In the 7^th century, there was an imperial villa in the Yoshino River basin near Miyataki. During the Jinshin war (672), Ōama no Ōji (Emperor Tenmu) used Yoshino as his base. From the reign of Empress Jitō, the widow of Tenmu, it was revered as a sacred place and became the site of several imperial visits. Mt. Yoshino was not a common poetic motif in Man’yōshū, but became one from the Heian period onward. The motif of Mt. Yoshino conjures up the image of a secluded, isolated life, as in the poem, “I long for a house in the wilds beyond the hills of fair Yoshino – a hidden dwelling to use when the world is hard to bear” (Kokinshū, miscellaneous 2, No. 950, anonymous) (transl. McCullough, p. 208). From the Heian period, Mt. Yoshino also became a motif for a place covered in thick snow. “In dawn’s first dim light we might almost mistake them for morning moonbeams – the snowflakes newly fallen from Yoshino-no-sato.” (Kokinshū, winter, No. 332, Korenori) (transl. McCullough, p. 80) is the first famous example of this. From then on, combining Mt. Yoshino and snow became a poetic convention.

In the time of Man'yōshū, the Yoshino River was used in poems far more frequently than Mt. Yoshino. A well known example is, “Long though I gaze, Never shall I tire of Yoshino, Within whose stream The water-moss grows smooth forever, As I shall come to view these sights anew” (Man'yōshū, book one, 37) (translation by Edwin A. Cranston, 1993). (Alternately, “Like the eternal moss slick by the Yoshino River, on which I do not tire to gaze, may I never cease to return and gaze on it again” transl. Levy, p. 57.) This poem was composed by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro on the occasion when he accompanied an imperial visit to Yoshino. In this poem, the image of Yoshino as a sacred site is expressed through the purity of the river flowing incessantly.