The annual utakai hajime ceremony, a New Year poetry reading at the Imperial Palace, was held in the Matsu-no-Ma room of the palace in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Wednesday.
The theme for waka poems this year was "tomo" (friend). The event featured poems on the theme by the Emperor, the Empress, other members of the Imperial family and 10 people whose works were selected from 15,005 poems sent in, members of the panel that selected those poems, and poet Yukari Kojima, 66, who was invited to the event by the Emperor. The poems were recited in a melodious style true to tradition.
According to the Imperial Household Agency, the Emperor's poem was about a remote meeting with members of a high school brass band during the National Cultural Festival in Wakayama Prefecture in 2021. The Emperor watched and listened to high school students speaking about the joy of making music with friends even though they had to take various measures against the novel coronavirus pandemic. The poem expresses the Emperor's delight at meeting them and his wish that life will return to normal soon.
