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53-584: In the narrower sense, Fudoki refer to the oldest records written in the Nara period , later called Kofudoki ( 古風土記 ) (Old-Fudoki). Compilation of Kofudoki began in 713 and was completed over a 20-year period. Following the Taika Reform in 646 and the Code of Taihō enacted in 701, there was need to centralize and solidify the power of the imperial court. This included accounting for lands under its control. According to

106-588: A Chinese version of Buddhism . Concentrated efforts by the imperial court to record its history produced the first works of Japanese literature during the Nara period. Works such as the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki were political, used to record and therefore justify and establish the supremacy of the rule of the emperors within Japan . With the spread of written language,

159-507: A combination of these. Such usage of Chinese characters to phonetically represent Japanese syllables eventually led to the birth of kana , as they were created from simplified cursive forms ( hiragana ) and fragments ( katakana ) of man'yōgana . Like the majority of surviving Old Japanese literature, the vast majority of the Man'yōshū is written in Western Old Japanese,

212-570: A member of the Fujiwara clan, Hirotsugu, launched a rebellion from his base in Fukuoka, Kyushu. Although the rebellion was defeated, there is no doubt that the emperor was shocked and frightened by these events, and he moved the palace three times in only five years from 740, until he eventually returned to Nara. In the late Nara period, financial burdens on the state increased, and the court began dismissing nonessential officials. In 792 universal conscription

265-522: A period of roughly a century, with scholars assigning the major poets of the collection to one or another of the four "periods" discussed above. Princess Nukata 's poetry is included in that of the first period (645–672), while the second period (673–701) is represented by the poetry of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro , generally regarded as the greatest of Man'yōshū poets and one of the most important poets in Japanese history. The third period (702–729) includes

318-509: A preface to the Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkō Kai edition of the Man'yōshū : One "envoy" ( hanka ) to a long poem was translated as early as 1834 by the celebrated German orientalist Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1783–1835). Klaproth, having journeyed to Siberia in pursuit of strange languages, encountered some Japanese castaways, fishermen, hardly ideal mentors for the study of 8th century poetry. Not surprisingly, his translation

371-551: A unique culture that was different from the Japanese people. They were eventually subjugated by the Ritsuryō . Relations with the Korean kingdom of Silla were initially peaceful, with regular diplomatic exchanges. The rise of Balhae north of Silla destabilized Japan-Silla relations. Balhae sent its first mission in 728 to Nara, which welcomed them as the successor state to Goguryeo , with which Japan had been allied until Silla unified

424-511: Is divided into 20 parts or books; this number was followed in most later collections. The collection contains 265 chōka (long poems), 4,207 tanka (short poems), one an-renga (short connecting poem), one bussokusekika (a poem in the form 5-7-5-7-7-7; named for the poems inscribed on the Buddha's footprints at Yakushi-ji in Nara ), four kanshi (Chinese poems), and 22 Chinese prose passages. Unlike later collections, such as

477-511: The Kokin Wakashū , there is no preface. The Man'yōshū is widely regarded as being a particularly unique Japanese work, though its poems and passages did not differ starkly from its contemporaneous (for Yakamochi's time) scholarly standard of Chinese literature and poetics; many entries of the Man'yōshū have a continental tone, earlier poems having Confucian or Taoist themes and later poems reflecting on Buddhist teachings. However,

530-555: The Man'yōshū also preserves the names of earlier Japanese poetic compilations, these being the Ruijū Karin ( 類聚歌林 , Forest of Classified Verses) , several texts called the Kokashū ( 古歌集 , Collections of Antique Poems) , as well as at least four family or individual anthologies known as kashū ( 家集 ) belonging to Kakimoto no Hitomaro, Kasa no Kanamura, Takahashi no Mushimaro and Tanabe no Sakimaro. The literal translation of

583-476: The Man'yōshū is considered singular, even in comparison with later works, in choosing primarily Ancient Japanese themes, extolling Shintō virtues of forthrightness ( 真 , makoto ) and virility ([[[wiktionary:益荒男振り|masuraoburi]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) ). In addition, the language of many entries of the Man'yōshū exerts a powerful sentimental appeal to readers: [T]his early collection has something of

