Manyoshu

Manyoshu 

the first anthology of Japanese poetry (second half of the eighth century), reflecting the transition from song to written poetry.

The Manyoshu consists of 20 scrolls and includes 4,516 poems, consisting of love lyrics, nature lyrics, odes, elegies, and verse on legendary, social, and everyday themes. The “short song,” or tanka, occupies a predominant place in the anthology. The Manyoshu includes such well-known poets as Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (late seventh and early eighth centuries), Yamabe no Akahito (first half of the eighth century), and Otomo no Yakamochi (718-785), as well as folk poetry. It has great importance as an early poetical work that laid the foundations for the entire subsequent development of Japanese poetry.

REFERENCES

Manyoshu. In the series “Nihon koten bungaku taikei.” Toyko, 1958.
In Russian translation:
In Iaponskie piatistishiia. Moscow, 1971.
Man”esiu: Sobranie miriad list’ev, vols. 1-3. Introduction and commentary by A. E. Gluskina. Moscow, 1971-72.