著者

蔵中 進

出版者

日本文学協会

雑誌

日本文学 (ISSN:03869903)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.21, no.1, pp.11-28, 1972-01-01

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Yakatsugu Isonokami (729-781) was Otomaro's child and was called Bunjin no Shu (Fether of Letters). He became a government official at 23 and won steady promotion. One tanka (poem) composed on January 4 in 753 was found in 'the Manyoshu.' When thirty-three, he was appointed vice-envoy to China. About that time he built a private library named the Untei in his house and permitted lovers of learning to use it. He himself also studied Buddhism and was engaged in reading and studying Chinese poetry there. He seems to have written a book about Buddhism, but only its name is known. When Ganjin, who came form China, preached the religious precepts and built the Toshodaiji Temple, died in 763, he made a Chinese poem lamenting his death, which was put in 'the Todaiwajyotoseiden.' One time he plotted with others to kill Nakamaro Fujiwarano only to fail and to be relegated. But Nakamaro's downfall let him come back and serve the Emperor Shotoku. Most of his Chinese poems in 'the Keikokushu' are those he composed in those in those days. Later he called himself the Mononobe family of warrior and guarded the court. He also had opportunities to meet Chinese envoys. But in his last years he was absorbed in studying Chinese poetry and reached the rank of Dainagon and Shikibukyo. Thus a man of letters in the late Nara Period seems to have meant a man composing and studying Chinese poetry, and the tanka was ceasing to be used publicly. And Yakatsugu Isonokami's life and life and literature was to show a previous notice of the following Black Age of Japanese Literature.