JANUARY 2, 2026

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

How is your “New Year Hibernation” going? While relaxing and refreshing, having little to do can feel challenging due to boredom. So, there are special games that kids and family enjoy during “the New Year Celebration Time” in Japan. Let me list them up:

o   SUGOROKU - A board game with dice, like Life Game, but much less dramatic

o   HAGOITA - A hybrid of badminton and pickle ball

o   KOMA MAWASHI - Spinning tops, which I have never mastered

o   TAKOAGE - Kite flying, which I enjoyed very much, and I was pretty good at, wishing it was not too cold outside.

o   KARUTA - A game to match cards. There are several types, but generally, one person recites the part of each card, and participants try to find a matching card. I played in the past, but I was not that great.  

I have some memories of these games, but they are not notable. However, I have special feelings about HYAKUNIN ISSHU, so I would like to share them with you now.

HYAKUNIN ISSHU (the formal name is OGURA HYAKUNIN ISSHU) is the anthology of one hundred WAKA poems, selected by TEIKA FUJIWARA in mid-1,200s. The poems are written from the 600s to 1,200s and chronologically ordered in compilation. The poets range from emperors, aristocrats, high level palace workers, to Buddhist monks, and there are 79 men and 21 women, including a famous MURASAKI SHIKIBU who wrote THE TALE OF GENJI.

The reason that TEIKA took this project is really something. His son’s father-in-law built a cottage in KYOTO where he named OGURA. Ah! That is why OGURA HAYKUNIN ISSHU! The father-in-law wanted to have one hundred decorative papers, each had a WAKA written to embellish the slide doors in his newly built cottage. He wanted to be surrounded by WAKA to fully enjoy (I assume). What a concept! Avant-Garde, right? As a side note, it is thought that TEIKA wrote all WAKA. It must have been a lot of work to deal with one hundred papers.

So, what is WAKA? WAKA is Japanese style poem with 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. Japanese is a phonetic language, and each syllable (word) has corresponding sound in KANA, so one WAKA has 31 words (sounds). By the way, if you know KANA sounds (75 total), you can construct sentences in Japanese! Not too bad, right?

KARUTA is a card-matching game as mentioned above. Among them, UTA KARUTA,   is based on WAKA, usually from HYAKUNIN ISSHU. Here is how to play. The cards with the whole WAKA (5-7-5-7-7) are called YOMIFUDA, and the cards with the last two lines (7-7) are called TORIFUDA, which are spread out on the floor. One person (YOMITE) holds all YOMIFUDA cards and randomly picks and recites only the first 3 lines (5-7-5) of each WAKA. Participants listen to that and get a matching of the last 2 lines, TORIFUDA card. You might notice. Yes, to fully engage in this game, you need to know all one hundred WAKA, which are written in a classic Japanese. It is like learning 100 poems in a new language. It is truly demanding, but it can be very rewarding. The Competitive KARUTA has become exceedingly popular in recent years. There are even MANGA, ANIME, books, and TV shows. I watched a new TV series about this subject just recently and totally enjoyed it. Some schools use KARUTA as a study resource, especially for younger students. I wish I had that when I grew up!

I do not remember when it was exactly, but my sister (older) showed me her HYAKUNIN ISSHU book (most likely her textbook) and suggested I memorize just one poem for fun. I was about eight years old. I opened a page randomly to choose one, and I began reading to memorize. At first, I did not understand anything, but I could read KANA, thank you to phonetic Japanese. I finally memorized it after many repetitions. I have been carrying this one WAKA in my heart for decades. My sister taught me what the WAKA was saying. It was about a man who were viewing the moon and yearning to go back to his hometown in NARA.

The WAKA is No. 7 by ABE NO NAKAMARO (698-770). Here is the whole WAKA with my English translation.

AMANO HARA

FURISAKE MIREBA

KASUGANARU

MIKASANO YAMANI

IDESHI TSUKI KAMO

~ Viewing the night sky, I feel I am back in my hometown KASUGA. Look! There is the moon over my childhood MIKASA hills. 

ABE NO NAKAMARO was born in YAMATO (now NARA in Japan) in 698. He was a brilliant young man and sent to Xian, China (the capital city at that time) when he was 19 years old (717). There, he studied and passed the exam to become an officer for the Chinese government. He wrote this WAKA at the farewell party for him to celebrate his going back home in 752. He was 54 years old at that time. He was in China for 35 years already. However, fate could be bitterly harsh sometimes. His ship bounded to Japan went into a severe storm, resulting massive deaths. Li Bai, a renowned Chinese poet and close friend, wrote a eulogy believing NAKAMARO had died. Fortunately, he survived and was washed ashore in Vietnam. After assignment in Vietnam, he finally went back to Xian. After that, though, he never had an opportunity to go back to Japan and ended his life in China at age 73 in 770, about 1,200 years ago.

This WAKA in HYAKUNIN ISSHU is only one written in a foreign country.

It was a long time ago. Traveling between Japan and China was a life-threatening experience then. It was a faraway place, and he was far from his hometown for a long time. This is the story of enormous distance and time, which no one could fill.

Now I also have lived far away from my hometown for years. My random choice of this WAKA makes me feel so close to NAKAMARO. I sometimes even think this WAKA found me, not the other way around. Maybe this WAKA knew everything about my life? Who knows. But one thing is certain. When I visit MIKASA hills someday soon, I will recite the WAKA for you, NAKAMARO! I hope you can join me as a gentle breeze.