Emperor Hirohito's scratchy penmanship will be on show for the first time with a collection of rare handwritten “waka” poems he composed in his waning years. The special exhibition at the ...

“Gendai Hyakunin Isshu” (A modern version of a collection of one hundred waka poems by one hundred poets) was published 25 years ago. The apparent gibberish “Mijikabino/ Kyapuriki toreba ...

1,000 years ago, aristocrats would compose short Waka poems seated by a babbling brook at the imperial palace, sipping sake and admiring the changes in the seasons. This outdoor party was revived ...

Their compositions shaped Japanese court poetry, or “waka” in Japanese, which is rooted in nature and its constant seasonal cycle. However, it is the sakura, not plum trees, that occupies a ...

Introduced from China around 1,500 years ago, plums were already cherished as ornamental trees in the Nara period (710–794) appearing in many classic waka poems. By the Kamakura period (1185 ...