In Japan, poetry is an artform celebrated at the highest levels.

Japan’s Emperor and Empress took part in the annual New Year’s poetry reading today (Wednesday).

The event is hundreds of years old and includes poems submitted by the public as well as the Emperor’s poetry.

The theme for this year’s poems was “quiet.”

The Emperor offered a poem for the victims of Japan’s Minamata Disease.

Thousands of people were poisoned by mercury in Minamata, Japan in the mid 20th century, and the Emperor visited their memorial for the first time last year.