Ōtomo no Yakamochi and the Late Man'yōshū — Compiler and Last Poet, the Landscape of Etchū and Political Disappointment

Yakamochi’s Position

Ōtomo no Yakamochi was born around 718 (presumed) and died in 785 (Enryaku 4). He is the most strongly hypothesized final compiler of the Man’yōshū, and the greatest single contributor — 473 poems (about 10%) of its 4,500 poems are by him.

The last volumes of the Man’yōshū (17-20) take on the character of Yakamochi’s own diary-like anthology. It is possible to read the Man’yōshū as “Ōtomo no Yakamochi’s household collection,” so large is his presence.

Life

Background — the Distinguished Ōtomo Clan

The Ōtomo were a distinguished military house with traditions going back to the age of the gods. Yakamochi’s father, Ōtomo no Tabito (665-731), was Grand Governor stationed in Kyūshū and hosted the Tsukushi Kadan (poetry gathering with Yamanoue no Okura and others).

Yakamochi spent his boyhood in Kyūshū when his father Tabito was posted there (728-730), and may have been taught by Tabito’s colleagues such as Okura.

The Etchū Period (746-751)

At 29, Yakamochi was appointed governor of Etchū (present-day Toyama). During his five-year tenure, he composed about 220 poems, which form the core of Man’yōshū volumes 17-19.

Etchū was far from the capital (Nara), and Yakamochi lived for the first time long in a landscape outside the capital. Etchū’s sea, mountains, snow, flowers, and birds — the Etchū poems carefully composing these are the peak of Yakamochi’s style.

Return to the Capital and Setback (751-)

In 751, he returned to the capital as shōnagon (lesser councilor). He then held key posts — right-middle secretary, governor of Inaba, middle councilor — but the political position of the Ōtomo clan gradually declined.

At the Tachibana no Naramaro Incident (757), many of the Ōtomo were implicated. Yakamochi was temporarily out of favor. Later restored, but the momentum of the Ōtomo did not return.

Death and After

In August 785 (Enryaku 4), Yakamochi died at 68. Immediately after his death, the Fujiwara no Tanetsugu assassination incident occurred. Yakamochi was already dead, but he was posthumously stripped of court rank as the alleged ringleader. Restoration had to wait until 806 (Enryaku 25), after Emperor Kanmu’s death.

Yakamochi as Compiler of the Man’yōshū

Basis for the Yakamochi Compilation Hypothesis

• The last poem of the Man’yōshū is Yakamochi’s “Atarashiki toshi no hajime no hatsuharu no kyō furu yuki no iya shike yogoto” (759) — his work
• Volumes 17-20 are arranged in Yakamochi’s diary-like style (his own poems and friends’ poems arranged by date)
• Yakamochi’s poems are conspicuously more numerous than any single other poet’s

Points of Doubt

• No definitive evidence that Yakamochi single-handedly edited all 20 volumes
• The character of each volume differs too much (some are collections of public progress poems, some are Azumauta volumes)
• It is possible that completion took place after Yakamochi’s death

Mainstream Man’yō scholarship: Assume Yakamochi as the final editor, add his own diary-like collection to materials from the earlier generation (Hitomaro’s era), and the anthology was formed.

Representative Etchū Poems

Yakamochi’s Etchū-period (746-751) representative poems.

Spring of Etchū — Man’yōshū 19, 4139

“Haru no sono / kurenai niou / momo no hana / shita teru michi ni / idetatsu otome”

• haru no sono — the spring garden
• kurenai niou — glows red (in Man’yō, “niou” is used for color, not smell)
• momo no hana — peach blossom
• shita teru michi — the road lit up beneath
• idetatsu otome — a maiden standing out on it

A spring garden in Etchū with peach blossoms glowing red. The blossoms’ color lights up the road beneath, and a maiden stands there. The beauty of color, and one maiden — a candid Man’yō depiction.

Snow of Etchū — Man’yōshū 17, 3945

“Okuyama no / iwa ni koke mushi / kashikokedo / omou kokoro wo / ika ni ka mo semu”

Like moss growing on the rocks of the deep mountain, (it is awesome, but) how shall I deal with the heart that thinks (of you)? A confession of love overlaid on the deep mountains and rocks and moss of Etchū.

The Sea of Etchū — Man’yōshū 17, 3985

“Imizu-gawa / iyukimeguru / tamakushige / Futagami-yama wa / haru-hana no / sakeru sakari ni / aki no ha no / nioeru toki ni…” (part of a long poem)

Futagami-yama encircled by the Imizu River, like a jeweled box. When the spring flowers are in full bloom, when the autumn leaves are aglow. The representative landscape of Etchū is composed carefully in a long poem.

