mid-Heian period · dates unknown (early 10th c.)Sakanoue no Korenori

A mid-Heian poet said to descend from the great general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. He held modest provincial posts and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortals, with some forty poems in imperial anthologies. He was also a celebrated player of kemari, the courtly football, and is recorded as keeping the ball aloft for 206 kicks before Emperor Daigo. His Hyakunin Isshu poem, composed on a journey to Yamato, mistakes the white snow of Yoshino village at daybreak for the light of the lingering moon.