iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Spring has passed, and summer must have arrived — white robes spread out to dry on heavenly Mount Kagu. — Empress Jito, Hyakunin Isshu #2

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Deep in the mountains, treading the fallen red leaves, I hear the cry of the deer — that is when autumn feels saddest. — Sarumaru Dayu, Hyakunin Isshu #5

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

In the autumn rice field, by the rough harvest hut, the woven mats are loose — and my sleeves grow wet with dew through the night. — Emperor Tenji, Hyakunin Isshu #1

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

When I come out to Tago Bay and look — pure white, snow is still falling on the high peak of Mount Fuji. — Yamabe no Akahito, Hyakunin Isshu #4

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Long as the trailing tail of a mountain pheasant, this endless autumn night — must I sleep through it alone? — Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Hyakunin Isshu #3

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Looking up across the wide plain of the sky — is that the same moon that rose over Mount Mikasa, in Kasuga, so long ago? — Abe no Nakamaro, written from China, longing for home

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The blossom's color has faded away, in vain — while I gazed out at the long rains, lost in idle thoughts of love. — Ono no Komachi, Hyakunin Isshu #9

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This, then, is the place — where those going and those returning, friend and stranger alike, all part and meet again: the Barrier of Osaka. — Semimaru, Hyakunin Isshu #10

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Even the gods of the mighty ancient age never heard of such a thing — Tatsuta River, its waters tie-dyed crimson like Chinese brocade. — Ariwara no Narihira, Hyakunin Isshu #17

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

People's hearts I cannot know — but in my old village, the plum blossoms still bloom with the scent I knew long ago. — Ki no Tsurayuki, Hyakunin Isshu #35

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

We met by chance — but before I could be sure it was you, you slipped away, like the moon hidden behind midnight clouds. — Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji, Hyakunin Isshu #57

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Though you crow falsely in the night to fool the rooster — the Barrier of Osaka, the gate of meeting, will never open. — Sei Shonagon, author of The Pillow Book, Hyakunin Isshu #62

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Like a rapid stream split by a rock — though parted now, I believe we shall meet again in the end. — Retired Emperor Sutoku, Hyakunin Isshu #77

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Let me die in spring, beneath the cherry blossoms — in the second month, beneath the full moon. — Saigyo (1118–1190). His wish was granted almost to the day.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

As I wait for you, longing in my room, the autumn wind comes and stirs the bamboo blinds at my door. — Princess Nukata, waiting for Emperor Tenji. Man'yoshu, 7th century.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I look out far — no cherry blossoms, no crimson leaves. Only a reed-thatched hut beside an inlet, in the autumn dusk. — Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241), Shinkokinshu

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

On the Shinano road, freshly cleared, the stubble is sharp — put on your sandals, my love, do not walk barefoot. — An anonymous Eastern song from the Man'yoshu, voicing ordinary tenderness.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Silver, gold, jewels — what good are they to me? No treasure can ever match my children. — Yamanoue no Okura (660–733), Man'yoshu

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Mist trails across the spring meadow, and my heart grows quietly sad — in this evening light, a nightingale sings. — Otomo no Yakamochi (718–785), Man'yoshu

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Even one who claims to feel nothing knows this sadness — a snipe rising from a marsh, an autumn evening. — Saigyo, Shinkokinshu

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The thief left one thing behind — the moon at the window. — Ryokan (1758–1831), Zen monk and poet

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

On the white sand of the shore of a small eastern island, I weep, my face wet — and play with a crab. — Ishikawa Takuboku, A Handful of Sand (1910)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I work, and work, and still my life does not grow easier — I look down, quietly, at my hands. — Ishikawa Takuboku, A Handful of Sand (1910)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

My black hair, my thousand strands of hair, my tangled hair — and the wild, tangled thoughts of love that tangle with it. — Yosano Akiko, Midaregami (Tangled Hair), 1901. A breakthrough in modern Japanese poetry.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

