Kasa no Iratsume - Umbrella girl

Years of birth and death unknown. A poet from the final period of the Manyoshu. There are various theories that she was the daughter of Kasakanmura or Kasa Mimuro, but her reading history is also unknown. She has 29 tanka poems in the Manyoshu, the second most of any female poet after Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume. All of her works are love poems exchanged with Otomo no Yakamochi, and they describe the various aspects of love from the beginning to the end. For example, he is notable for his original depiction of scenery such as "Yukagegusa" in "I wonder if it is because the white dew on the yukagegusa at my lodging has not disappeared," and for his use of "bells" and "hungry ghosts" in "The bells ring for everyone to go to sleep, but when I think of you I cannot sleep," and "Thinking of someone I do not love is like the mud falling on the back of a hungry ghost at a great temple," to express the pain of love in a novel way.

[Hideo Suzuki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生没年未詳。『万葉集』末期の歌人。笠金村(かなむら)の娘、笠御室(みむろ)の娘などの諸説があるが、閲歴も未詳。『万葉集』に29首の短歌が所収、女流歌人としては大伴坂上郎女(おおとものさかのうえのいらつめ)に次ぐ歌数である。その作すべてが大伴家持(やかもち)との恋の贈答歌であり、恋の始まりから終わりまでの恋情の諸相が詠まれている。たとえば「わが宿の夕影草の白露の消ぬがにもとな思ほゆるかも」の、「夕影草」のような景物表現の独自性や、「皆人を寝よとの鐘は打つなれど君をし思へば寝(い)ねかてぬかも」「相思はぬ人を思ふは大寺の餓鬼(がき)の後(しりへ)に額(ぬか)つくごとし」の「鐘」「餓鬼」など、他者のほとんど詠まない事物を詠み込んで、恋の苦衷を斬新(ざんしん)な形として表現している点に特色がある。

［鈴木日出男］

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