Yamabe no Akahito

Who was Yamabe no Akahito?

Yamabe no Akahito was a poet of the Nara period in Japan. The Man'yōshū, an ancient anthology, contains 13 chōka and 37 tanka of his. Many of his poems were composed during journeys with Emperor Shōmu between 724 and 736. Yamabe is regarded as one of the kami of poetry, and is called Waka Nisei along with Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. He is noted as one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals.

The American composer Alan Hovhaness used a text by Yamabe from the Man'yōshū in his cantata Fuji, Op. 182.