Fujiwara no Kiyosuke

Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (藤原清輔, 1104-1177^[1][2][3][4]) was a Japanese waka poet and poetry scholar of the late Heian period.^[2][3][4][5]

He was the second^[6] son of Akisuke (顕輔), compiler of the Shika Wakashū.^[2][3][4]

Poetry

The following poem by him was included as No. 84 in Fujiwara no Teika's Ogura Hyakunin Isshu:

Japanese text[5]	Romanized Japanese[7]	English translation[8]
ながらへば またこのごろや しのぼれむ 憂しとみし世ぞ 今は恋しき	Nagaraeba mata kono goro ya shinobaren ushi to mishi yo zo ima wa koishiki	If I live long, I may look back with yearning for these painful days— the world that now seems harsh may then appear sweet and good!

He was a member of the conservative Rokujō school of poetic composition, and Donald Keene has called him a "mediocre poet".^[9] Suzuki et al., however, say that he his brilliant poetry scholarship put him at the top of the waka world in his day.^[10]

He was one of the first to apply rules of choosing themes, participants and judges in the uta-awase poetry gatherings.^[11] His standards of judging poetry, made him a rival of Fujiwara no Shunzei.^[12]

About 1165, Emperor Nijō commissioned him to compile a waka anthology, which became the Shoku Shika Wakashū (続詞花和歌集, "Continued Shika Wakashū", also called Shoku Shikashū).^[6][13] He compiled twenty books of 998 poems, a much larger anthology than its namesake, and submitted to the emperor expecting for it to be recognized as the seventh imperial anthology.^[13] The emperor died before its completion, and it remains consigned to the status of a private collection.^[6][13] Ultimately ninety-four of his poems were included in imperial collections.^[6]

Scholarship

Kiyosuke is known primarily as the author of the Fukuro Zōshi (袋草紙, compiled before 1159^[14][15]) and the Ōgishō (奥義抄, compiled 1124~1144^[16][17])^[9] He was one of the first scholars to question the traditional 905 date of the Kokin Wakashū.^[1]

References

1. Keene 1999 : 250.
2. MyPedia article "Fujiwara no Kiyosuke". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services.
3. Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten article "Fujiwara no Kiyosuke". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.
4. Digital Daijisen entry "Fujiwara no Kiyosuke". Shogakukan.
5. Suzuki et al. 2009 : 106.
6. McMillan 2010 : 147 (note 84).
7. McMillan 2010 : 172.
8. McMillan 2010 : 86.
9. Keene 1999 : 337 (note 154).
10. Suzuki et al. 2009 : 106 "歌学にすぐれ、当時の歌壇の第一人者となる。"
11. Keene 1999 : 648.
12. Keene 1999 : 649-650.
13. Keene 1999 : 319.
14. Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten article "Fukuro Zōshi". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.
15. Digital Daijisen entry "Fukuro Zōshi". Shogakukan.
16. MyPedia article "Ōgishō". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services.
17. Digital Daijisen entry "Ōgishō". Shogakukan.

Bibliography

• Keene, Donald (1999). A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1: Seeds in the Heart — Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11441-7.
• McMillan, Peter (2010). One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14399-8.
• Suzuki, Hideo; Yamaguchi, Shin'ichi; Yoda, Yasushi (2009). Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. Tokyo: Bun'eidō. ISBN 4-578-10082-0.

External links

• E-text of his poems in Japanese.