Lady Ise
Encyclopedia
Lady Ise (c. 875 – c. 938) was a female Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
poet
Japanese poetry
Japanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...
in the Imperial court's waka
Waka (poetry)
Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
tradition. She was born the Fujiwara no Tsugukage of Ise
Ise Province
or was a province of Japan including most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces.The ancient provincial capital was at Suzuka...
, and eventually became the lover of the Prince Atsuyoshi and a concubine to Emperor Uda
Emperor Uda
was the 59th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Uda's reign spanned the years from 887 through 897.-Name and legacy:Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name was or Chōjiin-tei....
; her son by him was Prince Yuki-Akari.
Her poems were emblematic of the changing styles of the time, and 22 of them were included in the Kokin Wakashū.
She is not to be confused with Ise no Taiu
Ise no Taiu
Ise no Taiu is a Japanese poet active in the early 11th century. Her grandfather Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu was also an important waka poet. She is one of the later Thirty-six Poetry Immortals, and one of her poems is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu....
, a later poet with a similar name.
Quote
Hanging from the branches of a green
Willow tree,
The spring rain
Is a
Thread of pearls. (Composed on the topic "Thread of Pearls" )
Even for a time
Short as a piece of the reeds
In Naniwa's marsh,
We must never meet again:
Is this what you are asking me? -(from the Hyakunin Isshu
Hyakunin Isshu
is a traditional anthology style of compiling Japanese waka poetry where each contributor writes one poem for the anthology. Literally, it translates to "one hundred people, one poem [each]"...
)