Yamabe no Akahito (山部赤人 or 山邊赤人) (fl. 724–736) was a poet of the

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 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. 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 ...

'', an ancient anthology, contains 13 '' chōka'' ("long poems") and 37 ''

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 ...

'' ("short poems") of his. Many of his poems were composed during journeys with

Emperor Shōmu was the 45th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 聖武天皇 (45)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749, during the Nara period. Traditional narrative Be ...

between 724 and 736. Yamabe is regarded as one of the ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' of poetry, and is called ''Waka Nisei'' along with

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本人麻呂 or 柿本人麿; – ) was a Japanese ''waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but ap ...

. He is noted as one of the

Thirty-six Poetry Immortals The are a group of Japanese poets of the Asuka, Nara, and Heian periods selected by Fujiwara no Kintō as exemplars of Japanese poetic ability. The oldest surviving collection of the 36 poets' works is ''Nishi Honganji Sanju-rokunin Kashu'' ...

. His contemplation of

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

across Tago Bay became a popular view depicted by

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

artists, including

Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

and

Utagawa Kuniyoshi Utagawa Kuniyoshi ( ja, 歌川国芳, ; January 1, 1798 – April 14, 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al'' (2005). "Kuniyoshi" in He was a ...

. The American composer

Alan Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness (; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American-Armenian composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and ...

used a text by Yamabe from the ''Man'yōshū'' in his cantata ''Fuji'', Op. 182 (1960, rev. 1964).

Works

Shin Kokin Wakashu (New Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry) ・田子の浦に　うち出でてみれば　白妙の　富士の高嶺に雪は降りつつ Tagonoura ni Uchiide te mire ba Shirotae no Fuji no takane ni Yuki wa furi tsutsu Explanation 　When you go to Tagonoura and look in the distance, you can see pure white Mt. Fuji and snow is piled up. This poem describes the beautiful winter scenery of Mt. Fuji seen from Tagonoura. Later, this poem was selected for Hyakunin Isshu (one hundred waka poems by one hundred poets).

Historic Sites

　There is a grave of Yamabe no Akahito at Haibara Yamanobe in Uda City, Nara Prefecture. It is a quiet graveyard with a Gorinto (a gravestone composed of five pieces piled up one upon another), Manyo kahi (a monument engraved in the Manyo style of poetry) and a small signboard. The Gorinto is 210 centimeters high and very simple. It seems to have been built in the Kamakura period, and there is no evidence that Yamabe no Akahito is buried here.

Cultural Properties

　At Fujinokuni Tagonoura Minato Park in Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture, there is a Man’yo kahi. This monument is engraved with "a poem about Mt. Fuji" written by Akahito Yamabe, and uses Matsuno stone (commonly known as "bale stone") from Minami Matsuno, Fuji City. Mt. Fuji can be seen from this park, and eight stone pillars are arranged in the shape of Mt. Fuji to overlap it. The inscription has a high cultural value because the manuscript Man'yogana is engraved as it is.

External links

2001 Waka - Akahito
Japanese male poets 700 births 736 deaths People from Chiba Prefecture 8th-century Japanese poets Man'yō poets Hyakunin Isshu poets Deified Japanese people {{Japan-writer-stub

Works

Historic Sites

Cultural Properties

See also

External links