JAPAN: Rocks at the Ocean's Fringe

On the first day of every Japanese year, while the sun is rising, ten poems are read as pompously as possible to the Son of Heaven, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Hirohito, 124th lineal descendant of the Sun Goddess.

To write a poem and have it read among the supreme ten—what exquisite happiness ! Every year at least 30,000 Japanese write and enter poems in the contest. If they live abroad they frequently cable them to the Imperial Household Ministry. Last week the Ministry announced, amid general rejoicing, that the set theme for...

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