A mid-Heian poet, eldest son of Fujiwara no Korechika and grandson of the regent Michitaka. His father's fall from power in his childhood blighted his career, and he rose no higher than Master of the Left Capital. His secret affair with Princess Tōshi, a former Ise priestess, enraged her father the retired Emperor Sanjō, who separated them; his violent conduct earned him the nickname 'the wild third-rank noble'. One of the Late Classical Thirty-Six Immortals, he has about twenty-five poems in imperial anthologies. His Hyakunin Isshu poem was sent to the princess after their parting.
今はただ 思ひ絶えなむ とばかりを
人づてならで いふよしもがな
Ima wa tada omoitaenan to bakari o / hitozute narade iu yoshi mogana
Now all I have left to say is 'I will give up my love for you' — if only there were a way to tell you that myself, not through someone else.