was a noted

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

. He was active at the end of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, and the son of Fujiwara no Takatsune (藤原隆経). He was also a member of the famous poetic and aristocratic clan, the

Fujiwara Fujiwara (, written: 藤原 lit. "''Wisteria'' field") is a Japanese surname. (In English conversation it is likely to be rendered as .) Notable people with the surname include: ; Families * The Fujiwara clan and its members ** Fujiwara no Kamatari ...

. Akisue was close to

Emperor Shirakawa was the 72nd emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 白河天皇 (72)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Shirakawa's reign lasted from 1073 to 1087. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum T ...

, as his mother was the Emperor's

nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

, and due to the influence of Fujiwara no Sanesue (藤原実季), his foster father, who was

Dainagon was a counselor of the first rank in the Imperial court of Japan. The role dates from the 7th century. This advisory position remained a part of the Imperial court from the 8th century until the Meiji period in the 19th century.Nussbaum, "Dainag ...

to the Emperor. Starting in 1075, Akisue held a number of local official posts, and by 1109 was appointed as a Dazai Daini (secretary to the administrative officer of several provinces). Akisue was the father of

Fujiwara no Akisuke Fujiwara no Akisuke (, 1090–1155) was a '' waka'' poet and nobleman active in the Heian period Japan. One of his poems is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. A member of the Fujiwara clan The was a powerful family of imperial regents in Jap ...

Poetry

In 1078 Akisue participated in The Imperial Palace Poetry Match of Shōraku-2. In 1093 he contributed a one-hundred poem set to the ''Horikawa-in hyakushu'', and participated in several other poetry competitions (郁芳門院根合 (Ikuhômon-in neawase), 堀河院艶書合 (Horikawa-in tsuyakotobaawase), and 鳥羽殿北面歌合 (Toba-dono hokumen utaawase)), which firmly established his reputation as a poet.

Poetry school

Akisue's most famous house was built in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

at the crossing of two streets, Rokujō and Karasuma, and the poets of his salon used to meet there. The poetic school that he established came to be called Rokujô. Similarly his descendants formed a clan that came to be called the

Rokujō family The Rokujō family () was a poetically conservative faction in the Japanese Imperial court, founded by Fujiwara no Akisue (1055–1123 CE); it was the first clan to specialize in attaining power and influence via success in poetry, and was orig ...

. His poetic style was very conservative. Members of his salon were many of the more conservative poets of the time, such as Fujiwara no Akisuke, Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, Fujiwara no Motosuke and Fujiwara no Ari'i.e. Akisue was a scholar of the

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

and worked to recover and popularize the poetry of

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a Japanese '' waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but apart from what can be gleaned from hints in the ''Man'yōshū'', ...

. Both Akisue and the Emperor revered Hitomaro, and Akisue managed to borrow a famous painting of Hitomaro from the Emperor to make a copy for his own family, which he proudly displayed. In 1118, Akisue held a celebration of Hitomaro at his Rokujô mansion which was attended by the poetry luminaries of the time including

Minamoto no Shunrai was an important and innovative Japanese poetry, Japanese poet, who compiled the ''Kin'yō Wakashū''. He was the son of Minamoto no Tsunenobu (1016–1097); holder of the second rank in court and of the position of Grand Counsellor). Shunrai was ...

and

. They presented offerings before the painting of Hitomaro and recited both his poems and their own, both Japanese waka and Chinese verse, composed especially for this occasion. This was the first formal ceremony on record dedicated to the veneration of Hitomaro, and began a practice that was later for other esteemed poets.

Notes

References

* Levy, Ian Hideo (1984) ''Hitomaro and the Birth of Japanese Lyricism'' Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, ; * Miner, Earl; Odagiri, Hiroko; and Morrell, Robert E. (1985) "Fujiwara, Akisue (1055-1123)" ''The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature'' Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, ;

External links

"WakaPoetry.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujiwara no, Akisue 1055 births 1123 deaths Fujiwara clan Kuge 11th-century Japanese poets