A Poem for Family — Man’yōshū 17, 3969

“Nadeshiko no / hana miru goto ni / otome-ra ga / emahi no nioi / omohoyu kamo”

Every time I see the pinks in bloom, the sweetness of the daughters’ smiles comes to mind. In Etchū’s assignment, he composes the feeling for the family left in the capital.

Yakamochi also left many husband-wife poems with his wife Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Ōiratsume (daughter of Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume, Yakamochi’s cousin). The Man’yōshū is also a record of the private correspondence of couples of the time.

Poems of Political Setback

The Ōtomo Clan Crisis — Man’yōshū 20, 4465

Just before the Tachibana no Naramaro Incident (757), Yakamochi composed a long instructional poem to the Ōtomo family.

“Ōtomo no / tōtsu kamu-oya no / sono na wo ba / Ōkume-nushi to / oi-mochite / tsukae shi tsukasa…” (part of the long poem)

The distant ancestor of the Ōtomo, “Ōkume-nushi,” and the traditional office (they bore) — an instruction that the current generation of the clan should carry on. The awareness of transmission of the Ōtomo house tradition is poignant.

Reply tanka: “Tsurugitachi / iyoyo togubeshi / inishie yu / sayakeku oite / kinishi sono na so”

Like sharpening a sword, so should we continue to sharpen the clan’s name, borne cleanly from ancient times. The weight of the family name amid the foreboding of political disappointment.

The Last Poem — Man’yōshū 20, 4516

“Atarashiki / toshi no hajime no / hatsuharu no / kyō furu yuki no / iya shike yogoto”

• atarashiki toshi no hajime — the beginning of the new year
• hatsuharu no kyō furu yuki — the snow that falls today, on the first day of spring
• iya shike yogoto — may auspicious things ever pile up

On New Year’s Day, 759 (Tenpyō-hōji 3), composed at his posting in Inaba (present-day Tottori) as governor of Inaba: the last poem of the Man’yōshū. A prayer that good things may pile up like the snow falling on the first spring day of the new year.

This is the last poem of the Man’yōshū, and the poems of Yakamochi’s next 26 years (until his death in 785) do not survive. Why Yakamochi did not add poems after this to the Man’yōshū, or whether they were added and later lost — an unsolved puzzle of Man’yō studies.

Yakamochi’s Style

1. Delicate Feeling — between the Man’yō’s power and the Heian’s fineness

His style is a transitional one, moving from the powerful Man’yō of Hitomaro, Akahito, and Okura toward a somewhat delicate and introspective direction. It contains the germ of the technique-rich Heian Kokinshū to come.

2. Diary-Like Composition

Composing multiple poems in a day and arranging them in chronological order — a diary-like compositional habit not much seen in other Man’yō poets. This is Yakamochi’s own stance.

3. Fine Rendering of Color and Season

Red peach, white snow, blue sea, yellow leaves, pinks — Yakamochi’s poems catch fine changes of color and season. This connects to the aesthetic of the four seasons that follows in the Heian era.

4. Careful Making of Long Poems

Yakamochi carefully polished the technique of chōka he inherited from his father Tabito, his aunt Sakanoue no Iratsume, and Okura. His approach of depicting Etchū’s landscape in chōka has its own perfection.

5. Politics and Poetry Interwoven

Yakamochi was both statesman and poet. The Ōtomo clan’s political setback did not separate from his poetry — as in the instructional chōka, poetry could also be a means of transmitting the family name.

The Close of the Man’yōshū and the Rupture Toward the Heian

The Man’yōshū closes with Yakamochi’s poem of 759. Then 150 years of silence follow, and only in 905 with the Kokin Wakashū is the next imperial anthology compiled. Poems from the intervening period (late Nara to early Heian) hardly survive.

Why the gap:

• Chinese poetry over waka — Early Heian was Emperor Saga’s era of Chinese-poetry preference (compilation of Ryōunshū, Bunka Shūreishū, and other Chinese-poetry anthologies)
• Waka going underground — waka continued to be composed in private venues of the aristocratic society, but no public anthology was compiled
• Difficulty of deciphering man’yōgana — the Man’yōshū itself became unreadable, awaiting the later deciphering of Keichū and Kamo no Mabuchi

From Yakamochi’s death (785), 120 years, until the era of the Six Poetry Immortals (840s-900s) — Ki no Tsurayuki and others — that waka recovers in the Heian era.

Toward the Next Article

150 years after the close of the Man’yōshū, in 905, the Kokin Wakashū is compiled in the Heian era. A major turn from the Man’yō’s power to the Kokin’s delicate technique. Editor Ki no Tsurayuki, the “Six Poetry Immortals” Ariwara no Narihira and Ono no Komachi, techniques such as kakekotoba and engo — the next article opens the second phase of waka history.