Lady Kasa

Lady Kasa (笠女郎 Kasa no Iratsume) was a female Japanese waka 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 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 or Ono no Komachi. ["The entranced eroticism of her poems to Yakamochi would be imitated by the great women poets of the 9th and 10th centuries, notably Izmi Shikibu and Ono no Komachi." "Women poets of Japan".]

Poetry

References

*pg 141 of "Woman poets of Japan", 1977, Kenneth Rexroth, Ikuko Atsumi, ISBN 0-8112-0820-6; previously published as "The Burning Heart" by The Seabury Press.
*pg 151-152, 175-176 of "Seeds in the Heart"

External links

* [http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/otomo.html]
* [http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~sg2h-ymst/yamatouta/sennin/kasaira2.html Online text of her poems in Japanese]