Man'yōshū
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The Man'yōshū is the oldest extant collection of Japanese waka, compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The comp
A page from the Man'yōshū
Man'yōgana
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Man'yōgana is an ancient Japanese writing system that uses Chinese characters to phonetically represent Old Japanese. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to phonetically tran
Man'yōshū
…the anthology in 759. In addition to its artistic merits, the Man'yōshū is significant for using 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…
A page from Katsura-bon Man'yōshū with poems written with man'yōgana and accompanied by hiragana transcription.