late Heian period · 1055–1129Minamoto no Toshiyori

The dominant poet of the late Heian court, son of Minamoto no Tsunenobu. Though his official rank remained modest, he compiled the Kin'yōshū at the command of the retired Emperor Shirakawa and wrote a major treatise on poetics. His fresh, unconventional style, often set against the conservatism of his rival Fujiwara no Mototoshi, opened the way for the innovations of Fujiwara no Shunzei. About two hundred of his poems appear in imperial anthologies, more than any other poet in the Senzaishū. He was the father of the monk-poet Shun'e. His Hyakunin Isshu poem laments that prayers to the Kannon of Hatsuse only made his lover crueler.