A mid-Heian poet, third son of the Chancellor Fujiwara no Tamemitsu and adopted after his father's death by the regent Kaneie. He rose to captain of the guards but died in 994 at only twenty-three. The historical tale Ōkagami praises him as an outstanding master of waka, and he moved in the circle of Fujiwara no Sanekata and Kintō. One of the Late Classical Thirty-Six Immortals, he has about fifty poems in imperial anthologies. His Hyakunin Isshu poem is a morning-after verse cursing the dawn that parts the lovers.
明けぬれば 暮るるものとは 知りながら
なほ恨めしき 朝ぼらけかな
I know that when day breaks, night will fall again and I will see you once more — and still, how I resent this dawn.
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