Otomo no Yakamochi Comments

Yakamochi’s style of poetry often had a melancholic air covering a wide range of themes. Some literary critics have often compared his work to that of two other famous Japanese poets whose work was also in that anthology – Kakinomoto Hitomaro and Yamanoue Okura – though it is generally believed that Yakamochi never actually achieved their standard of greatness.

Ōtomo no Yakamochi has 46 'songs' and 432 tanka in the anthology Man’yōshū, comprising over ten per cent of its contents.

_________________________________ Fujiwara no Kintō established the grouping of the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses or Thirty-six Poetry Immortals (Sanjūrokkasen) in the ''Anthology of Poems by the Thirty-Six Poets'': Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Ki no Tsurayuki Ōshikōchi Mitsune Lady Ise Ōtomo no Yakamochi Yamabe no Akahito Ariwara no Narihira Henjō Sosei Ki no Tomonori Sarumaru no Taifu Ono no Komachi Fujiwara no Kanesuke Fujiwara no Asatada Fujiwara no Atsutada Fujiwara no Takamitsu Minamoto no Kintada Mibu no Tadamine Saigū no Nyōgo / Kishi Joō Ōnakatomi no Yoritomo Fujiwara no Toshiyuki Minamoto no Shigeyuki Minamoto no Muneyuki Minamoto no Saneakira Fujiwara no Kiyotada Minamoto no Shitagō Fujiwara no Okikaze Kiyohara no Motosuke Sakanoue no Korenori Fujiwara no Motozane Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu Fujiwara no Nakafumi Taira no Kanemori Mibu no Tadami Kodai no Kimi Nakatsukasa ____________________________________________