Nanpo Ota

Japanese: 大田南畝 - おおた・なんぽ

Year of death: April 6, 1823 (May 16, 1823)
Year of birth: 1749.4.19
A comic writer and man of letters from the mid-to-late Edo period. His given name was Kan, his name was Shishou, and he was commonly known as Naojiro and Shichizaemon. He also used many pseudonyms, such as Shikata Akayoshi, Yamate Bakajin, Shozanjin, Kyokaen, and Nebo Sensei. He was born in Nakaokachimachi, Ushigome, Edo, as the eldest son of the shogunate's Okachi Kichizaemon Masatomo and Toshiyo. Nanpo, a small man of low stature struggling with debts, staked his dream of success on academics from a young age, becoming a pupil of Uchiyama Ka's residence (Tsubakiken) at the age of 15 and Matsuzaki Kankai at around 18. As a student of the shogunate, he studied Japanese studies and Sorai-style Chinese studies, while also associating with people who would later become the core of the Edo comic world, including Heichi Tosaku. In 1766, he compiled his first work, a glossary of poetry terms called Meishi Jozai, and the following year, with a preface by Hiraga Gennai, he published his first collection of rhapsodies called Nebo Sensei Bunshu. While he devoted his life to composing Chinese poetry in the style of the Sorai school, he also spent most of his 20s and 30s amid the extravagant stage of Edo-period comic poetry as a master of rhapsodies, eventually coming to be revered as a leader. Together with fellow student Karagoromo Kitsushu and others, he started the popularity of kyoka in Edo, publishing works such as Banzai Kyokashu (1783) and Tokuwakago Banzaishu (1785) in succession. He paved the way for the rise of popular literature in the Tenmei period. He also wrote many comic works, including sharebon, hyobyouki, and kibyōshi, but in 1787 (Tenmei 7), with the collapse of the Tanuma government and the rise of Matsudaira Sadanobu's purge policy, he became estranged from the world of kyōka poetry, and quickly regained his original attitude as a shogunate official. In 1794 (Kansei 6), he passed the personnel recruitment examination with outstanding results, and worked at the Osaka Copper Theater (1801) and the Nagasaki Magistrate's Office (1804), while steadily increasing his fame as a representative Edo literati. In his final years, he published many Chinese poems and kyōka poems, including the Kyouen Shishū (1820). <Works> Hamada Giichiro et al., eds., Ota Nanpo Zenshū (Complete Works) (20 volumes) <References> Gyokubayashi Seirō, Shusanjin no Kenkyū, Hamada Giichiro, Ota Nanpo

(Robert Campbell)

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

Japanese:

没年：文政6.4.6(1823.5.16)
生年：寛延2.3.3(1749.4.19)
江戸時代中・後期の戯作者,文人。名を覃,字子耜,通称直次郎,七左衛門といった。四方赤良,山手馬鹿人,蜀山人,杏花園,寝惚先生など,多くの別号を使った。幕府の御徒吉左衛門正智と利世の長男,江戸牛込仲御徒町に誕生。宿債に苦しむ小身の悴南畝は,若年時から学問に立身の夢を賭け15歳で内山賀邸(椿軒),18歳ころに松崎観海に入門した。幕臣書生らしく和学と徂徠派漢学を修める一方,平秩東作をはじめ,のちの江戸戯作界の中核をなす面々と交わった。明和3(1766)年,処女作の作詩用語集『明詩擢材』を編み,翌年,平賀源内の序を付して戯作第一弾の狂詩集『寝惚先生文集』を出版。生涯,徂徠派風の漢詩作成にいそしむ一方,狂詩の名手として20代から30代の大半を江戸戯作の華美な舞台のただなかに過ごし,やがて領袖と仰がれた。同門の唐衣橘洲らと共に江戸狂歌流行の端緒を開き,『万載狂歌集』(1783),『徳和歌後万載集』(1785)などを相次いで出版。天明期俗文芸の隆盛を築いた。洒落本,評判記,黄表紙などの戯作も多く綴ったが,天明7(1787)年,田沼政権の崩壊と松平定信による粛正政策の台頭を機に,狂歌界とは疎遠になり,幕吏本来の姿勢を俊敏に取り戻した。寛政6(1794)年,人材登用試験を見事な成績で合格,大坂銅座出役(1801),長崎奉行所出役(1804)などの勤務をこなし,かたわら江戸文人の代表格として名声をいやましに上げていった。最晩年に『杏園詩集』(1820)など,漢詩,狂歌文などが多く出版された。<著作>浜田義一郎他編『大田南畝全集』(全20巻)<参考文献>玉林晴朗『蜀山人の研究』,浜田義一郎『大田南畝』

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