Kakinomoto No Hitomaro - Life

Life

Details of his life are few and uncertain despite his prominence as a poet. His name doesn't appear in chronicles like the Nihon Shoki nor in Shoku Nihongi ("History of Japan" II). All our primary sources about him come from the prefaces and commentaries on the Man'yōshū where he is designated as either the composer or collector of waka poetry.

Generally, he is thought to have began working in the court under Emperor Temmu's 9th year (680 CE), and was active as a poet Temmu's reign and likely flourished under Empress Jitō. However, since Kakinomoto composed a pair of poems mourning the death of a lady in the court of Emperor Tenji at Oumi, there are some scholars like Kitayama Shigeo (北山茂夫) who believe he began work at the court in Oumi.

According to the Edo period scholar Kamo no Mabuchi, he served under Prince Kusakabe, and while this is often held as true, there is actually very little concrete evidence for this claim. On the other hand, since he presented poems to numerous princes and princesses (such as Yuge no Miko (弓削皇子), Prince Toneri, and Niitabeshin no U (新田部親王)), it is thought to be unlikely that he was in the service of a single prince. Others, such as the Japanese scholars Itō Haku and Hashimoto Tatsuo, believe that he was an imperial poet of the court, but no such position as "imperial poet" existed during the Asuka period. The group of Hitomaro's poems which can be dated within a certain period does overlap approximately with Empress Jitō's ascension and death, and so it is thought that the empress was a motivational force for Hitomaro's poetry.

From waka mourning the death of a man from Sanuki Province, and a farewell poem at Kamoyama (Mt. Kamo) in Iwami province with elegies (banka, 挽歌) mourning his own death, many have seen this as Hitomaro acting as a palace official traveling to various provinces and reaching the end of his life in Iwami. According to the Japanese scholar Itō Haku, however, this farewell poem is a folk drama portraying Hitomaro's own death, and the theory that the poem is a later counterfeit has also been suggested.

Further, from waka mourning the death of Princess Asuka, who died in the 4th year of Emperor Mommu's reign (700 CE), it is certain that Hitomaro was still present at the capitol after Prince Kusakabe's death (689 CE). Because there are no works certain extant from the later half of the Fujiwara-kyō period or after the capitol moved to Nara, it is thought that Hitomaro died before 710 CE.

When he was around 50 years old, there are records indicating that he was appointed to a provincial office in Iwami Province — today the western part of Shimane Prefecture. In 708, Zokunihongi reports that a "Kakinomoto no Saru" (another member of the Kakinomoto clan) died; the Japanese thinker Umehara Takeshi has suggested that this Saru (柿本佐留) and Hitomaro were the same person.