Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dwy (talk | contribs) at 12:30, 8 February 2014 (Better to base the article on secondary sources than on tertiary ones). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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.

Origins

Little is known about the genealogical origins of Okura, the only extant record being a brief description in Shinsen Shojiroku, which listed Yamanoue clan as “Kobetsu” (皇別), families having branched out from the Japanese imperial family, noting that the clan shares the same genealogical line with Okasuga (大春日) clan and descended from Amatarashihikokunioshihito no mikoto.

Some scholars of ancient Japanese literature, including Susumu Nakanishi, argued that Okura’s father may have been an immigrant from the Korean peninsula, who fled to Japan when the kingdom of Baekje fell. It was speculated that Okura and his father settled in Koga gun, Omi province, where his family was subjected to and eventually incorporated into Awata clan, a sub-branch of Okasuga clan. This theory, however, is not supported by historians, who maintained that Okura’s kabane, “omi” (臣) was customarily not given to foreign immigrant families.

Notes

1. Keene, 132
2. Nakanishi, p.23
3. Nakanishi, pp24-44
4. Nakanishi, p.45

References

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

Template:Persondata

This article about a Japanese poet is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Japanese poets
• 660 births
• 733 deaths
• Japanese writer stubs
• Asian poet stubs