Minamoto no Muneyuki

28/08/2022| Eli| 0 Comment| 9:33 pm

Period: Heian Period
Occupation: Waka Poet, Magistrate
Family: Emperor Kōkō (grandfather)
Birth: –
Death: 939AD

Minamoto no Muneyuki

Minamoto no Muneyuki (源宗于) was the grandson of Emperor Kōkō, known to have died in 939AD.

During his life it is known he was reduced to mere commoner status in 894AD, but still managed to hold onto a few nominal provincial governships.

In 939AD he was appointed as a magistrate but died shortly after.

In total 15 of his poems can be found in the various Imperial Anthologies, 6 of them in the Kokinshū.

We also know of a private collection of poetry by him and that he was listed as one of the Thirty Six Poetic Geniuses.¹

One of his poems can be found in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (No.28) and goes as follows:

Japanese text²	Romanized Japanese¹	English translation¹
山里は冬ぞさびしさまさりける人めも草もかれぬとおもへば	Yamazato wa fuyu zo sabishisa masarikeru hitome mo kusa mo karenu to omoeba.	In my mountain abode it is winter that feels loneliest - both grasses and visitors dry up.

External Links

- E-text of his poems in Japanese

Footnotes

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

Thirty Six Poetic Geniuses
Lady Ise * Yamabe no Akahito * Ariwara no Narihira * Ki no Tomonori * Sarumaru Taifu * Ono no Komachi * Fujiwara no Kanesuke * Fujiwara no Atsutada * Fujiwara no Toshiyuki * Minamoto no Muneyuki * Minamoto no Shitagō * Kiyohara no Motosuke * Sakanoue no Korenori * Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu * Fujiwara no Okikaze * Fujiwara no Asatada

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