Unlike other Japanese poetry of the time, his work emphasizes a morality based on the teachings of Confucius and Buddhism.
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.
[3] A large number of literary scholars led by Susumu Nakanishi have proposed that he was born in the Korean kingdom of Baekje,[1][4][5] a view criticized by the historians Kazuo Aoki and Arikiyo Saeki in their respective works.
[6][7] [8] Edwin Cranston, 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.
His father, a doctor who entered the service of the Japanese court, no doubt provided his son with a thorough Chinese-style education.