Fujiwara no Shunzei

Fujiwara no Shunzei (藤原 俊成, 1114 – 22 December 1204) was a Japanese poet, courtier, and Buddhist monk of the late Heian period.

[citation needed] He was commissioned in 1183 to compile the Senzai Wakashū ("Collection of a Thousand Years"), the seventh imperial anthology of waka poetry, by the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who despite Shunzei's low rank (he was "Chamberlain to the Empress Dowager", a nominal rank Earl Miner describes as "pitiably low"[2]), admired him.

Shunzei eventually did decide to include Tadanori's poem, but attributed it ("tactfully" as Donald Keene characterizes it) to "Anonymous".

[citation needed] From a literary criticism perspective, he notably was an early supporter of the Tale of Genji, and after his 30s and 40s, he was especially known for his criticism[6] and judgments at various poetry gatherings and contests, where he favored poems that displayed his preferred poetic style of yugen (one of the ten orthodox styles of poetry which focused on conveying romantic emotion, with characteristic undertones of nostalgia and regret).

As evening falls, From along the moors the autumn wind Blows chill into the heart; And the quails raise their plaintive cry In the deep grass of Fukakusa village.

[citation needed] Shunzei's son, Fujiwara no Teika, succeeded him in prominence as a poet, and was more successful in court politics than his father.

Shunzei reciting his poem on the hotogisu (bird) from the Shinkokinshu (drawing by Hishikawa Moronobu )
Shunzei drawing by Kikuchi Yosai