田子の浦に

打ち出でてみれば

白妙の

富士の高嶺に

雪は降りつつ

やまべのあかひと

たごのうらに

うちいでてみれば

しろたえの

ふじのたかねに

ゆきはふりつつ

Yamabe no Akahito

Going out to

Tago bay, I see

White drapes laid

On Fuji's peak

While snow is falling.

Hokusai

Yamabe no Akahito (700 - 736), was a poet of the Yamato or Nara period in Japan. Many of his poems were composed during journeys with Emperor Shomu between 724 and 736. He was one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. With Hitomaro (poem 3) he is considered a poet-God.

作者略伝と語釈

Tago Bay must have been present-day Suruga Bay and the poet probably set out from one of the mountainous places on Izu Peninsula, just as Hokusai represented it. Coming from in between the mountains, suddenly the mighty view of the Fujisan is revealed.