, also known as Lady Ōtomo of Sakanoue, was a Japanese noblewoman and ''

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

'' poet of the early-to-mid

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

, best known for the inclusion of 84 of her poems in the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

''. She was the aunt of

Ōtomo no Yakamochi was a Japanese statesman and '' waka'' poet in the Nara period. He was one of the ''Man'yō no Go-taika,'' the five great poets of his time, and was part of Fujiwara no Kintō's . Ōtomo was a member of the prestigious Ōtomo clan. Like his g ...

Life

Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume was born c. 695 to the powerful and influential

Ōtomo clan was a Japanese samurai family whose power stretched from the Kamakura period through the Sengoku period, spanning over 400 years. The clan's hereditary lands lay in Kyūshū. Origins The first family head, Ōtomo Yoshinao (1172–1223), took ...

. A daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and Lady Ishikawa, she was the younger half-sister of

Ōtomo no Tabito was a Japanese military leader and poet, best known as the father of Ōtomo no Yakamochi, who contributed to the compilation the ''Man'yōshū'' alongside his father. In the year 720, the Hayato Rebellion erupted in Kyushu. Otomo was ordered ...

, Ōtomo no Tanushi, and Ōtomo no Sukunamaro. As is customary for the time period, her personal name is unknown, and her title is taken from Sakanoue, the village in which she resided; ‘Iratsume’ is an archaic moniker for ‘young lady,’ ‘maiden,’ or ‘daughter’. In her early teens, she married

Prince Hozumi was a Japanese prince, the fifth son of Emperor Tenmu, who lived from the Asuka to Nara periods. He was the first child of the emperor and Soga no Ōnu-no-iratsume, who later had two daughters together as well. After the death of his half-sister ...

; after his early death in 715, she would go on to marry

Fujiwara no Maro was a Japanese statesman, courtier, and politician during the Nara period. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Fujiwara no Umakai" in ; Brinkley, Frank. (1915). Maro established the Kyōke branch of the Fujiwara clan. Career Maro was a min ...

, son of

Fujiwara no Fuhito Fujiwara no Fuhito (藤原不比等: 659 – 13 September 720) was a powerful member of the Imperial Court in Kyoto, imperial court of Japan during the Asuka period, Asuka and Nara periods. Second son of Fujiwara no Kamatari (or, according ...

. After the death of her second husband, she married her older half-brother, Ōtomo no Sukunamaro, and would have at least two daughters with him, Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Ōiratsume and Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Otōiratsume. Widowed for yet a third time, in 728 she would join the household of her eldest brother, Ōtomo no Tabito, then the administrator-commander of the Dazaifu, the regional government of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japan ...

and Yutaka Tsuchihashi both speculate that Tabito sent for Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue to educate his son,

. Other suggested reasons for her summons include becoming Tabito's mistress or spouse, or replacing Tabito's recently deceased wife in performing religious ceremonies for the Ōtomo clan. After her brother’s death in 731, Sakanoue became the de facto head of the Ōtomo house and would manage its affairs until her nephew Yakamochi came of age. Yakamochi would later go on to marry Sakanoue’s eldest daughter, Ōiratsume.

Poetic works

Ōtomo no Sakanoue is the foremost female poet of the ''

'', and the third-best represented overall, regardless of gender, having a total of 84 poems included in the collection. Her nephew, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, is thought to be one of the primary compilers of the ''Man’yoshu.'' Paula Doe suggests that, as his mentor, Sakanoue exerted considerable influence on his early poetry and literary sensibility, evident in his choice to include so many examples of her work. Sakanoue’s 84 extant poems are 77 ''

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

,'' 6 '' chōka,'' and 1 ''

sedōka is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although ''waka'' in modern Japanese is written as , in the past it was also written as (see Wa, an old name for Japan), and a variant name is . Etymology The word ''waka'' has two diffe ...

. '' Several of her poems are noted by epigraphs to have been composed while performing religious rites on behalf of her house. Her longest, a ''banka'' (an elegy in ''chōka'' form), was composed upon the death of the Korean nun Rigan, who had been a guest of the Ōtomo household since Sakanoue’s youth. Other poems of note are her collection of ''

sōmon is the gate at the entrance of a Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temple in Japan.Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version It often precedes the bigger and more important ''sanmon''. References Gates i ...

'', ''tanka'' “poems conveying feelings to another,” which document her exchanges with some of her husbands, lovers, and friends. Finally, several of her poems were either addressed to or written about her daughters, touching upon the sentiments between parent and child. One of her longer works is addressed to Ōiratsume, expressing how much she missed her daughter.

References

Sources

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Otomo no, Sakanoe no Iratsume 8th-century Japanese women writers Women of medieval Japan Place of birth unknown Date of death unknown Place of death unknown Date of birth unknown 8th-century Japanese poets Japanese women poets Man'yō poets 8th-century Japanese women 8th-century Japanese people