Poem by Abe no Nakamaro

The Japanese nobleman and poet Abe no Nakamaro (698-770) stands on a hill looking out over the sea, accompanied by a number of attendants. Abe no Nakamaro composed the accompanying poem in China, in his longing for home:

Amanohara
furisake mireba
Kasuga naru
Mikasa no yama ni
ideshi tsuki ka mo

It might be the moon that shone
above Mount Mikasa in Nara
that I see in this faraway land
when now I look
across the vast fields of the stars.

For the same print in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York, accession number JP2940, go to: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/56175