Fame
In the prefatory essay to the Kokin Wakashū compilation of poetry, Ki no Tsurayuki called him Uta no Hijiri — a divine poet equal to the Nara period poet Yamabe no Akahito, a high regard echoed by later poets such as Fujiwara no Teika. Ikeda Munemasa wrote Portrait of Hitomaro and His Waka Poem. Modern waka poets like Masaoka Shiki and Saito Mokichi considered him one of greatest poets in the history of Japanese literature.
In Masuda, Iwami Province in Shimane Prefecture, there are two Kakinomoto shrines, Takatsu Kakinomoto Shrine and Toda Kakinomoto Shrine. It is said that Kamoshima in Masuda is Hitomaro's death place and Toda is Hitomaro's birthplace. The priest of Toda Kakinomoto Shrine is Ayabe, and he is the 49th of Hitomaro's mother's line.
In Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture there is Kakinomoto Jinja, a shrine devoted to Hitomaro. The shrine holds an annual utakai (waka party) devoted to him.
Read more about this topic: Kakinomoto No Hitomaro
Famous quotes containing the word fame:
“Those who write for lucre or fame are grosser Iscariots than the cartel robbers, for they steal the genius of the people, which is its will to resist evil.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo; the splendor of fame fades into nothing; but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“Stupid misery of fame and money. Always we were safe from it, mistaking our obscurity for a curse when it was a treasure. Free to make what we liked, to be ourselves, even do nothing at all. No one watching. We could be real.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)