late Heian – Kamakura period · 1155–1225Archbishop Jien

A Tendai monk, poet and historian, son of the chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi and younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. Ordained at eleven, he became head of the Tendai school in 1192 and held the office four times, enjoying the confidence of the retired Emperor Go-Toba. His Gukanshō, an interpretation of Japanese history through the principle of underlying reason, is regarded as the country's first work of historical philosophy. A central poet of the Shin Kokinshū circle, he has ninety-two poems in that anthology and about 270 in imperial anthologies overall. His Hyakunin Isshu poem, written in youth, vows to shelter the people beneath his black priestly sleeves.