A mid-Heian monk-poet said to have served as lecturer at the provincial temple of Harima, though his life is otherwise obscure. Active in the late tenth century, he moved in the circle of leading poets such as Minamoto no Shitagō, Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu, Kiyohara no Motosuke and Taira no Kanemori. One of the Late Classical Thirty-Six Immortals, he has about fifty-five poems in imperial anthologies. His Hyakunin Isshu poem was composed at the ruined Kawara-in mansion of Minamoto no Tōru, where autumn alone still comes to visit.
八重葎 しげれる宿の さびしきに
人こそ見えね 秋は来にけり
Yaemugura shigereru yado no sabishiki ni / hito koso miene aki wa kinikeri
Around this lonely house, overgrown with layer upon layer of weeds, no one comes to visit — and yet autumn has come.