mid-Heian period · 908–990Kiyohara no Motosuke

A mid-Heian poet and scholar, grandson of Fukayabu and father of Sei Shōnagon. In 951 he was one of the five scholars of the Pear Chamber charged with compiling the Gosenshū and deciphering the Man'yōshū. Late in life he governed Suō and Higo, dying at his post. One of the Thirty-Six Immortals, he has about a hundred poems in imperial anthologies, many written for screens and contests in a bright, witty style. His Hyakunin Isshu poem, on a vow that the waves would never top Sue-no-Matsuyama, was written on behalf of a jilted friend.