Utamakura (a place famed in classical Japanese poetry) (歌枕)
Utamakura
Utamakura (歌枕)
Details are as given below.
Katsuragi (歌枕)
It is an administrative designation for a rural district in Oaza Oshikirishinden, Mikawamachi, Higashitagawa County, Yamagata Prefecture.
Utamakura is a place name which is quoted in waka poetry. As well as place names in Yamato and Yamashiro Provinces, which have been familiar since the period of Yamato Imperial court, there are also place names which are related to the especially venerated gods and Buddha, the names of places where historical incidents occurred, or place names which are associated by word play, etc. When a conscious imitation of a famous poem began to be common, the place names which were mentioned in old poems came to be often used as utamakura.
It can be said that utamakura is a figment of the imagination, which has not been familiar in reality but gradually formed by appearing in the scenes of poems and tales repeatedly separately from the real scenery.
Other than this, utamakura also has the following meanings.
It refers to the books such as "Noin Utamakura," a Kagakusho (a book on the study of waka poems) explaining utamakura, and "Utamakura Nayose," a list of utamakura.
To go to noted places, lands, and regions of Utamakura.
Refers to Mutsu Province.
See also 'FUJIWARA no Sanekata.'