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636-545: The Man'yōshū . A mokkan excavated in Kizugawa, Kyoto , contains the first 11 characters of poem 2205 from volume 10, written in Man'yōgana . It is dated between 750 and 780, and its size is 23.4 by 2.4 by 1.2 cm (9.21 by 0.94 by 0.47 in). Inspection with an infrared camera revealed other characters, suggesting that the mokkan was used for writing practice. Another mokkan , excavated in 1997 from

689-559: The Shoku Nihongi , Empress Genmei issued a decree in 713 ordering each provincial government ( ja:国衙 , kokuga ) to collect and report the following information: Empress Genmei ordered in 713 that place names in the provinces, districts, and townships be written in two kanji characters with positive connotations. This occasionally required name changes. For example, Hayatsuhime ( 速津媛 ) became Hayami ( 速見 ) and Ishinashi no Oki ( 石無堡 ) became Ishii ( 石井 ) . At least 48 of

742-499: The Agency for Cultural Affairs called on the prefectural governments to build open-air museums and parks called Fudoki no Oka ( 風土記の丘 , "Fudoki Hills" ) near historic sites such as tombs ( kofun ) and provincial temples . These archaeological museums preserve and exhibit cultural properties to enhance public understanding of provincial history and culture. Nara period The Nara period ( 奈良時代 , Nara jidai ) of

795-473: The Gokishichidō provinces contributed to their records but only that of Izumo remains nearly complete. Partial records of Hizen , Bungo , Harima and Hitachi remain and a few passages from various volumes remain scattered throughout various books. Those of Harima and Hizen are designated National Treasures . Below is a list of extant manuscripts and scattered passages. In 1966

848-577: The Hyakumantō Darani — many examples of which survive. The small scrolls, dating from 770, are among the earliest printed works in the world. Shōtoku had the charms printed to placate the Buddhist clergy. She may even have wanted to make Dōkyō emperor, but she died before she could act. Her actions shocked Nara society and led to the exclusion of women from imperial succession and the removal of Buddhist priests from positions of political authority. Many of

901-546: The Man'yōshū , including commentaries, the original text, and translations of the prose elements in-between poems. He completed, in order, volumes 15, 5, 14, 20, 17, 18, 1, 19, 2, and 16 before his death in 2022, with volume 10 set to be released posthumously. In premodern Japan, officials used wooden slips or tablets of various sizes, known as mokkan , for recording memoranda, simple correspondence, and official dispatches. Three mokkan that have been excavated contain text from

954-819: The Tang court every twenty years. Many Japanese students, both lay and Buddhist priests, studied in Chang'an and Luoyang . One student named Abe no Nakamaro passed the Chinese civil examination to be appointed to governmental posts in China. He served as governor-general in Annam (Chinese Vietnam ) from 761 through 767. Many students who returned from China, such as Kibi no Makibi , were promoted to high government posts. Tang China never sent official envoys to Japan, for Japanese kings, or "emperors" as they styled themselves, did not seek investiture from

1007-560: The Three Kingdoms of Korea . Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB The Man'yōshū ( 万葉集 , pronounced [maɰ̃joꜜːɕɯː] ; literally "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves") is the oldest extant collection of Japanese waka (poetry in Old Japanese or Classical Japanese ), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period . The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or

1060-693: The Tōdai-ji (literally Eastern Great Temple) was built. Within it was placed the Great Buddha Daibutsu : a 16-metre-high, gilt-bronze statue. This Buddha was identified with the Sun Goddess, and a gradual syncretism of Buddhism and Shinto ensued. Shōmu declared himself the "Servant of the Three Treasures " of Buddhism: the Buddha, the law or teachings of Buddhism, and the Buddhist community. The central government established temples called kokubunji in

1113-446: The history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara ). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kanmu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyō , in 784, before moving to Heian-kyō , modern Kyoto , a decade later in 794. Japanese society during this period

