Forty-year-old Empress Koken, exchanging her imperial costume for nun’s robes in 758, abdicates the Japanese throne in favor of a young cousin, who ascends the throne as Emperor Junnin.

She continues, however, to wield power, advised in this the ambitious Buddhist priest Dokyo, who becomes, presumably, her lover.

Junnin’s favorite and leading minister, Oshikatsu (Nakamaro), a member of the powerful Fujiwara clan, becomes jealous of Dokyo’s increasing domination of the government, initiating a political power struggle between the two.

The Ōtomo clan are warriors and bureaucrats in the Yamato Court, and Otomo no Yakamochi serves as a provincial governor in several provinces.

Like his grandfather and father before him, Yakamochi is a well-known politician.

He had met Udoneri in 738, and in 740 at the behest of Emperor Shōmu had gone to Kyushu Daisaifu to suppress the rebellion of Fujiwara no Hirotsugu.

He had became a jogoika in 745.

In July of the following year, he became governor of Etchu Province, a post he lasted in until 751.

By this time he was already the author of 220 waka.

Promoted to shonagon in 751, he had returned to the capital.

He had had been appointed military commander in 755, and the following year had concerned himself with the garrison at Namba, a time that is described in the Sakimori Songs Collection in the Man'yoshu, the first Japanese poetry anthology, Yakamochi is one of the compilers of Man'yoshu, for which he has not only written several poems but also transcribed, rewrote, and refashioned an unknown number of ancient poems and folklore.

He is the most prolific and prominent writer of his time, and has a great influence on the Shika Wakashu as well.