Land of the Reed Plains

Book excerpt: This collection of Japanese poetry and paintings is a wonderful addition to the collection of any enthusiast of Japanese poetry or culture. Land of the Reed Plains presents a rare and beautiful combination of Japanese lyric genius and artistic mastery. The poetry comes from the Manyoshu, Japan's earliest and greatest anthology and masterpiece of world literature, ably translated by Kenneth Yasuda. The 100 paintings that accompany the poems, each in full color, are the work of the contemporary Japanese artist Sanko Inoue. Their ability to evoke the beauties of an ancient past in a technique that speaks both of tradition and of today, confirms again the high and versatile place Sanko occupies in Japan's art world.