Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
He has come to be revered as a god of poetry and scholarship, and is considered one of the four greatest poets in Japanese history, along with Fujiwara no Teika, Sōgi and Bashō.
[1] According to the Shinsen Shōjiroku, the clan's name derives from the persimmon (kaki) tree that grew on their land during the reign of Emperor Bidatsu.
[1] According to the Nihon Shoki, Kakinomoto no Saru,[a] the probable head of the clan, had been among ten people appointed shōkinge [ja], equivalent to Junior Fifth Rank, in the twelfth month of 681.
[1] There are several theories regarding the relationship of this Kakinomoto no Saru to the poet Hitomaro,[3] including the former being the latter's father, brother, uncle, or them being the same person.
[1] The content of this poem reveals an awareness of the mythology that, according to the preface to the Kojiki (completed in 712) had begun to be compiled during Tenmu's reign.
[1] He also composed an elegy for Princess Asuka, who died in the fourth month of 700,[1] and a poem commemorating an imperial visit to Kii Province.
[8] Susumu Nakanishi remarks that the fact that he did not apparently compose elegies for emperors themselves, and that most of his poems centre around princes and princesses, indicates that he was probably a writer affiliated with the literary circles that formed around these junior members of the imperial family.
[4] The ordering of poems, and their headnotes, in volume 2 of the Man'yōshū, implies that Hitomaro died shortly before the moving of the capital to Nara in 710.
[16] Hitomaro was a court poet during the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, with most of his dateable poems coming from the last decade or so of the seventh century.
[4] He apparently left a private collection, the so-called Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro Kashū, which does not survive as an independent work but was cited extensively by the compilers of the Man'yōshū.
[7][18] Hitomaro is known for his solemn and mournful elegies of members of the imperial family, whom he described in his courtly poems as "gods" and "children of the sun".
[7] His lament for the Ōmi capital is noted for its vivid, sentimental descriptions of the ruins,[7] while his elegy for Prince Takechi powerfully evokes the Jinshin War.
[7] Watase credits him with the creation of an ancient lyricism that expressed both human sentiment and sincere emotions across both his poems of praise and mourning.
[19] Ōtomo no Yakamochi, a poet of the "fourth period" who probably had a hand in the final compilation of the collection, held Hitomaro in high regard, praising him as Sanshi no Mon (山柿の門).
[19] In his Japanese preface to the tenth-century Kokin Wakashū, Ki no Tsurayuki referred to Hitomaro as Uta no Hijiri ("Saint of Poetry").
[20][h] In the Heian period the practice of Hitomaru-eigu (人丸影供) also gained currency, showing that Hitomaro had already begun to be apotheosized.
[22] Hitomaro is today ranked, along with Fujiwara no Teika, Sōgi and Bashō, as one of the four greatest poets in Japanese history.
