was a Japanese

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

, the best known for his poems of children and

commoner A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

s. He was a member of Japanese missions to Tang China. He was also a contributor to 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 ...

and his writing had a strong Chinese influence. Unlike other Japanese poetry of the time, his work emphasizes a

morality Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of co ...

based on the teachings of

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. Most scholars believe that he was born in 660, on the basis of his Chinese prose "Chin'a Jiai-bun" recorded in the fifth volume of Man'yōshū as a work written in 733 ( Tenpyō 5), in which he says, "In this year, I am 74." Yamanoue no Okura accompanied a mission to Tang China in 701 and returned to Japan in 707. In the years following his return he served in various official capacities. He served as the Governor of Hōki (near present-day Tottori), tutor to the crown prince, and Governor of Chikuzen. While there, he associated with Otomo no Tabito, who was serving in Dazaifu.

Origins

Based on a reference to the Yamanoue clan in the ''

Shinsen Shōjiroku is an imperially commissioned Japanese genealogical record. Thirty volumes in length, it was compiled under the order of Emperor Saga by his brother, the Imperial Prince Manta (万多親王, 788–830). Also by Fujiwara no Otsugu and Fujiwara no ...

'', he was said to be a descendant of

Emperor Kōshō , also known as was the fifth legendary emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Very little is known about this Emperor due to a lack of material available for further verification and study. Kōshō is known as a "l ...

. A large number of literary scholars led by Susumu Nakanishi have proposed that he was born in the Korean kingdom of

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (, ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BC to 660 AD. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. Baekje was founded by Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder J ...

, a view criticized by the historians Kazuo Aoki and Arikiyo Saeki in their respective works.

Edwin Cranston The name Edwin means "rich friend". It comes from the Old English elements "ead" (rich, blessed) and "ƿine" (friend). The original Anglo-Saxon form is Eadƿine, which is also found for Anglo-Saxon figures. People * Edwin of Northumbria (die ...

, Professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University, writes:

‘Okura’s early life is obscure, but recent research has led to the conclusion that his origins were Korean, that he was in fact born in Paekche, Japan’s ally on the Korean peninsula, and was brought to Japan in the wave of refugees that came when that state was extinguished by its rival Silla in 663. Okura would have been in his fourth year. His father, a doctor who entered the service of the Japanese court, no doubt provided his son with a thorough Chinese-style education. This education is amply evident in Okura’s surviving work, but his putative foreign origins are not. When he speaks of his adopted country he seems to speak as a native son.’ Cranston 1993, p. 344.

Okura's potentially continental origins have been cited as an example of the influence continental immigrants had on early Japanese politics, society and culture.Nishizawa Masashi column "Yamanoue no Okura" ''IN'' Nishizawa 2002, p. 24. "憶良が帰化人であるとすると ..��代の我々が想像する以上に、当時の政治・社会・文化において帰化人の果たした役割は大きかったに違いない。"

References

Bibliography

* * Cranston, Edwin A.
''The Gem-Glistening Cup,''
Stanford University Press, 1993. 660 births 733 deaths Man'yō poets Buddhism in the Asuka period Buddhism in the Nara period Japanese ambassadors to the Tang dynasty {{Japan-poet-stub