, also known as , was a Japanese calligrapher and poet of the early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

Life

Takamura was a descendant of

Ono no Imoko was a Japanese politician and diplomat in the late 6th and early 7th century, during the Asuka period. Ono was appointed by Empress Suiko as an official envoy ( Kenzuishi) to the Sui court in 607 (Imperial embassies to China), and he delivere ...

who served as Kenzuishi, and his father was

Ono no Minemori Ono no Minemori (小野岑守; 778–830) was a Japanese historian, poet, and politician of the early Heian period. He wrote in the '' kanshi'' style of poetry. Biography Ono no Minemori was born in 778. He was the third son of , the '. He w ...

. He was the grandfather of

Ono no Michikaze was a Japanese calligrapher who was a prominent ''Shodōka'' (Japanese calligrapher) during the Heian period (794–1185). One of the so-called Sanseki 三跡 (Three Brush Traces), along with Fujiwara no Sukemasa and Fujiwara no Yukinari, Michi ...

, one of the . In 834 he was appointed to Kintōshi, but in 838 after a quarrel with the envoy, Fujiwara no Tsunetsugu, he gave up his professional duties pretending to be ill, and attracted the ire of retired

Emperor Saga was the 52nd emperor of Japan,#Kunaichō, Emperor Saga, Saganoyamanoe Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Saga's reign spanned the years from 809 through 823 ...

, who sent him to

Oki Province was a province of Japan consisted of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan, located off the coast of the provinces of Izumo and Hōki. The area is now Oki District in modern Shimane Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Awa no Kun ...

. Within two years he regained the graces of the court and returned to the capital where he was promoted to '' Sangi.'' Takamura is the subject of a number of odd stories and legends. One of the most singular of these legends is the claim that every night he would climb down a well to

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

and help in his . In Sataku,

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, there is a grave said to belong to Takamura. Near that grave is a grave marked

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of '' The Tale of Genji,'' widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between abou ...

, with a legend that it was placed there by the devil himself as punishment for for which Murasaki Shikibu descended to hell.

Takamura in later literature

Takamura features in several later ''

setsuwa Setsuwa (, ja, 説話, setsu wa) is an East Asian literary genre. It consists of myths, legends, folktales, and anecdotes. ''Setsuwa'' means "spoken story". As one of the vaguest forms of literature, setsuwa is believed to have been passed down ...

'' works such as the '' Ujishūi Monogatari'' and the ''

Takamura Monogatari The , also called the or the , is a Japanese uta monogatari that was written any time between the mid-Heian period to the early-Kamakura period. It is in one volume and consists of two distinct sections. The first section describes a young Ono no ...

''.

Ujishūi Monogatari

In '' Ujishūi Monogatari'' there is the following story about Takamura that illustrates his wit. One day in the palace of Saga Tennō, someone erected a scroll with the writing "無悪善" (NO EVIL GOODNESS). No one in the palace was able to decipher its meaning. The emperor then ordered Takamura to read it and he responded:

","

reading the character for as "Saga" to indicate Saga Tennō. The emperor was incensed at his audacity and proclaimed that because only Takamura was able to read the scroll, he must have been the one who put it up in the first place. However, Takamura pleaded his innocence, saying that he was simply deciphering the meaning of the scroll. The emperor said, "Oh, so you can decipher any writing, can you?" and asked Takamura to read a row of twelve characters for :

" 子子子子子子子子子子子子".

Takamura immediately responded:

,

using the variant readings ''ne'', ''ko,'' ''shi, ji'' for the character (子). This translates to "the cat's young kitten, the lion's young cub" or with annotations:

"the young of , and the young of , ."

The emperor was amused by Takamura's wit and withdrew the accusation.

Takamura Monogatari

Takamura is the main character in the tale ''

'', where he has a romantic affair with his half-sister. The work's date is heavily disputed, and few scholars take it to be historically reliable.

Descendants

While people such as

are Takamura's direct descendants, he also had several spiritual descendants among the

Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

. In particular, several Samurai names such as , , , can be traced to Takamura.

Representative poems

One of his poems is included as No. 11 in

Fujiwara no Teika , better-known as Fujiwara no Teika"Sadaie" and "Teika" are both possible readings of ; "...there is the further problem, the rendition of the name in romanized form. Teika probably referred to himself as Sadaie, and his father probably called ...

's ''

Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese ''waka'' by one hundred poets. ''Hyakunin isshu'' can be translated to "one hundred people, one poem ach; it can also refer to the card game of ''uta-garuta'', which uses a deck compos ...

'': Takamura contributed six poems to the ''

Kokin Wakashū The , commonly abbreviated as , is an early anthology of the ''waka'' form of Japanese poetry, dating from the Heian period. An imperial anthology, it was conceived by Emperor Uda () and published by order of his son Emperor Daigo () in about ...

'': #335, 407, 829, 845, 936, and 961.

Works related to Takamura

* * *

References

Bibliography

*Katagiri Yōichi 2009 (2nd ed.; 1st ed. 2005). ''Kokin Wakashū''. Tokyo: Kinuma Shoin. *McMillan, Peter 2010 (1st ed. 2008). ''One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each''. New York: Columbia University Press. *Suzuki Hideo, Yamaguchi Shin'ichi, Yoda Yasushi 2009 (1st ed. 1997). ''Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu''. Tokyo: Bun'eidō. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ono no, Takamura 802 births 853 deaths 9th-century Japanese calligraphers 9th-century Japanese poets Deified Japanese people Hyakunin Isshu poets