Takahashi Mushimaro - Takahashi Mushimaro

Dates of birth and death unknown. A lower-ranking government official and poet in the Nara period. He had a private collection of poems called "Takahashi Musimaro no Utashu" (Manyoshu), and including those from the collection, there are 14 choka, 19 tanka, and one sentou (a total of 34 poems) in the Manyoshu (or 36 in total if one choka and one tanka are included). The period of his reading and composing activities is unclear, but he was in Hitachi Province (Ibaraki Prefecture) as one of the provincial governors. The common theory is that this was around 719 (Yoro 3), and that he was an official under the provincial governor Fujiwara no Umakai and was involved in the compilation of the Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki (a topographical record of Hitachi Province). (There is also a theory that considers his relationship with Umakai and the Fudoki to be separate, more than 10 years earlier.) His works are characterized by his preference for narrative songs using rare material, such as legendary figures such as the Lady of Mama in Katsushika and Mizunoe no Ura Shimako, and the song of Mount Tsukuba, as sung in the lyrics, 'When I look at the well of Mama in Katsushika, it is flat and I think of the child who stood there drawing water' (Volume 9), and he has been called a narrative poet or a legendary poet, but the essence of his literature is said to be variously described as the spirit of loneliness, the literature of the alienated, and the longings of adolescence.

[Hiroshi Endo]

"Okura and Mushimaro" by Imura Tetsuo (1973, Ohfusha) " "Manyoshu Authors and Works" by Gomi Tomohide (1982, Iwanami Shoten)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生没年未詳。奈良時代の下級官人、歌人。「高橋虫麻呂之歌集」（万葉集）という私歌集をもち、そこからの採録歌も含めて『万葉集』に長歌14首、短歌19首、旋頭歌(せどうか)一首、計34首（長歌・短歌各一首を加えて計36首とも）が残る。閲歴・作歌活動の時期など確かでないが、国司の一員として常陸(ひたち)国（茨城県）にいたことがある。その時期を通説では719年（養老3）ごろとみて、国守藤原宇合(うまかい)の属官で『常陸国風土記(ふどき)』編纂(へんさん)にも関与したかとする（10年以上さげて宇合・風土記との関係も別に考える説もある）。作品は「葛飾(かつしか)の真間(まま)の井見れば立ち平(なら)し水汲(く)ましけむ手児名(てこな)し思ほゆ」（巻9）と歌った葛飾真間娘子(おとめ)や水江之浦島子(みずのえのうらのしまこ)など伝説上の人物、筑波(つくば)山の嬥歌(かがい)など類例の少ない素材を好んで用い叙事的に歌うのが特色で、叙事歌人、伝説歌人などとよばれるが、彼の文学の本質は孤愁の心、疎外者の文学、青年期のあこがれなど種々にいわれている。

［遠藤　宏］

『井村哲夫著『憶良と虫麻呂』（1973・桜楓社）』▽『五味智英著『万葉集の作家と作品』（1982・岩波書店）』

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