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1166-436: The kanji that make up the title Man'yōshū ( 万 — 葉 — 集 ) is "ten thousand — leaves — collection". The principal interpretations of this name, according to the 20th century scholar Sen'ichi Hisamatsu  [ ja ] , are: Of these, supporters of the first interpretation can be further divided into: Furthermore, supporters of the second interpretation of the name can be divided into: The third interpretation of

1219-423: The provinces . The Tōdai-ji was the kokubunji of Yamato Province (present-day Nara Prefecture ). Although these efforts stopped short of making Buddhism the state religion, Nara Buddhism heightened the status of the imperial family. Buddhist influence at court increased under the two reigns of Shōmu's daughter. As Empress Kōken (r. 749–758) she brought many Buddhist priests into court. Kōken abdicated in 758 on

1272-513: The 31-syllable count of tanka and the latter preserving the 5-7 pattern of syllables in each line. Ian Hideo Levy published the first of what was intended to be a four volume English translation in 1981 for which he received the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature . In 2009, Alexander Vovin published the first volume of his English translation of

1325-666: The Chinese emperor. A local Chinese government in the Lower Yangzi Valley sent a mission to Japan to return Japanese envoys who entered China through Balhae . The Chinese local mission could not return home due to the An Lushan Rebellion and remained in Japan. The Hayato people (隼人) in southern Kyushu frequently resisted rule by the imperial dynasty during the Nara period. They are believed to be of Austronesian origin and had

1378-534: The Japanese artworks and imported treasures from other countries during the era of Emperors Shōmu and Shōtoku are archived in Shōsō-in of Tōdai-ji temple. They are called "Shōsōin treasures" and illustrate the cosmopolitan culture known as Tempyō culture . Imported treasures show the cultural influences of Silk Road areas, including China, Korea, India, and the Islamic empire. Shosoin stores more than 10,000 paper documents,

1431-458: The Korean kingdom of Paekche , whose poetry is highly idiosyncratic in both its language and subject matter and has been highly praised in modern times. Yakamochi himself was a poet of the fourth period (730–759), and according to Keene he "dominated" this period. He composed the last dated poem of the anthology in 759. In addition to its artistic merits, the Man'yōshū is significant for using

1484-478: The Man'yōshū between 1929 and 1963, although this is described by Alexander Vovin as "seriously outdated" due to Pierson having "ignored or misunderstood many facts of Old Japanese grammar and phonology" which had been established in the 20th century. Japanese scholars Honda Heihachiro (1967) and Suga Teruo (1991) both produced complete literary translations into English, with the former using rhymed iambic feet and preserving

1537-619: The Miyamachi archaeological site in Kōka, Shiga , contains poem 3807 in volume 16. It is dated to the middle of the 8th century, and is 2 centimetres (0.79 in) wide by 1 millimetre (0.039 in) thick. Lastly, a mokkan excavated at the Ishigami archaeological site in Asuka, Nara , contains the first 14 characters of poem 1391, in volume 7, written in Man'yōgana . Its size

1590-399: The advice of her cousin, Fujiwara no Nakamaro . When the retired empress came to favor a Buddhist faith healer named Dōkyō , Nakamaro rose up in arms in 764 but was quickly crushed. Kōken charged the ruling emperor with colluding with Nakamaro and had him deposed. Kōken reascended the throne as Empress Shōtoku (r. 764–770). The empress commissioned the printing of 1 million prayer charms —

1643-444: The city of Nara at the end of the eighth century. Shorelines and stone settings were naturalistic, different from the heavier, earlier continental mode of constructing pond edges. Two such gardens have been found at excavations; both were used for poetry-writing festivities. The Nara court aggressively imported knowledge about the Chinese civilization of its day (the Tang dynasty ) by sending diplomatic envoys known as kentōshi to

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1696-422: The court after the death of Fujiwara no Fuhito . Fuhito was succeeded by four sons, Muchimaro , Umakai , Fusasaki , and Maro. They put Emperor Shōmu, the prince by Fuhito's daughter, on the throne. In 729, they arrested Nagaya and regained control. As a major outbreak of smallpox spread from Kyūshū in 735, all four brothers died two years later, resulting in temporary reduction in the Fujiwara dominance. In 740,

