Ki no Tsurayuki
In his Japanese preface to the tenth-century "Kokin Wakashū", Ki no Tsurayuki referred to Hitomaro as "Uta no Hijiri" ("Saint of Poetry"). In the Heian period the practice of Hitomaru-eigu (人丸影供) also gained currency, showing that Hitomaro had already begun to be apotheosized. Hitomaro's divinity status continued to grow in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. The Edo period scholars Keichū and Kamo no Mabuchi tended to reject the various legends about Hitomaro.