This original selection of verses from the time-honored collection of Japanese poetry reflects the many facets of love, from paeans to conjugal love to descriptions of fierce competition for spouses. Text is in English only.

Features 1,000 poems from the oldest Japanese poetry anthology, chosen by a scholarly committee based on their poetic excellence and their role in revealing the Japanese national spirit and character. Text is in English only.

This collection of Japanese poetry and paintings is a wonderful addition to the collection of any enthusiast of Japanese poetry or culture. Land of the Reed Plains presents a rare and beautiful combination of Japanese lyric genius and artistic mastery. The poetry comes from the Manyoshu, Japan's earliest and greatest anthology and masterpiece of world literature, ably translated by Kenneth Yasuda. The 100 paintings that accompany the poems, each in full color, are the work of the contemporary Japanese artist Sanko Inoue. Their ability to evoke the beauties of an ancient past in a technique that speaks both of tradition and of today, confirms again the high and versatile place Sanko occupies in Japan's art world.

The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature provides, for the first time, a history of Japanese literature with comprehensive coverage of the premodern and modern eras in a single volume. The book is arranged topically in a series of short, accessible chapters for easy access and reference, giving insight into both canonical texts and many lesser known, popular genres, from centuries-old folk literature to the detective fiction of modern times. The various period introductions provide an overview of recurrent issues that span many decades, if not centuries. The book also places Japanese literature in a wider East Asian tradition of Sinitic writing and provides comprehensive coverage of women's literature as well as new popular literary forms, including manga (comic books). An extensive bibliography of works in English enables readers to continue to explore this rich tradition through translations and secondary reading.

In Man’yōshū and the Imperial Imagination in Early Japan, Torquil Duthie examines the literary representation of the late seventh-century Yamato court as a realm of "all under heaven.” Through close readings of the early volumes of the poetic anthology Man’yōshū (c. eighth century) and the last volumes of the official history Nihon shoki (c. 720), Duthie shows how competing political interests and different styles of representation produced not a unified ideology, but rather a “bundle” of disparate imperial imaginaries collected around the figure of the imperial sovereign. Central to this process was the creation of a tradition of vernacular poetry in which Yamato courtiers could participate and recognize themselves as the cultured officials of the new imperial realm.