Activity 2. Read the following passage then try to answer the given questions. Write only the letter of the correct answer.
The poetic expressiveness and creativity of Japanese women poets of the Manyoshu era is generally regarded
as a manifestation of the freedom and relativcly high political and economic status women of that era enjoyed. During
the Heian period (A.D. 794-1185) which followed, Japanese women became increasingly relegated to domestic roles
under the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism, which excluded women from the political and economic arenas.
Yet, since poetry of the period came to be defined solely as short lyrical poetry, known as waka, and became the
prevailing means of expressing love, women continued to excel in and play a central role in the development of classical
Japanese poetry. Moreover, while official Japanese documents were written in Chinese, the phoenetic alphabet kana
was used for poetry. Also referred to as onna moji ("women's letters"), kana was not deemed sufficiently sophisticated
for use by Japanese men, who continued to write Chinese poetry, increasingly for expressing religious ideas and as an
intellectual pastime. Chinese poetry ultimately yielded, then, to waka as the mainstream of Japanese poetry.​