Fujiwara no Yoritada

In thisJapanese name,thesurnameisFujiwara.

Fujiwara no Yoritada( đằng nguyên lại trung; 924 – 31 July 989), the second son ofSaneyori,was akugyo(high-rankedJapanesenoble) who served asregentforEmperor En'yūandEmperor Kazan.His mother was a daughter ofFujiwara no Tokihira.His elder brother from the same motherAtsutoshidied before their father's death.

In 977 he becameSadaijin,and when his cousin, the regentFujiwara no Kanemichiwas in a critical medical condition, he ceded the position ofKampaku(regent) to Yoritada, instead of his rival brotherKaneie.

Although Yoritada's two daughters were consorts of Emperor En'yū and Emperor Kazan, they did not have any sons. Yoritada thus had only a tenable blood relationship with the Emperors. His cousin Kaneie was the grandfather of Crown Prince Yasuhito (Emperor Ichijō), and he encouraged Emperor Kazan to abdicate a throne. By the accession of Emperor Ichijō, Yoritada retired from his post as Kampaku, and Kaneie becameSessho(regent) for his grandson Emperor Ichijō. Yoritada wasDaijō Daijinfrom 978, and he is referred to as Rengi-kō ( liêm nghĩa công ) (posthumous name of Daijō Daijin).

His poet sonFujiwara no Kintōcompiled theShūi Wakashū,and also a collection of Chinese verse and prose (~600 selections) and 25 Japanese poems in hisWakan Rōeishū( cùng hán lãng vịnh tập ), a widely admired collection that helped spread the influence of Chinese culture (and especially the poetry ofBai Juyi) in the Japanese Imperial court. Kintō's collection would be imitated by a successor,Fujiwara no Mototoshi'sShinsen Rōeishū( tân soạn lãng vịnh tập ). Kintō also wrote an influential critical guide to incorporatingBai Juyi's poetic techniques (and more generally,Tang dynastypoetry) into Japanese poetry calledShinsen Zuinō( tân soạn tủy 脳) ( "The Essence of Poetry Newly Selected" ).

References

• pg. 483 and 181-183 ofJapanese Court Poetry,Earl Miner,Robert H. Brower.1961,Stanford UniversityPress, LCCN 61-10925
• Nihonshi Shoka Keizu Jimmei Jiten,Owada,T. et al. 2003,Kodansya.(Japanese)
• Ōkagami,Hosaka,H.(translation into modern Japanese) 1981,Kodansya.(Japanese)