Waka Poem: Across the fields and hills…” 19th century ?tagaki Rengetsu Otagaki Rengetsu took vows as a Buddhist nun, but is better remembered as one of the foremost waka poets of the nineteenth century, an ink painter, a skilled calligrapher in a refreshingly simple and elegant style, and a prolific potter who inscribed poems into ceramic teaware. A daughter of a courtesan of the licensed brothel quarters and wealthy samurai, she was adopted at a young age into the ?tagaki clan, and became a lady-in-waiting at Kameoka Castle. She married twice and had five children, but after the death of her second husband in 1823 and the tragic death of all her children she became a nun, taking the Buddhist sobriquet Rengetsu (Lotus Moon”). She lived in huts in various temple precincts until 1865, when she settled at the Jink?’in temple, where she lived as nun and created art for the remainder of her life. She became an intimate friend of and mentor to the great Literati artist Tomioka Tessai, and