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Kakinomoto no Hitomaro[kA´kE´nO´mO´tO nO hE´tO´mA´rO] Pronunciation Key, ?710?, early Japanese lyric poet. He is the greatest poet represented in the ManyOshu [collection of myriad leaves], which is the oldest extant Japanese poetry anthology. Court poet to three sovereigns, Hitomaro produced an extraordinary range of verse, from public elegies and celebrations of prosperity to more lyrical expressions of personal love and mortality, in the tanka and now archaic chOka poetic forms. His poetry is known for its sense of humanity and empathy with nature.
See study by I. H. Levy (1984).
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