SOURCE: Keene, Donald. “The Man'yōshū and Kokinshū Collections.” In Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective: A Guide for Teaching, edited by Barbara Stoler Miller, pp. 363-77. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1994.

In the following excerpt, Keene elucidates the principal features of the Man'yōshū, including its incorporation of Chinese poetic techniques together with an aversion to Chinese words, and compares the reputations of the anthology's major contributors.

The Gi; the man'yōshū =~ Sman'yōshū

The Man'yōshū is the first, and in the opinion of most scholars of Japanese literature, the greatest collection of Japanese poetry. The exact period of the compilation is unknown, but the last dated poem was composed in 759, and the final selection of poems probably took place soon afterwards. The name of the compiler is not given, but there is strong reason to believe that Ōtomo no Yakamochi (718?-85), an important...