Welcome to the Japan 2001 Waka Website - a site devoted to the many types of classical Japanese poetry. During the course of the Japan 2001 Festival we built up a collection of 2001 poems here, covering approximately the first thousand years of poetry in Japan. The poems appear in the original Japanese, transcribed into the Roman alphabet (Romanised) and translated into English. They are accompanied by commentary and background material to fill in the blanks on the world the Old Japanese poets lived in, their beliefs and society.

From here, you can also sign up to the Waka mailing list and receive postings of poems on a weekly basis in Romanised and translated form before they are posted on the website, as well as updates on the development of the site itself.

This contents of this site are produced by the staff and students of the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, with all translations done by Dr Thomas McAuley. The site was initiated as part of our contribution to the Japan 2001 Festival activities and was an officially recognised Japan 2001 event. Production of this site has been made possible due to the generous support of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.