Poems and Songs of Emperor Keikō

This page serves as a list of all the songs and poems of Emperor Keikō.

Poems and Songs of Emperor Keikō

Missing the Capital

The nihongi records that in his 17th year of reign he vsited the Koyu District in Hyuga visiting the moors of Nimo there. Missing the capital during the visit he composed a poem which went as follows:

Oh! How sweet!
From the quarter of my home,
Clouds arising come hither!
Yamato
Is the most secluded of lands.
Yamato
Retired behind Mount Awogaki,
Which encompasses it in its folds,
Is beautiful.
Let those whose lives are sound
Stick (in their hair) by way of headdress
Branches of the white evergreen oak
Of Mount Heguri-
(Fold within fold)
This child.

This poem is noted to have been split into three segments and sung by Yamato Takeru in the kojiki.¹

A Tall Trees Shade

In the 7th month of the 17th year of his reign he constructed a Palace at Takaya.

Here he saw a tree once so tall it covered the Hill of Kishima in shade in the morning and Mount Aso in the evening, and so he composed a song about it which goes as follows:

The morning hoar-frost.
August tree pole-bridge!
The Lords of the Presence
Pass over it-
The august tree pole-bridge!¹

Footnotes

1. Aston. W.G. (1896) “Nihongi Volume 1: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD697”. Tuttle Publishing.

	Check out the Japan Archives, our Japanese History Podcast. Instagram (Japan): @japan_archives
	Check out our Gaming Channel on Youtube. Instagram (Minecraft): @mycenria
	Find the website useful? Please consider donating to help up keep the website running.