Part of the Picture Scroll of the Eastern Journeys of the Monk Ganjin (Tosei eden) in the collection of Toshodaiji temple in Nara. (top) A 13th-century artist's conception of the arrival of Japanese envoys in Tang China in 752, 16 years after Japan's mission to the Korean Kingdom of Silla. Before the departure of the envoys to the Tang, the Fujiwara Empress Dowager composed this verse for the mission's ambassador, her nephew:

Fitting out his great ship with oars in every oarlock, I send my child off to the land of China. Protect him, O ye gods!
The verse appears in the oldest extant anthology of verse in Japanese, Collection of a Myriad Leaves (Man'yoshu, mid-8th c.) (right) A portrait sculpture of the linked-verse poet Socho (1448-1532). The sculpture evokes Socho's blend of artistic devotion and lively humor. Sculpture owned by Saiokuji temple in Shizuoka Perfecture, once the site of Socho's Brushwood Cottage (Saioku). Back to Horton essay

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