Attractive or unusual stones in China have been embraced by Chinese literati since the Tang dynasty (618-917 CE). Dozens of poems about fantastic stones are known in classical Chinese literature. The great Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi composed over 2800 poems including Records of Taihu Stones and A Pair of Stones. The latter describes a prize pair of Lake Tai stones he treasured. Another Chinese Tang scholar bureaucrat Niu Sengru wrote Twenty Thymes on Finding a Tai Lake Stone. Song dynasty poet Shu Shi wrote Notes on Strange Stones, and Ouyang Xiu wrote Records of Lingbi Stones. Poems have been produce about stones throughout the dynasties.

In Japan, Mera Hekisai composed 72 poems to accompany 72 of his prized Furuya stones in his 1894 book Hekisai Stone Catalog. He was physician who wrote poetry in Chinese following in the tradition of earlier Chinese scholars. It was fashionable in the Meiji era (1868-1912) in Japan to improve the value of your stones by combining them with famous Chinese poems or with Japanese Waka poems. Both China and Japan have a tradition of composing poems about special stones.

This tradition continues today in China. Poets still praise the remarkable features of stones in their writings. The writing is now world-wide. Three small stones from the Pacific Northwest region of the US have inspired a leading North American poet to continue the long tradition of stone-inspired poetry. Here, we are featuring poems written by an’ya, an American poet specializing in Japanese Tanka style poems. Tanka are short poems that originated in the late 8th century and typically consist of five lines with a set number of syllable (5-7-5-7-7) in each line. Tanka poems were often exchanged between two affectionate people, likely lovers, in place of letters. One’s skill at composing a moving Tanka poem could mean the difference between the success or failure of a relationship. As with other aspects of Japanese culture, rules and rituals developed around Tanka poetry. Tanka poems should not be confused with another more popular short Japanese poetry—haiku—a short three-line poem composed of 5-7-5 syllables. Modern haiku and tanka poets writing in English do not follow the original style because the Japanese units are shorter than the English syllables.