Word: waka
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...Japan was jumping. Another year had rolled around, and the annual New Year poetry contest results were proclaimed. This year the subject of the 31-syllable waka competition was "Light,'' a topic chosen by Emperor Hirohito himself. There were more than 23,000 entrants, the most ever, and the 15 winners (Japan's royalty is excluded) included a blind lady who submitted her poem in Braille, and a humble lady day laborer (of a class known to Japanese as anko, which is, in turn, a fish that is mostly mouth and stomach). The Emperor's waka...
...waka that aroused the most popular interest was one submitted by pretty Crown Princess Michiko, 25, who is about to don the traditional pregnancy belt. Her entry...
Cried a court chamberlain, himself a red-hot waka whiz: "Michiko employed eighth-century Manyoshu-style words in two places in her poem-making it difficult even for experts to understand. Prodigious...
...archaic imperial wedding lore under Palace Ritualist Osanaga Kanroji. His bride in hand, the prince was free to join his parents. Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagoko, at a heady gala: the annual poetry-reading contest. Fired by this year's contemporary topic (windows), an astounding 22,427 waka fanciers had submitted the stirrings of their muses. Eleven of the 15 winners were able to join the imperial family in the palace's drafty West Room to hear professional chanters drone the formal. 31-syllable verselets. The Emperor, who is above the burly of competition, had again delighted...
Nagako's waka, read thrice, also lost something in translation...