Fujiwara no Akisue

Fujiwara no Akisue (藤原顕季) (1055 – 27 September (6 September, old style) 1123) was a noted Japanese poet and nobleman, at the end of the Heian period, son of Fujiwara Takashi Kei (藤原隆経). He was a member of the famous poetic and aristocratic clan, the Fujiwara.

Akisue was close to Emperor Shirakawa, both through his mother who was the Emperor’s nurse, and through the influence of Fujiwara Miki (藤原実季), his foster father, who was Dainagon 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.

Poetry

In 1078 Akisue wrote『承暦二年内裏歌合』(The Imperial Palace ‘Song Combination’ [A ‘song combination’ (歌合) is a poetic form where the poet takes two points of view and works them back and forth. ] of 1078). In 1093 he wrote 『堀河百首』 (Horikawa Hyaku Shu), 『郁芳門院根合』 (Yuu Yoshi Mon In Ne Gou), 『堀河院艶書合』 (Horikawa In Tsuya Sho Gou), 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 at the crossing of two streets, Rokujô 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. 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'ie.

Akisuewas a scholar of the Man'yōshū and worked to recover and popularize the poetry of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. 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 and Fujiwara no Akisuke. They presented offerings before the painting of Hitoinaro 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. [Smits, Ivo (1998) "The Poet and the Politician: Teika and the Compilation of the "Shinchokusenshu" "Monumenta Nipponica" 53(4): pp. 427-472, p.446; ]

Notes

References

* Levy, Ian Hideo (1984) "Hitomaro and the Birth of Japanese Lyricism" Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, ISBN 0691065810 ;
* 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, ISBN 0691065993 ;::"This article is based in part on material from the Japanese Wikipedia".

External links

* [http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/akisue.shtml "Japan 2001 Waka Website" School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, UK]