Man'yōshū

thumb|right|80px|alt=Two vertical lines of Japanese text written in calligraphy, read right to left. The first character has smaller, simpler red characters written around it.|A replica of a poem  8, by Princess Nukata|Nukata no Ōkimi The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although numerous other theories have been p

is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of this type of kana is not clear, but it was in use since at least the mid-7th century. The name "man'yōgana" derives from the ''Man'yōshū, a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period written with man'yōgana.''

American writer

Japanese academic