Clue #8

Rise from muddy pond

Float on surface of water

Near to salty berth

Precious cargo under boards

Cresting waves on bounded sea

Did you know?

Japan was the easternmost point on the Silk Road. Culture and religion as well as commodities were traded along the route that stretched from the Mediterranean to East Asia. Buddhism started in India in the 5th century BCE and entered Japan in the 6th century CE via Korea.

Clue #7

On fan-shaped island

In Nagasaki Harbor

Dutch traders were benched

Seattle isle once took prize

Now Port of Kobe claims it

Did you know?

Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor was originally constructed for the Portuguese. However, when the Portuguese were expelled with all Catholic missionaries and other foreign merchants, the fan-shaped island was available for the Dutch.

Clue #6

Eye behind an eye

Behind yet another eye

Look at the heavens

Above or at an actor

Or two ladies having fun

Did you know?

Playing cards, called tenshô karuta, were introduced by the Portuguese in the late 16th to early 17th centuries and were soon produced locally in Japan by woodblock printing. So popular was this motif that in the late Edo to early Meiji period (late 19th to early 20th centuries), the king and queen found on playing cards appeared in Japanese lacquerware.

Clue #5

Java and lager

Seattle's loves tried and true

On island of trade

Not subject to sakoku

View goods ashore like tableaus

Did you know?

Sakoku — literally, "closed country" — refers to a period in Japanese history (1639-1859) when varying exclusionary policies were exercised, keeping some out and prohibiting Japanese from leaving. To a certain extent this is a misnomer as not all were subject to sakoku!

Clue #4

Full sails foreign wares

Imari Kakiemon

Blue and white adorned

Jingdezhen to Arita

Find the fire-hardened treasure

Did you know?

Among the foreign wares traded were cloth, spices, ceramics, Chinese silk, Western books and glass. This was the beginning of Japanese and Western artistic exchange which was seen much later in Japanese-influenced impressionist works and continues to the present.

Clue #3

Modern path to ken

Seek Amida's Paradise

Be there not going

Our first university

Learning more than what you see

Did you know?

Byôdôin is a temple that houses one of Japan's most famous Buddhist sculptures, Amida Buddha. Made in 1053, this elegant wooden Buddha still sits today enthroned in his glittering paradise.

Clue #2

Focus of your quest

Waits quietly in its place

Pulled from the flame's glow

The Imperial Kiku

But now twelve fewer petals

Did you know?

Throughout the Edo period (1615-1868) the emperor and imperial family remained in Kyoto as figureheads while Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogun from Edo (present-day Tokyo).

Clue #1

Seattle Kobe

Sister cities 50 years

Distant cultures joined

Face flowering aurora

"Japan Envisions the West"

Did you know

There is no rhyme in Japanese poetry, only meter. Each tanka, meaning "short poem," has 31 syllables in five lines: 5-7-5-7-7. To make a haiku, simply drop the last two lines!