Hear about Sarumaru Taifu on Episode 16 of our Podcast, the Japan Archives.

• See also: Sarumaru Taifu Poems
• Period: Nara Period
• Occupation: Waka Poet
• Family: –
• Birth: ? (Active during mid 8th Century?)

Sarumaru Taifu

Sarumaru Taifu, also called Sarumaru Dayu (猿丸大夫) lived during the mid 8th century, or so we believe.  This poet may in fact have never existed in the first place as there are no records to prove he ever lived.¹

However another source says the name was perhaps a pseudonym of Prince Yamashiro no Ōe.⁴

Some believe he was active from 708 to 715 and that he lived in the mountains near to Kyoto.³

He was listed by Kinto as one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses and there is a later collection of poetry known as the Sarumaru Dayū, but due to the fact this man may not have existed it is highly unlikely this poetry collection was penned by him.

One of his poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (No.5) and goes as follows:¹

Japanese text2	Romanized Japanese1	English translation1
奥山に 紅葉踏みわけ 鳴く鹿の 声きく時ぞ 秋はかなしき	Okuyama ni momoji mireba naku shika no koe kiku toki zo aki wa kanashiki	In the deep mountains making a path through the fallen leaves, the plaintive belling of the stag- how forlorn the autumn feels.

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. Morse, P. (1989) “Hokusai: One Hundred poets.” New York: George Braziller Inc.
4. Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth (2002) “Japan Encyclopedia”. London: Harvard University Press.

Thirty Six Poetic Geniuses
Lady Ise * Yamabe no Akahito * Ariwara no Narihira * Ki no Tomonori * Sarumaru Taifu * Ono no Komachi * Fujiwara no Kanesuke * Fujiwara no Atsutada * Fujiwara no Toshiyuki * Minamoto no Muneyuki * Minamoto no Shitagō * Kiyohara no Motosuke * Sakanoue no Korenori * Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu * Fujiwara no Okikaze * Fujiwara no Asatada

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