late Heian period · dates unknown (late 11th c. – early 12th c.)Suō no Naishi

A late Heian woman poet, daughter of a governor of Suō, who served four successive emperors as a lady-in-waiting from the 1060s onward. She took part in many poetry contests and was known for her quick wit; late in life she became a nun. About thirty-five of her poems appear in imperial anthologies. Her Hyakunin Isshu poem is a famous impromptu rebuff: when a courtier offered his arm as a pillow on a spring night, she replied that a reputation ruined for a dream as brief as a spring night's would be a poor bargain.