A beautiful white on white pillar print. The characters of the poem are done in a primitive style using the ancient “seal script.” The Manyoshu (literally 10,000 Leaves) was a famous 8th Century collection of poems. An American researcher, Bob Craft, has diligently studied the kanji characters and determined that Mr. Maki had chosen a poem whose English translation might read as follows:

I’m already old, but I’m so deeply in love with you I can’t endure being like this anymore.