late Heian – Kamakura period · 1114–1204Fujiwara no Shunzei

The most influential poet and critic of the late twelfth century, father of Fujiwara no Teika. A pupil of Mototoshi, he rose to the third rank as Master of the Empress Dowager's Household and took Buddhist vows in 1176. He compiled the Senzaishū at the command of the retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa and, in his treatise on poetic styles, articulated the ideal of yūgen, mysterious depth. As the judge of countless poetry contests he set the standard of taste for his age and established the Mikohidari house as the hereditary school of waka. He lived to ninety-one and has about 420 poems in imperial anthologies.