mid-Heian period · 877–933Fujiwara no Kanesuke

A mid-Heian nobleman and poet who rose to Middle Counselor and was known as the Counselor of the Embankment after his mansion on the Kamo River. One of the Thirty-Six Immortals, he was a patron of Ki no Tsurayuki and Mitsune and a trusted courtier of Emperor Daigo. His poem on a parent's heart lost in darkness for love of a child is quoted repeatedly in The Tale of Genji, whose author, Murasaki Shikibu, was his great-granddaughter. His Hyakunin Isshu poem appears in the Shin Kokinshū.