| The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
| |
| Ono no Komachi |
| |
| |
( ´n n k´mä´ch ) (KEY) , fl. c.833–857, Japanese poet. She was celebrated for her beauty and erotically charged poetry. Ranked among the most prominent poets of her day, Ono no Komachi displayed a rare skill in weaving multiple entendres, metaphors, and emotional intensity into the elegant waka verse form. To judge from her poetry, she corresponded with a number of leading contemporary poets, several of whom may have been her lovers. Little is known about her actual life or circumstances; numerous legends have sprung up about her beauty, amorous activities, and bitter end as a wandering hag. |
| |
| | | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
