Kakinomoto Hitomaro

(c. 662 - c. 708)

Most of what is known about Kakinomoto Hitomaro’s life is gleaned from notes accompanying his poems in the eighth-century Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, the oldest extant Japanese poetry collection. A minor member of the imperial court—many of his poems celebrate state events—he once wrote of leaving his wife to return to the capital, “Deep as the sea pine / was my love for a dear girl” when “we parted like creeping vines.”