Another reference to cremation: this time to scattering the deceased’s ashes. This identifies the poet as being from the poorer ranks of society, as the wealthy interred ashes in a family tomb.

This is a reference to collecting the bones after a cremation. It was gaining in popularity in Japan at this time and was soon to replace burial under a tumulus, or mound, as the funeral of choice for the aristocracy.

There is a note appended to this poem in the Man’yōshū text stating that it is not a metaphorical poem, but has been included in this particular place as it was the mind of the poet when he composed his preceding, metaphorical, moon poem.

In both MYS VII: 1317 and MYS VII: 1318, the ‘pearl’ is a woman.