Hieda no Are

Hieda no Are (Japanese稗 田 阿 礼) was a Japanese narrator ( katari ) of the seventh and eighth century, and probably a member of the Rezitatorengilde ( katari - be), whose task was the presentation of traditional texts for court ceremonies.

Little is known about the circumstances Hieda no Ares, it is even debatable whether it was a man or a woman. He was Hofmann ( toneri ) with Kaiser Temmu, who reigned 672-686, suggesting a birth year Hieda no Ares 650.

In the year 712, during the reign of Empress Gemmei, the court scholar Ō no Yasumaro ( Futo no Yasumari no Ason ) recorded after the oral presentation Hieda no Ares the Kojiki on describing the mythology and early history of Japan and the first comprehensive written source of Japanese literary history is. Whether Hieda no Are Here resorted to older written sources or purely oral tradition, is not known.