The eighth-century poetry anthology ¡°Manyoshu¡± is to Japan something like what the Bible is to Judeo-Christian civilization: its cultural foundation. Each is a record of its people¡¯s childhood.
No two childhoods are alike. Some are blessed, others cursed, some tranquil, others fraught. ¡°Forth to the field of spring I went to gather violets ¡ª enamored of the field I slept there all night through¡± ¡ª ¡°composed,¡± the original ¡°Manyoshu¡± editors explain in a footnote to this innocent little ditty, ¡°by imperial command during the Emperor¡¯s sojourn at the Palace of Yoshinu in summer, in the sixth month of the eighth year of Tempyo (736).¡± We search the Old Testament in vain for anything so simple, unadorned, innocent, childlike ¡ª so naively radiant with the sheer joy of being alive.
The Bible¡¯s radiance is another light altogether: fire, brimstone, sin, punishment, divine law, human disobedience ¡ª out of weakness? Obstinacy? Evil? All. Human sin begets divine wrath, terrible in its fury. ¡°I am a jealous God,¡± said God, ¡°punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.¡± True, also ¡°showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments¡± ¡ª why, then, were they so few?
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