late Heian period · 1090–1182?Priest Dōin

A late Heian poet, born Fujiwara no Atsuyori, who held a modest post in the stables and took Buddhist vows after the age of eighty. His devotion to poetry was legendary: he competed in contests until nearly ninety and made monthly pilgrimages to the Sumiyoshi shrine to pray for improvement in his art. When Shunzei included eighteen of his poems in the Senzaishū, his spirit is said to have appeared in a dream, weeping with gratitude. About forty of his poems are in imperial anthologies. His Hyakunin Isshu poem marvels that his life endures what his tears cannot.