Kume no Wakame (久米若女)
KUME no Wakame (year of birth unknown and died on August 3, 780) was a woman in the Nara period. She was a mother of FUJIWARA no Momokawa. Her name 久米若女 was also spelled as 久米若売. Her kabane (the hereditary title given by the Imperial Court) was Muraji.
She married FUJIWARA no Umakai and had a baby, Momokawa, but in 737, Umakai died.
In April, 739, she was deported to Shimousa no kuni (Shimousa Province) for an adultery she committed with ISONOKAMI no Otomaro. It is said that she committed the adultery intentionally to drive ISONOKAMI no Otomaro from his post. In July, 740, she came back to Kyoto under a general amnesty and in 767, she rose to the official rank of Jugoi (Junior Fifth Rank) and then, climbed up to Jushiinoge (Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade). In July, 780, she died.
It is presumed that Kume no Iratsume who exchanged tanka (Japanese poem) with Atsumi no Okimi in Manyoshu (the oldest anthology of tanka) Vol.8 was Wakame. It is estimated that the exchanges of tanka were carried out from around 733 to 741.