftains. The spirit of one of such trips was captured by Kakimoto no Hitomaro.

Our great Sovereign, a goddess,

Of her sacred will

Has reared a towering palace

On Yoshinu's shore,

Encircled by its rapids;

And, climbing she surveys the land.

The overlapping mountains,

Rising like green walls,

Offer the blossoms in spring,

And with autumn, show their tinted leaves,

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.

Envoy

The mountains and the waters

Serve our Sovereign, one in will;

And she, a goddess, is out on her pleasure-barge

Upon the foaming rapids.

On the occasion of the Empress climbing the Thunder Hill, Hitomaro also composed the following song of adulation:

Lo, our great Sovereign, a goddess,

Tarries on the Thunder

In the clouds of heaven!

Political Intrigues: Empress Jito ascended the throne after the death of her husband, Emperor Temmu, to insure succession by her grandson. This was necessitated by the untimely death in 689 of her son, Prince Kusakabe. Prior to that, in order to make her own son the Crown Prince, the Empress placed a false charge of rebellion against Prince Otsu, forcing him to commit suicide. The popular, urbane and gifted prince was a son of Emperor Temmu by another consort, and was a leading contender for the throne. The following poems composed by his sister, Princess Oku, Priestess of the Shrine of Ise, poignantly mirror the sorrow of parting for the one who embarked on a journey toward a certain death.

To speed my brother

Parting for Yamato,

In the deep of night I stood

Till wet with the dew of dawn.

The lonely autumn mountains

Are hard to pass over

Even when two go together ?

How does my brother cross them all alone!

And when she arrived in the capital, after his death:

Would that I had stayed

In the land of Ise

Of the Divine Wind.

Why have I come

Now that he is dead!

Now that he is no more --

My dear brother ?

Whom I so longed to see,

Why have I come,

Despite the tired horses!

To the aggrieved sister, Prince Otsu’s last song:

Today, taking my last sight of the mallards

Crying on the pond of Iware,

Must I vanish into the clouds!

they have served as a reminder of the tender moments in the tragic life of their

ince including the love he felt toward one Lady Ishikawa:

Waiting for you,

In the dripping dew of the hill

I stood, -- weary and wet

With the dripping dew of the hill.

By the Prince.

Would I had been, beloved,

The dripping dew of the hill,

That wetted you

While for me you waited.

By the Lady.

Love Songs: The plain of Yamato with its capitals of Asuka, Fujiwara, and Nara, and with Mt. Kagu, Mt. Unebi, and Mt. Miminashi surrounding it, provided the ground for many passionate love affairs and intrigues. Emperor Tenchi (r. 661-672) likened his love for one Princess Nukada, his brother's consort, to the triangular love affairs of the three hills of Yamato:

Mount Kagu strove with Mount Miminashi

For the love of Mount Unebi.

Such is love since the age of the gods;

As it was thus in the early days,

So people strive for spouses even now.

Eventually Princess Nukada became a consort of Emperor Tenchi. One day when she was on an imperial excursion for collecting wild flowers, a man approached waving his sleeves to gain recognition. It was her former beau, Prince Oama (Emperor Temmu, r. 673-686):

Going through the fields of wild flowers,

The field reserved for the party of His Majesty.

Has not the field ranger seen it?

The waving of the sleeves of my Prince!

The gazing eyes of the two met and he sang in response:

My love, resplendent in color and scent,

Must I refrain from loving thee,

Because thou art no longer mine?

No longer could she return to Prince Oama; she sadly discovered that the Emperor’s affection was showered upon other consorts:

While, waiting for you,

My heart is filled with longing

The autumn wind blows --

As if it were you --

Swaying the bamboo blinds of my door.

Poverty: The Manyoshu is rich in the works of common men and reflects the conditions of those suffering people. The following "song of poverty" is by Yamanoue no Okura:

On the night when the rain beats,

Driven by the wind,

On the night when the snowflakes mingle

With the sleety rain,

I feel so helplessly cold.

I nibble at a lump of salt,

Sip the hot, oft-diluted dregs of sake:

And coughing, sniffing,

And stroking my scanty beard,

I say in my pride,

"There's none' worthy, save I!"

But I shiver still with cold.

I pull up my hempen bedclothes,

Wear what few sleeveless clothes I have,

But cold and bitter is the night!

As for those poorer than myself,

Their parents must be cold and hungry,

Their wives and children beg and cry.

Then, how do you struggle through life?

Wide as they call the heaven and earth,

For me they have shrunk quite small;

Bright though they call the sun and moon,

They never shine for me.

Is it the same with all men,

Or for me alone?

By rare chance I was born a man

And no meaner than my fellows,

But, wearing unwadded sleeveless clothes

In tatters, like weeds waving in the sea,

Hanging from my shoulders,

And under the sunken roofs,

Within the leaning walls,

Here I lie on straw

Spread on bare earth,

With my parents at my pillow,

My wife and children at my feet,

All huddled in grief and tears.

No fire sends up smoke

At the cooking-place,

And in the cauldron

A spider spins its web.