AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG - Five Poems after Inaba Manyo

FIVE POEMS AFTER INABA MANYO
(1994)

Portrait of Ôtomo no Yakamochi

Ôtomo no Yakamochi is famous for having compiled Japan's oldest anthology of poetry, the 20 volume Man'yô-shû. Yakamochi assembled this anthology sometime in the Nara or early Heian periods. The last datable poem in the collection is from 759. The collection contains many poems from much earlier, many of them anonymous or misattributed (usually to well-known poets), but the bulk of the collection represents the period between 600 and 759.

Yakamochi was once assigned to the Inaba region (today Tottori Prefecture) as a governor. Here, his palace was located next to the home of the powerful Ihokibe clan. The heads of this clan had been hereditary priests of the Ube Shrine, a Shinto temple that had some of the most established traditions in the Inaba region. Akira Ifukube is a direct descendant the Ihokibe family.

In 1994, Ifukube was commissioned to write Five Poems after Inaba Manyo by the town of Kokufu in Tottori because of the composer's ancestral connection to the town.

This composition is based on four of Yakamochi's own poems, as well as a poem by his aunt, Ôtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume.

Five Poems after Inaba Manyo is scored for soprano, alto-flute and a 25-string koto.

Acknowledgements: Ifukube on Ifukube: Interview with Akira Ifukube by Ed Godziszewski, translated by Michiko Imamura, G-Fan Magazine, November/December 1995

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