Ōtomo no Sakanoe no Iratsume

Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume (大伴坂上郎女, c. 700–750) was a female Japanese poet, important in her time,^[1] with 79 poems in the Man'yōshū.

Life

In her teens, she married Prince Hozumi and after his early death, she married his half-brother. After he also died, she went to live with Ōtomo no Tabito.^[2]

It is believed by Donald Keene and Tsuchihashi (in his Man'yō Kaigan, II, p. 200) that Ōtomo no Tabito sent for Lady Ōtomo in c. 728 to educate his son, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although her becoming Tabito's mistress or replacing Tabito's recently deceased wife in performing religious ceremonies for the Ōtomo clan have both been suggested as reasons for Otomo's summons. She made songs while performing rituals. Also, when the nun Rigan died, she wrote a song of mourning.^[3]

Her daughter Ō Iratsume received two of her songs, which expressed how much she missed her daughter.^[4] Ō Iratsume would later marry Yakamochi.

References

1. "..and is generally considered to be the leading woman poet of the early Nara period." Woman poets of Japan
2. Sato 2008, p. 27
3. Sato 2008, pp. 27–28
4. Sato 2008, p. 30

Sources

• Hiroaki Sato (2008). Japanese women poets: an anthology. M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
• pg 140 of Woman poets of Japan, 1977, Kenneth Rexroth, Ikuko Atsumi, ISBN 0-8112-0820-6; previously published as The Burning Heart by The Seabury Press.
• pg 147 and pg 174-175 of Seeds in the Heart

External links

• "Otomo no Sakanoue Iratsume (early 700s)". Other Women's Voices. Archived from the original on April 10, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2014.