Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume

Template:Family name hatnote , also known as Lady Ōtomo of Sakanoue, was a Japanese noblewoman and waka poet of the early-to-mid Nara period,Template:Sfnp best known for the inclusion of 84 of her poems in the Man'yōshū.Template:Sfnp She was the aunt of Ōtomo no Yakamochi.Template:Sfnp

Life

Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume was born c. 695 to the powerful and influential Ōtomo clan.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp A daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and Lady Ishikawa,Template:Sfnp she was the younger half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito, Ōtomo no Tanushi, and Ōtomo no Sukunamaro.Template:Sfnp As is customary for the time period, her personal name is unknown, and her title is taken from Sakanoue, the village in which she resided; ‘Iratsume’ is an archaic moniker for ‘young lady,’ ‘maiden,’ or ‘daughter’.Template:Sfnp

In her early teens, she married Prince Hozumi;Template:Sfnp after his early death in 715, she would go on to marry Fujiwara no Maro, son of Fujiwara no Fuhito.Template:Sfnp After the death of her second husband, she married her older half-brother, Ōtomo no Sukunamaro,Template:Sfnp and would have at least two daughters with him, Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Ōiratsume and Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Otōiratsume.Template:Sfnp

Widowed for yet a third time, in 728 she would join the household of her eldest brother, Ōtomo no Tabito, then the administrator-commander of the Dazaifu, the regional government of Kyushu.Template:Sfnp Donald Keene and Yutaka Tsuchihashi both speculate that Tabito sent for Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue to educate his son, Ōtomo no Yakamochi.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Other suggested reasons for her summons include becoming Tabito's mistress or spouse,Template:Sfnp or replacing Tabito's recently deceased wife in performing religious ceremonies for the Ōtomo clan.Template:Sfnp

After her brother’s death in 731,Template:Sfnp Sakanoue became the de facto head of the Ōtomo house and would manage its affairs until her nephew Yakamochi came of age.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Yakamochi would later go on to marry Sakanoue’s eldest daughter, Ōiratsume.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Family

Parents

• Father: Ōtomo no Yasumaro (大伴安麻呂, d. 21 June 714)
• Mother: Ishikawa no Iratsume (石川 内命婦)

Spouse(s) and issues

• First Husband: Prince Hozumi (穂積親王, d. 30 August 715), son of Emperor Tenmu
  • First Son: Prince Kamido (上道王, d. 28 April 727)
  • Second Son: Prince Sakaibe (境部王)
• Second Husband: Fujiwara no Maro (藤原 麻呂, 695 – 17 August 737), son of Fujiwara no Fuhito (藤原不比等)
• Third Husband: Ōtomo no Sukunamaro (大伴宿奈麻呂), her half-brother
  • First Daughter: Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Ōiratsume (大伴坂上大嬢), Wife of Ōtomo no Yakamochi (大伴 家持)
  • Second Daughter: Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Otōiratsume (大伴坂上二嬢), Wife of Ōtomo no Surugamaro (大伴駿河麻呂)

Poetic works

Ōtomo no Sakanoue is the foremost female poet of the Man'yōshū, and the third-best represented overall, regardless of gender, having a total of 84 poems included in the collection.Template:Sfnp Her nephew, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, is thought to be one of the primary compilers of the Man’yoshu.Template:Sfnp Paula Doe suggests that, as his mentor, Sakanoue exerted considerable influence on his early poetry and literary sensibility, evident in his choice to include so many examples of her work.Template:Sfnp

Sakanoue’s 84 extant poems are 77 tanka, 6 chōka, and 1 sedōka.Template:Sfnp Several of her poems are noted by epigraphs to have been composed while performing religious rites on behalf of her house.Template:Sfnp Her longest, a banka (an elegy in chōka form),Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp was composed upon the death of the Korean nun Rigan, who had been a guest of the Ōtomo household since Sakanoue’s youth.Template:Sfnp

Other poems of note are her collection of sōmon, tanka “poems conveying feelings to another,”Template:Sfnp which document her exchanges with some of her husbands, lovers, and friends.Template:Sfnp Finally, several of her poems were either addressed to or written about her daughters, touching upon the sentiments between parent and child. One of her longer works is addressed to Ōiratsume, expressing how much she missed her daughter.Template:Sfnp