• • Period: Heian Period
  • Occupation: Waka Poet
  • Family: Ōe no Otondo
  • Birth: fl. c.889-c.923
  • Death: –

Ōe no Chisato

Ōe no Chisato (大江千里) was a waka poet and courtier who flourished between c.889-c.923.

Coming from a prominent family¹ he was the son of Ōe no Otondo³ and nephew to Ariwara no Narihira and Ariwara no Yukihira.

In his life he authored the kudai waka, also known as the chisato-shū which was a selection of waka based on lines from various Chinese poems.

Additionally, he had 25 poems in the Imperial Anthologies.

One of his poems (No.23) can be found in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and goes as follows:¹

Japanese text2	Romanized Japanese1	English translation1
月見れば 千々に物こそ 悲しけれ わが身ひとつの 秋にはあらねど	tsuki mireba chiji ni mono koso kanashikere waga mi hitotsu no aki ni wa aranedo	Thoughts of a thousand things fill me with melancholy as I gaze upon the moon, but autumn's dejection comes not to me alone.

Footnotes

1. MacMillan, P. (2018) ”One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse”. St. Ives: Penguin Classics.
2. Suzuki, H. et al. (1997) ”Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu”. Tokyo: Bun’eidō.
3. Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth (2002) “Japan Encyclopedia”. London: Harvard University Press.

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