Chikage Kato

Japanese: 加藤千蔭 - かとう・ちかげ

Year of death: Bunka 5.9.2 (1808.10.21)
Year of birth: 9 February 1735 (3 March 1735)
A poet and Japanese scholar of the mid-to-late Edo period. His real surname was Tachibana. His first name was Saho. He was commonly known as Tsunetaro or Matazaemon. He was known by the pen names Tsutsuen, Hogien, Miminashisanjin, and others. His pseudonym was Tachibana Yatsumune. He was the son of the Shogunate's Yoriki and poet Kato Edayoshi. He showed talent from an early age and was taught by his father Edayoshi. He became a disciple of Kamo Mabuchi, whose house was on a corner of Edayoshi's estate at the time. He held various public positions, including apprenticeship as a Yoriki for the Town Magistrate's Group and Yoriki for the Magistrate's Office, and served as a chamberlain for Tanuma Okitsugu, before retiring in 1788. His official position was that of a lower-ranking Shogunate official. Chikage's literary life bore great fruit after he retired. While he continued to serve as a poet, his fame in the Edo poetry world grew even more in his later years. He studied under Mabuchi, but was not familiar with Mabuchi's Manyo-style poetry. He established his own style, weaving the prosperous customs of Edo into traditional poetry. His urbane waka poems, suited to the atmosphere of the An'ei and Tenmei periods (1772-1789), when Edo literary circles were experiencing unprecedented vigor, were highly praised. He was praised on a par with his friend Murata Shunkai, and they and their disciples were so influential that they were called the "Edo school." The fusion of elegance and vulgarity in the Tenmei period can be seen in the postscript he wrote under the name Tachibana Hachikuchi for the first anthology of kyoka, "Manzai Kyokashu," by Ota Nanpo, also known as Shikata Akayoshi, a fellow Shogunate official and a key figure in Tenmei kyoka poetry. In his later years, as a scholar of Japanese classics, he completed "Man'yoshu Ryakukai," which remains one of the main commentaries on the Man'yoshu to this day. As a poet, he also had contact with writers not only in Edo but also in Kyoto and Osaka. His relationship with Tomikoji Sadanao and Kamo Suetaka is particularly noteworthy. He also had a strong rivalry with the waka poetry of Kagawa Kageki. Chikage's views are frankly expressed in "Fude no Saga," which is interesting. His other works include the collection of poems and essays "Ukeraga Hana" and the poetry theory "Toono Katsuyoshisho," but for a master of the poetry world, he has few comprehensive works. <References> Mori Senzo, "Kato Chikage Iji" ("Mori Senzo Collected Works," Volume 7), Uchino Goro, "Edo School of National Studies Treatise"

(Keichi Kubota)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：文化5.9.2(1808.10.21)
生年：享保20.2.9(1735.3.3)
江戸中・後期の歌人,国学者。本姓橘。初名佐芳。通称常太郎,又左衛門。朮園,芳宜園,耳梨山人等と号した。狂号橘八衢。幕府の与力で歌人の加藤枝直の子。幼時より才能を発揮し,父枝直の手ほどきを受ける。当時枝直の地所の一角に家を構えていた賀茂真淵に入門する。町奉行組与力勤方見習,奉行所吟味役与力などの公務につき,田沼意次の側用人まで務めたのち,天明8(1788)年に致仕している。官職としては下級幕臣に終始した。千蔭の文人生活は致仕後に大きく結実した。在職中も歌人としての生活は順調であったが,晩年に至って江戸歌壇における名声はいよいよ高まった。真淵を師としたが,その万葉調にはなじまず,伝統的な歌風に江戸の繁華な風俗を織り込んだ独自の作風を樹立,折しも江戸文芸界空前の活況を呈した安永・天明期(1772～89)の雰囲気に似つかわしい都会派の和歌は大いにもてはやされた。親交を結んだ村田春海と並び称され,彼らおよびその門下を「江戸派」と呼ぶほどの勢力を持つ。幕臣仲間で天明狂歌の立役者だった四方赤良こと大田南畝の初の狂歌選集『万載狂歌集』に橘八衢の名で跋を寄せた点に,天明期の雅俗文芸の融合の様をみることができる。晩年はまた国学者として『万葉集略解』を完成させた。これは今に至るまで万葉集の主要注釈のひとつとされている。また歌人としては,江戸のみならず京坂の文人とも交渉を持った。富小路貞直や賀茂季鷹との関係は特筆に価する。また,香川景樹の和歌に対しては強烈な対抗心を燃やしていた。『筆のさが』に千蔭の見解が率直に語られ興味深い。ほかに著作として歌文集『うけらが花』,歌論『答小野勝義書』などがあるが,歌壇の大家のわりにまとまった著作は乏しい。<参考文献>森銑三「加藤千蔭遺事」(『森銑三著作集』7巻),内野吾郎『江戸派国学論考』

(久保田啓一)

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