1749-545: The death of an emperor because of the ancient belief that a place of death was polluted. Reforms and bureaucratization of government led to the establishment of a permanent imperial capital at Heijō-kyō , or Nara , in AD 710. The capital was moved shortly (for reasons described later in this section) to Kuni-kyō (present-day Kizugawa ) in 740–744, to Naniwa-kyō (present-day Osaka ) in 744–745, to Shigarakinomiya (紫香楽宮, present-day Shigaraki ) in 745, and moved back to Nara in 745. Nara

1802-593: The dialect of the capital region around Kyoto and Nara . However, specific parts of the collection, particularly volumes 14 and 20, are also highly valued by historical linguists for the information they provide on other Old Japanese dialects , as these volumes collectively contain over 300 poems from the Azuma provinces of eastern Japan—what is now the regions of Chūbu , Kanto , and southern Tōhoku . Julius Klaproth produced some early, severely flawed translations of Man'yōshū poetry. Donald Keene explained in

1855-497: The earliest Japanese writing system, the cumbersome man'yōgana . Though it was by no means the first use of this writing system—which was used to compose the Kojiki (712), —it was influential enough to give the writing system its modern name, as man'yōgana means "the kana of the Man'yō[shū] ". This system uses Chinese characters in a variety of functions: logographically to represent Japanese words, phonetically to represent Japanese sounds, and frequently in

1908-422: The era was the permanent establishment of Buddhism . Buddhism was introduced by Baekje in the sixth century but had a mixed reception until the Nara period, when it was heartily embraced by Emperor Shōmu . Shōmu and his Fujiwara consort were fervent Buddhists and actively promoted the spread of Buddhism, making it the "guardian of the state" and a way of strengthening Japanese institutions. During Shōmu's reign,

1961-448: The freshness of dawn [...] There are irregularities not tolerated later, such as hypometric lines; there are evocative place names and makurakotoba ; and there are evocative exclamations such as kamo , whose appeal is genuine even if incommunicable. In other words, the collection contains the appeal of an art at its pristine source with a romantic sense of venerable age and therefore of an ideal order since lost. The compilation of

2014-503: The last great chōka poets, who recorded a number of Japanese legends such as that of Ura no Shimako ; and Kasa no Kanamura , a high-ranking courtier who also composed chōka but not as well as Hitomaro or Mushimaro. But the most prominent and important poets of the third period were Ōtomo no Tabito , Yakamochi's father and the head of a poetic circle in the Dazaifu , and Tabito's friend Yamanoue no Okura , possibly an immigrant from

2067-403: The last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi , although numerous other theories have been proposed. The chronologically last datable poem in the collection is from AD 759 ( No.  4516). It contains many poems from a much earlier period, with the bulk of the collection representing the period between AD 600 and 759. The precise significance of

2120-527: The late eleventh century, the city was popularly called Kyoto (capital city), the name it has had ever since. Some of Japan's literary monuments were written during the Nara period, including the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki , the first national histories, compiled in 712 and 720 respectively; the Man'yōshū , an anthology of poems; and the Kaifūsō , an anthology written in kanji by Japanese emperors and princes. Another major cultural development of

2173-474: The name - that it refers to a poetry collection that uses a large quantity of paper - was proposed by Yūkichi Takeda in his Man'yōshū Shinkai jō ( 萬葉集新解上 ) , but Takeda also accepted the second interpretation; his theory that the title refers to the large volume of paper used in the collection has not gained much traction among other scholars. The collection is customarily divided into four periods. The earliest dates to prehistoric or legendary pasts, from

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2226-416: The poems of Takechi no Kurohito , whom Donald Keene called "[t]he only new poet of importance" of the early part of this period, when Fujiwara no Fuhito promoted the composition of kanshi (poetry in classical Chinese ). Other "third period" poets include: Yamabe no Akahito , a poet who was once paired with Hitomaro but whose reputation has suffered in modern times; Takahashi no Mushimaro , one of

