In this *anese name, the surname is Yamanoue.

Yamanoue no Okura (山上憶良, also written as 山於億良, 660?–733?) was a *anese poet, the best known for his poems of children and commoners. He was a member of *anese missions to Tang China. He was also a contributor to the Man'yōshū and his writing had a strong Chinese influence. Unlike other *anese poetry of the time, his work emphasizes a morality based on the teachings of Confucius and Buddhism. Most scholars believe that he was born in 660, on the basis of his Chinese prose "Chin'a Jiai-bun" recorded in the fifth volume of Man'yōshū as a work written in 733 (Tenpyō 5), in which he says, "In this year, I am 74."

Yamanoue no Okura accompanied a mission to Tang China in 701 and returned to *an in 707. In the years following his return he served in various official capacities. He served as the Governor of Hōki (near present-day Tottori), tutor to the crown prince, and Governor of Chikuzen. While there, he *ociated with Otomo no Tabito, who was serving in Dazaifu.

Origins

Based on a reference to the Yamanoue clan in the Shinsen Shōjiroku, he was said to be a descendant of Emperor Kōshō. A large number of literary scholars led by Susumu Nakanishi have proposed that he was born in the Korean kingdom of Baekje, a view criticized by the historians Kazuo Aoki and Arikiyo Saeki in their respective works.

Edwin Cranston, Professor of *anese literature at Harvard University, writes:

‘Okura’s early life is obscure, but recent research has led to the conclusion that his origins were Korean, that he was in fact born in Paekche, *an’s ally on the Korean peninsula, and was brought to *an in the wave of refugees that came when that state was extinguished by its rival Silla in 663. Okura would have been in his fourth year. His father, a doctor who entered the service of the *anese court, no doubt provided his son with a thorough Chinese-style education. This education is amply evident in Okura’s surviving work, but his putative foreign origins are not. When he speaks of his adopted country he seems to speak as a native son.’

Okura's potentially continental origins have been cited as an example of the influence continental immigrants had on early *anese politics, society and culture.

References

Bibliography

• Nishizawa, Masashi, ed. (2002). Koten Bungaku o Yomu Tame no Yōgo Jiten (in *anese). Tokyo: Tōkyō-dō Shuppan. ISBN:978-4490106008. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
• Cranston, Edwin A., The Gem-Glistening Cup,, Stanford University Press, 1993.