An imperial princess and one of the greatest woman poets of the Shin Kokinshū era, third daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She served as high priestess of the Kamo shrines for about ten years from 1159, retiring through illness, and later became a nun. She studied waka under Fujiwara no Shunzei, who wrote his treatise on poetic styles for her, and her friendship with Teika inspired the legend behind the Noh play Teika. Her restrained yet passionate poems number about 155 in imperial anthologies. Her Hyakunin Isshu poem begs the thread of her life to snap before her secret love betrays itself.
玉の緒よ 絶えなば絶えね ながらへば
忍ぶることの 弱りもぞする
Tama no o yo taenaba taene nagaraeba / shinoburu koto no yowari mo zo suru
O thread of my life, if you must break, then break now. If I live on, my strength to hide this love will weaken, and my feelings will overflow.