Princess Ōku

Princess Ōku was a daughter of Emperor Tenmu and Princess Ōta, and the elder sister of Prince Ōtsu. In 673, she entered a residence at Hatsuse to prepare for service at Ise, the shrine of the sun deity Amaterasu. She travelled to Ise in 674 as saiō, a royal woman assigned to serve the shrine on the ruler's behalf. Her appointment connected the royal household with a continuing religious office. [S01, S02]

Ōku's brother visited her there, a journey remembered in poems attributed to her in the eighth-century Man'yōshū anthology. After Tenmu's death in 686 and Ōtsu's execution on a treason charge, Ōku returned to the capital in the eleventh lunar month. The Saiku Historical Museum dates the ending of her tenure to her father's death. Whether her brother's case also affected the departure is uncertain. [S02, S03, S04]

Her surviving poems include farewell and mourning. A poem associated with Ōtsu's reburial at Mount Futakami turns the mountain into an image of her dead brother. Its attribution preserves her voice within the royal family's loss; it does not locate the original grave with archaeological certainty. Ōku died in 701. Her recorded career encompasses shrine service and poetic remembrance, rather than only her position as the sister of an executed prince. [S02, S04]