Princess Oku
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Princess Oku (大来皇女) (661 - 701) was a Japanese princess during the Asuka period of Japanese history. She was the daughter of Emperor Temmu and sister of Prince Ōtsu. As a young girl she witnessed the Jinshin War and later, according to the Man'yōshū (The Anthology of Ten Thousand Leaves), became the first Saiō to serve at Ise Shrine. After the death of her brother in 686, she returned from Ise to Yamato to enshrine his remains on Mt. Futakami, before a quite end was put to her life at age 41.
Contents |
[edit] Man'yōshū Poetry
A number of Waka poems are accredited to Princess Oku in the Man'yōshū. The following tell the story of the death of her brother, Prince Ōtsu.
[edit] Prince Ōtsu leaving Ise for certain death
To speed my brother
Parting for Yamato,
In the deep of night I stood
Till wet with the dew of dawn.
The lonely autumn mountains
Are hard to pass over
Even when two go together-
How does my brother cross them all alone!
[edit] Arriving in the captial after Prince Ōtsu's death
Would that I had stayed
In the land of Ise
Of the Divine Wind.
Why have I come
Now that he is dead!
Now that he is no more --
My dear brother-
Whom I so longed to see,
Why have I come,
Despite the tired horses!
[edit] On the removal of Prince Ōtsu's remains to the Futagami mountains
From tomorrow ever
Shall I regard as brother
The twin-peaked mountain of Futagami-
I, daughter of man!
I would break off the branch
Of the flowering staggerbush
Growing on the rocky shore;
But no one says he lives
To whom I would show it!
