was a Japanese waka poet and poetry scholar of the late Heian period.[1]
He was the second[2] son of, compiler of the Shika Wakashū.
The following poem by him was included as No. 84 in Fujiwara no Teika's Ogura Hyakunin Isshu:
| Japanese text | Romanized Japanese[3] | English translation[4] |
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".[5] Suzuki et al., however, say that his brilliant poetry scholarship put him at the top of the waka world in his day.[6]
He was one of the first to apply rules of choosing themes, participants and judges in the uta-awase poetry gatherings.[7] His standards of judging poetry, made him a rival of Fujiwara no Shunzei.[8]
About 1165, Emperor Nijō commissioned him to compile a waka anthology, which became the .[2] [9] 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.[9] The emperor died before its completion, and it remains consigned to the status of a private collection.[2] [9] Ultimately ninety-four of his poems were included in imperial collections.[2]
Kiyosuke is known primarily as the author of the and the [5] He was one of the first scholars to question the traditional 905 date of the Kokin Wakashū.
. Donald Keene . A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1: Seeds in the Heart - Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century . . New York . 1999 . 978-0-231-11441-7 .
. Peter McMillan . One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each . . New York . 2010 . 978-0-231-14399-8 .