Man'yōshū and Kokinshū are two of Japan's most important anthologies. Both have had a great impact on traditional Japanese poetry, as well as contemporary writings. Although both Man'yōshū and Kokinshū are extant collections of Japanese poetry, they are very different in several respects. The differences in forms, techniques, contents, expressions and aesthetic principles are probably due to the time of creation. By comparing the above-mentioned aspects in Man'yōshū and Kokinshū, the distinct characteristics of each of them will finally be explained and revealed. Man'yōshū is the first collection of Japanese poetry completed in 759. The genre has a total of 20 books and contains 4,516 waka poems. Before examining its distinctive features, it is necessary to note that Japan had stopped sending missionaries to the Chinese Tang Dynasty in 835. Therefore, it is understandable that Man'yōshū had been strongly influenced by Chinese literal writing styles. Native Japanese considered Man'yōshū to be “its own literature” (Japanese knowledge). The most distinct parts of Japanese poetry are that it is composed according to a syllabic pattern such as 5-7-5-7-7 in tanka instead of the uniformity of kanji number in Chinese poems; furthermore, the use of the Japanese language in makurakotoba (fixed epithet), kakekotoba (homonym) and kotodama (soul-word), and finally, the use of Kana instead of Kanji in the compilation. Despite the fact that Japan had developed some of its native techniques in poetry, techniques such as parallelism and repetition used in Japanese poetry are definitely remnants of Chinese literature. Perhaps the most important poetic form of Man'yōshū is chōka. It is composed in a syllabic pattern of 5-7-5-7-5…7-7 and...... half of the sheet ...... in the midst of sadness. The composition of the poem lightly touched the sentimental part of human being, which connects the readers and the girl through skillful elaborations. In conclusion, through the facts, explanations and examples I have provided about Man'yōshū and Kokinshū, it has been demonstrated that they are very different anthologies from each other. The poems in both have different forms, techniques, contents, expressions, and aesthetic principles, as well as time of completion. However, they are equally important for the attribution of traditional Japanese poems and contemporary literary achievements. Works Cited Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poems: Composed on the First Day of Spring by Ki no Tsurayuki. Encyclopedia of Japan, available through Japan Knowledge. Keene, D. (1955). Man'yōshū: climbing Kagu-yama and observing the land. New York: Grove Press