Luna piena sulla città antica

“Luna piena sulla città antica” collection of tankas by the Japanese poet Toshihiko Ota – publishing house studio peacock – cover by Andrea Brivio – exhibition at the Turin Book Fair 2023.

Tanka are short Japanese poems, whose origin is even older than that of haiku.
The Japanese sensibility careful to compress and immortalize the most ephemeral moments of human life is best expressed here.. thoughts, sensations, emotions and every breath of the soul.
Producing a faithful interpretation in the Western language is almost impossible.

The author Toshihiko Ota writes his tankas set in ancient times from his typical Japanese house nestled in the bamboo groves of Mitsue Prefecture in Nara.