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The first is poem number 2 in Man'yōshū (Man'yōshū I: 2) which is attributed to Emperor Jomei (r. 629-641):
The Heavenly Sovereign, a poem at the time
of climbing Kagu mountain and seeing the land
In Yamato, amidst a ring of hills
stands Mt. Kagu of Heaven,
and when I climb up to look on the land
from the plain of the land, smoke rises and rises
from the plain of the sea, birds rise and rise
a splendid land, the dragonfly island,
the land of Yamato
(All translations are my own.)
This poem is usually read as describing a "land-viewing" ritual (kunimi), in which the ruler climbs up to a high place, looks down on the land, and affirms its prosperity as well as his power over it.
There are three different interpretations of this poem, which give different answers to the question of what it is that the ruler is "seeing" when he "looks on the land." According to the most straightforward interpretation, the sovereign is seeing the land as it is. We can think of this as the "realistic landscape" interpretation. In Nihon shoki, there is an entry in the chapter dedicated to the ancient sovereign Nintoku (r. A. D. 313-399), in which the sovereign is described as climbing a mountain and seeing that no smoke was rising from the hearths of his people. For this reason, it is said, he exempted the whole realm from taxes for three years, allowing his palace to fall into disrepair for the sake of his subjects. According to this "realistic landscape" interpretation, Jomei's poem represents the opposite scenario, as smoke is rising from the hearths (indicating that his subjects are prosperous) and birds are flying over the sea (perhaps indicating an abundance of fish). Jomei is thus celebrating Yamato as a bountiful and prosperous land.
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