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Template:Japanese name Yamanoue no Okura (山上 憶良, Yamanoue no Okura, 660–733) was a Japanese poet, the best known for his poems of children and commoners. He was a member of Japanese missions to Tang China. He was also a contributor to the Man'yōshū and his writing had a strong Chinese influence. Unlike other Japanese poetry of the time, his work emphasizes a morality based on the teachings of Confucius. He was perhaps born in 660 because his fifth volume, published in 733, has a sentence saying "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.

Connection to Baekje

Many modern scholars such as Susumu Nakanishi consider Okura to have likely been of Korean descent. He is believed to have been one of the refugees from the Korean kingdom of Baekje (called Kudara in Japanese) who fled the Korean peninsula for Baekje's close ally Japan after their kingdom was invaded by Tang China.

Notes

1. Keene, 132
2. Keene, Donald 1993. Seeds in the Heart page 160, note 9,
3. Nakanishi Susumu 1977. Okura Toraijin ron.
4. Ian Hideo Levy, 2010. The World in Japanese, Stanford University. 30:30~38:50.

Further reading

• Nakanishi Susumu (1973), Yamanoue no Okura, Kawade Shobo Shinsha

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