The mutual regard of husband and wife in early Japanese life is beautifully expressed in an anonymous poem in the Manyoshu. A wife laments that while other women's husbands are seen riding along the road in proud array, her own husband trudges along the weary way afoot:
"Come, take the mirror and the veil,
My mother's parting gifts to me;
In barter they must sure avail,
To buy a horse to carry thee."
To which self-denying love, the husband graciously replies:
"And I should purchase me a horse,
Must not my wife still sadly walk?
No, no, though stony is our course,
We'll trudge along and sweetly talk."