Interpretation of the title of the Man'yōshū
The meaning title of the Man'yōshū, an eighth-century Japanese anthology of waka poetry, has been the subject of speculation and debate. The characters literally mean "ten thousand — leaves — collection", but more likely refer to a collection of a great many poems, or a collection to last for a very long time. Overview The literal translation of the kanji that make up the title Man'yōshū (万 — 葉 — 集) is "ten thousand — leaves — collection". The principal interpretations, according to the twentieth-century scholar , are (i) a book that collects a great many poems, (ii) a book for all generations, and (iii) a poetry collection that uses a large volume of paper. Of these, supporters of (i) can be further divided into (a) those who interpret the middle character as "words" (koto no ha, lit. "leaves of speech"), thus giving "ten thousand words", i.e. "many waka", including Sengaku, , Kada no Azumamaro and Kamo no Mabuchi, and (b) those who interpret the middle character as literally referring to leaves of a tree, but as a metaphor for poems, including Ueda Akinari, , Masayuki Okada (岡田正之), , and Susumu Nakanishi. Furthermore, (ii) can be divided into: (a) it