2279-571: The rise of taxes led to the loss or abandonment of land by many people who became the "wave people" ( furōsha ). Some of these formerly "public people" were privately employed by large landholders, and "public lands" increasingly reverted to the shōen . Factional fighting at the imperial court continued throughout the Nara period. Imperial family members, leading court families, such as the Fujiwara , and Buddhist priests all contended for influence. Earlier during this period, Prince Nagaya seized power at

2332-543: The so-called Shōsōin documents ( 正倉院文書 ) . These are records written in the reverse side of the sutra or in the wrapping of imported items that survived as a result of reusing wasted official documents. Shōsōin documents contribute greatly to the historical research of Japanese political and social systems of the Nara period, and they even can be used to trace the development of the Japanese writing systems (such as katakana ). The first authentically Japanese gardens were built in

2385-563: The time of Emperor Yūryaku ( r.   c.  456  – c.  479 ) to those of the little documented Emperor Yōmei (r. 585–587), Saimei (r. 594–661), and finally Tenji (r. 668–671) during the Taika Reforms and the time of Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669). The second period covers the end of the 7th century, coinciding with the popularity of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro , one of Japan's greatest poets. The third period spans 700 – c.  730 and covers

2438-663: The title is not known with certainty. The Man'yōshū comprises more than 4,500 waka poems in 20 volumes, and is broadly divided into three genres: Zoka , songs at banquets and trips; Somonka , songs about love between men and women; and Banka , songs to mourn the death of people. These songs were written by people of various statuses, such as the Emperor, aristocrats, junior officials, Sakimori soldiers ( Sakimori songs), street performers, peasants, and Togoku folk songs (Eastern songs). There are more than 2,100 waka poems by unknown authors. The collection

2491-418: The works of such poets as Yamabe no Akahito , Ōtomo no Tabito and Yamanoue no Okura . The fourth period spans 730–760 and includes the work of the last great poet of this collection, the compiler Ōtomo no Yakamochi himself, who not only wrote many original poems but also edited, updated and refashioned an unknown number of ancient poems. The vast majority of the poems of the Man'yōshū were composed over

2544-473: The writing of Japanese poetry , known in Japanese as waka , began. The largest and longest-surviving collection of Japanese poetry, the Man'yōshū , was compiled from poems mostly composed between 600 and 759 CE. This, and other Nara texts, used Chinese characters to express the sounds of Japanese , known as man'yōgana . Before the Taihō Code was established, the capital was customarily moved after

2597-416: Was Japan's first truly urban center. It soon had a population of 200,000 (representing nearly 7% of the country's population) and some 10,000 people worked in government jobs. Economic and administrative activity increased during the Nara period. Roads linked Nara to provincial capitals, and taxes were collected more efficiently and routinely. Coins were minted, if not widely used. Outside the Nara area, there

2650-404: Was abandoned, and district heads were allowed to establish private militia forces for local police work. Decentralization of authority became the rule despite the reforms of the Nara period. Eventually, to return control to imperial hands, the capital was moved in 784 to Nagaoka-kyō and in 794 to Heian-kyō (literally Capital of Peace and Tranquility), about twenty-six kilometers north of Nara. By

2703-588: Was anything but accurate. In 1940, Columbia University Press published a translation created by a committee of Japanese scholars and revised by the English poet, Ralph Hodgson . This translation was accepted in the Japanese Translation Series of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Dutch scholar Jan L. Pierson completed an English translation of

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2756-428: Was little commercial activity, and in the provinces the old Shōtoku land reform systems declined. By the mid-eighth century, shōen (landed estates), one of the most important economic institutions in prehistoric Japan, began to rise as a result of the search for a more manageable form of landholding. Local administration gradually became more self-sufficient, while the breakdown of the old land distribution system and

2809-432: Was predominantly agricultural and centered on village life. Most of the villagers followed Shintō , a religion based on the worship of natural and ancestral spirits named kami . The capital at Nara was modeled after Chang'an , the capital city of the Tang dynasty . In many other ways, the Japanese upper classes patterned themselves after the Chinese, including adopting the Chinese writing system, Chinese fashion, and

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