"This one tastes good," you said — so July 6 will be Salad Anniversary. — Tawara Machi, Salad Anniversary (1987). The book that brought tanka into modern life.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Reason too much, and you bump into people. Feel too deeply, and you drift away. Hold too firmly to your will, and life feels cramped. In any case, this human world is hard to live in. — Natsume Soseki, Kusamakura (1906)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I am a cat. I do not yet have a name. I have no idea where I was born. — Natsume Soseki, I Am a Cat (1905). One of the most famous opening lines in Japanese literature.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I want to set down everything I know about myself — as long as one fellow human remains in this world who would learn from it. — Natsume Soseki, Kokoro (1914)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Mine has been a life of much shame. I cannot even imagine what a human being's life is like. — Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human (1948)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Melos was furious. He resolved that, no matter what, he must overthrow this wicked, violent king. — Dazai Osamu, Run, Melos! (1940). A retelling of Schiller, on friendship and trust.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

It was one evening at twilight. A lowly servant was waiting beneath the Rashomon gate for the rain to stop. — Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Rashomon (1915)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

My first real problem with life, I might as well say, was the problem of beauty. — Mishima Yukio, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Human beings are born for love and for revolution. — Dazai Osamu, The Setting Sun (1947). The words of Kazuko, a daughter of a fading noble house, choosing to live.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The train came out of the long border tunnel — into the snow country. The bottom of the night had turned white. The train stopped at a signal stop. — Kawabata Yasunari, Snow Country (1937). Japan's first Nobel laureate in literature.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Life is like a box of matches. To handle it gravely is absurd. Not to handle it gravely is dangerous. — Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Aphorisms of a Dwarf (1923)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Beauty does not exist in the object itself, but in the patterns of shadow — the play of light and dark — that one object casts against another. — Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, In Praise of Shadows (1933)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Until the whole world is happy, there can be no happiness for any individual. — Miyazawa Kenji, Outline of the Essentials of Peasant Art (1926)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Not yielding to the rain. Not yielding to the wind. Not yielding to snow or summer's heat. With a sturdy body. Free of greed. Never angry. Always quietly smiling. — Miyazawa Kenji, Be Not Defeated by the Rain (1931)

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The drooping willow of the great gate stretches far — yet the lights of the third-floor revels of the pleasure quarter, reflected in the dark ditch, feel almost close enough to touch. — Higuchi Ichiyo, Child's Play (1895). A pioneering woman of modern Japanese letters.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The coal has long since been loaded. The second-class cabin is silent around the table, and even the bright glare of the electric lamp feels wasted. — Mori Ogai, The Dancing Girl (1890). One of modern Japan's first major novels.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Every human being is a tamer of wild beasts — and the beast each must tame is their own temperament. — Nakajima Atsushi, The Moon Over the Mountain (1942). The story of a poet who becomes a tiger.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Human beings live. Human beings fall. Beyond this fact, there is no convenient shortcut to save them. — Sakaguchi Ango, Discourse on Decadence (1946). Postwar Japan's call to look honestly at human nature.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I was knocked down by a Yamanote line train and injured. Afterward, to recover, I went alone to the hot springs at Kinosaki in Tajima. — Shiga Naoya, At Kinosaki (1917). A quiet masterpiece on watching small lives die.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

There is a beautiful "flower." There is no such thing as the "beauty of a flower." — Kobayashi Hideo, On Impermanence (1942). Japan's first true literary critic, on direct experience over abstraction.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Disasters strike just when we have forgotten them. — Terada Torahiko (1878–1935), physicist and essayist who warned of preparedness after the Great Kanto Earthquake.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Heaven, it is said, does not create one man above another, nor one man below another. — Fukuzawa Yukichi, An Encouragement of Learning (1872–1876). The opening declaration of Japan's Meiji enlightenment.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I will become a bridge across the Pacific. — Uchimura Kanzo (1861–1930), Christian thinker who vowed to connect East and West.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Bushido is, like the cherry blossom that symbolizes Japan, a flower indigenous to the soil of Japan — and no less beautiful. — Nitobe Inazo, Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900). Written in English, became a global bestseller.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. — Okakura Tenshin, The Book of Tea (1906). Written in English, to introduce Japanese aesthetics to the West.

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Manabu｜Japan @manabu-educa.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Zen, in essence, is the work of seeing into one's own true nature. — Suzuki Daisetz (1870–1966), the philosopher who introduced Zen Buddhism to the modern West.

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