Lady Kasa was a female Japanese waka

Waka (poetry)

Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...

 poet of the early 8th century.

Little is known of her except what is preserved in her 29 surviving poems in the Man'yōshū; all these were love poems addressed to her lover Otomo no Yakamochi

Otomo no Yakamochi

was a Japanese statesman and waka poet in the Nara period. He is a member of the . He was born into the prestigious Ōtomo clan; his grandfather was Ōtomo no Amaro and his father was Ōtomo no Tabito. Ōtomo no Kakimochi was his younger brother, and Ōtomo no Sakanoe no Iratsume his aunt...

 who compiled the Man'yōshū (and who is known to have had at least 14 other lovers, and would break up with her). Nonetheless, her love poems would make her famous and inspire a later generation of female poets like Izumi Shikibu

Izumi Shikibu

was a mid Heian period Japanese poet. She is a member of the . She was the contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu, and Akazome Emon at the court of Joto Mon'in.-Early life:...

 or Ono no Komachi

Ono no Komachi

was a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen—the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She also figures among the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals....

.

Poetry

Rōmaji	English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
wa ga yado no yujagekusa no shiratsuyu no kenugani moto na omoyuru kamo	In the loneliness of my heart I feel as if I should perish Like the pale dew-drop Upon the grass of my garden In the gathering shades of twilight.

External links

• http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/otomo.html
• Online text of her poems in Japanese