was a Japanese 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...

 and the son of Emperor Temmu

Emperor Temmu

was the 40th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Temmu's reign lasted from 672 until his death in 686.-Traditional narrative:...

.

Background

His mother was Princess Ōta

Princess Ota

was royalty in Japan during the Asuka Period. She was the eldest daughter of Emperor Tenji. She was the elder sister of Princess Uno-Sarara, and the mother of Princess Ōku and Prince Ōtsu. Her mother was Lady Ochi, whose father is Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawamaro.She was not in good health by...

 whose father was Emperor Tenji

Emperor Tenji

, also known as Emperor Tenchi, was the 38th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Tenji's reign spanned the years from 661 through 671.-Traditional narrative:...

. He was therefore the younger full-blood brother of Princess Ōku. His consort was Princess Yamanobe

Princess Yamanobe

lived during the Asuka Period. She was a daughter of Emperor Tenji. Her mother was Lady Hitachi, whose father was Soga no Akae....

, daughter of Emperor Tenji, thus his cousin. His life is known from the Nihon Shoki

Nihon Shoki

The , sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the Kojiki, the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical...

, and his personality emerges through such poetry anthologies as Kaifūsō

Kaifuso

is the oldest collection of Chinese poetry written by Japanese poets.It was created by an unknown compiler in 751. In the brief introductions of the poets, the unknown writer seems sympathic to Emperor Kōbun and his regents who were overthrown in 672 by Emperor Temmu after only eight months of the...

and Man'yōshū.

As a poet, Ōtsu is best known for the letters he exchanged with Lady Ishikawa.

Prince Ōtsu was a popular and able figure who was a likely successor of his father to the imperial throne, but was forced to commit suicide after false charges of rebellion were laid against him by Empress Jitō

Empress Jito

was the 41st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Jitō's reign spanned the years from 686 through 697.In the history of Japan, Jitō was the third of eight women to take on the role of empress regnant. The two female monarchs before Jitō were Suiko and Kōgyoku/Saimei...

 in order to promote her own son, Prince Kusakabe, to the position of crown prince.

Poems

Two examples of his work are below, including the death poem

Death poem

A death poem is a poem written near the time of one's own death. It is a tradition for literate people to write one in a number of different cultures, especially in Joseon Korea and Japan.-History:...

—

Poem sent by Prince Ōtsu to Lady Ishikawa

Gentle foothills, and

in the dew drops of the mountains

soaked, I waited for you –

grew wet from standing there

in the dew drops of the mountains.

Farewell poem

Momozutau / iware no ike ni / naku kamo wo / kyo nomi mite ya / Kumokakuri nan.


Today, taking my last sight of the mallards
Crying on the pond of Iware,
Must I vanish into the clouds!

Influence

Japanese poet and scholar Shinobu Orikuchi

Shinobu Orikuchi

, also known as , was a Japanese ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet. As a disciple of Kunio Yanagita, he established an original academic field named , which is a mixture of Japanese folklore, Japanese classics, and Shintō...

 featured a fictionalised version of Prince Ōtsu in his novel Sisha no Sho (The Book of the Dead, also made into a film

The Book of the Dead (film)

is a 2005 Japanese stop motion animation feature film directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is his second feature film, the first being the Rennyo and His Mother and is based on the novel of the same name by Shinobu Orikuchi...

 by Kihachirō Kawamoto

Kihachiro Kawamoto

was a Japanese puppet designer and maker, independent film director, screenwriter and animator and president of the Japan Animation Association from 1989, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka, until his own death...

) as a restless ghost

Yurei

are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, 幽 , meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 , meaning "soul" or "spirit." Alternative names include 亡霊 meaning ruined or departed spirit, 死霊 meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing 妖怪 or お化け...

 kept on Earth by the memory of a young woman whose gaze he connected with just prior to his death.