Black man on the beach - Hamabe no Kurohito

Japanese: 浜辺黒人 - はまべのくろひと

Year of death: May 18, 1790 (June 30, 1790)
Year of birth: 1717
A kyoka poet of the Edo period. His real name was Shiba Moga, and he was commonly known as Mikawaya Hanbei. His kyoka name came from his dark skin. He ran a bookstore in Edo Honshiba 2-chome, and around 1779, when the kyoka craze was starting to take off, he solicited kyoka poems, printed the winning poems, and collected the printing fee as an "entry fee." This is said to be the first fee for Edo kyoka. He collected these prints and published "Kuri no Shita Kaze" and "Hatsuwara Futakutama" in 1782. The writers were mostly monks from the Shiba area who still followed the tradition of Kamigata kyoka, but black people themselves were pioneers who participated in the Tenmei kyoka circle, and their poems appear in many collections. His best known poem is "Hototogisu Fuji to Tsukuba no Tenbin ni Ryogoku Hashi wo Kake Kakonaku," included in "Toku Waka Go Banzaishu."

(Yutaka Sonoda)

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

Japanese:

没年：寛政2.5.18(1790.6.30)
生年：享保2(1717)
江戸時代の狂歌作者。本名は斯波孟雅,通称は三河屋半兵衛。狂名は色黒であったことによる。江戸本芝2丁目で本屋を営み,狂歌熱の高まりはじめた安永8(1779)年ごろ,狂歌を募集し,入選歌を摺り物にして出し,その版木代を「入花料」として徴収した。これは江戸狂歌の点料の最初のものといわれる。その摺り物を集めて天明2(1782)年に『栗の下風』と『初笑不琢玉』を刊行。作者層は,いまだ上方狂歌の系統を引く芝方面の僧侶が多かったが,黒人自身は先駆者として天明狂歌壇に参加,多くの集に歌がみえる。『徳和歌後万載集』に収められた「ほととぎす富士と筑波の天秤に両国橋をかけたかとなく」がよく知られている。

(園田豊)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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