文学賞
Literary Award
大伴家持文学賞・高志の国詩歌賞/Yakamochi Medal
About the Yakamochi Medal
The Manyoshu, the earliest anthology of Japanese poetry, has been read and reread for around 1300 years. It contains over 4500 poems written by the imperial household and nobility as well as nameless, ordinary people, and each poem still deeply moves us readers in the modern era.
Otomo no Yakamochi, who was very involved in the compiling of the Manyoshu, was appointed governor of Etchu Province (now Toyama Prefecture) in 746, and spent the next 5 years writing many splendid poems. The grandiose and beautiful yet sometimes harsh environment and the changes of the scenery following the seasons imparted Yakamochi with new emotions, differring from what he knew in the capital.
The poems composed in Etchu Province by Yakamochi and his entourage as well as local folk songs from Etchu Province are collectively called “Etchu Manyo,” and they are the point of origin for “hometown literature” born in Toyama.
To promote this “hometown literature,” Toyama Prefecture established the Koshinokuni Museum of Literature in 2012 and in 2017, to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of Otomo no Yakamochi’s birth by honoring a poet with outstanding literary achievements from around the world, Toyama Prefecture created the Yakamochi Medal. The creation of this literary prize is hoped to help promote the beauty of Otomo no Yakamochi’s poems and Etchu Manyo to the world, and to contribute to the creation of a spiritually rich life to people in Japan and abroad.
第3回大伴家持文学賞の募集について/Call for Nominations of Candidates for the 3rd Yakamochi Medal
2022.07.27
第3回高志の国詩歌賞の募集について
2022.07.27
The announcement of the winner of the second YAKAMOCHI MEDAL
2021.06.28
第2回大伴家持文学賞の受賞者の決定について
2021.06.28

Postponement of the 2nd Yakamochi Medal Schedule
2020.06.29
第2回大伴家持文学賞の贈呈式等の延期について
2020.06.29
第2回高志の国詩歌賞の受賞者の決定及び贈呈式の延期について
2020.06.29

1st Yakamochi Medal Award Decision
2018.07.02
第1回大伴家持文学賞・高志の国詩歌賞受賞者の決定について
2018.06.07
