Princess Nukata


Princess Nukata, also spelled Nukada, was a Japanese poet of the Asuka period.
The daughter of and supposed younger sister of Princess Kagami, Nukata became Emperor Tenmu's favorite wife and bore him a daughter, Princess Tōchi.
A legend claims that she later became consort to Emperor Tenji, Emperor Tenmu's elder brother, but there is no evidence to support this claim.

Poetry

Nukata was one of the great female poets of her time; thirteen of her poems appear in the Man'yōshū: 7–9, 16–18, 20, 112, 113, 151, 155, 488, and 1606. Two of the poems are reprinted in the later poetry collections Shinchokusen Wakashū and Shinshūi Wakashū.
Nukata composed this poem in at the harbor of Nikita-tsu in Iyo Province as an imperial fleet invaded Kyushu:

Poem 9

The ninth poem of the Man'yōshū is known as one of the most difficult poems within the Man'yōshū to interpret. Nukata composed this poem in 658 when Empress Saimei went to a hot spring in Kii Province:
A common interpretation for the later part of the poem is by Keichū:, which translates to “...my beloved who stands at the foot of the sacred oak”.
The first two lines has already defeated modern scholarship to date. Some theories include:
According to Alexander Vovin, the first two lines should be read in Old Korean, whereby their meaning is similar to the one proposed by Sengaku: