Fujiwara no Michitsuna no Haha

Hear about Michitsuna no Haha on Episode 71 of our Podcast, the Japan Archives.

• Period: Heian Period
• Occupation: Poet, Diarist
• Family: Fujiwara no Tomoyasu (father) Fujiwara no Kaneie (husband) Fujiwara no Michitsuna (son)
• Birth: 937AD
• Death: 995AD

Fujiwara no Michitsuna no Haha

Fujiwara no Michitsuna no Haha (藤原 道綱母 – Michitsuna’s mother) was a member of the Fujiwara Clan, more specifically the Hokke Branch of this clan.

Living from 937-995AD she is said to have been a woman of exceptional beauty and a master of poetry.² She was the secondary wife of Fujiwara no Kaneie and mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna.¹

She was a poet and diarist during her time with poems included in the Shūi wakashū. Her diary, the Kagerō nikki (Gossamer Years) records the unhappiness of her marriage, and its vivid descriptions are said to have influenced the Genji monogatari.¹

As a poet, 39 of hers were included in the Imperial Anthologies as well as in a private collection. She was also included as one of the Thirty Six Poetic Geniuses of the Late Classical Period and Thirty Six Women Poetic Geniuses.

One of her poems (No.53) was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and goes as follows:

Footnotes

1. Kodansha. (1993) ”Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia”. Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd.
2. MacMillan, P. (2018) ”One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse”. St. Ives: Penguin Classics.
3. Suzuki, H. et al. (1997) ”Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu”. Tokyo: Bun’eidō.

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