Hear about Daini no Sanmi on Episode 8B of our Podcast, the Japan Archives.

• • Period: Heian Period
  • Occupation: Waka Poet
  • Family: Fujiwara no Nobutaka (father) Murasaki Shibuki (mother) Fujiwara no Kanetaka (husband) Takashina no Nariaki (husband)
  • Birth: 999AD
  • Death: –

Daini no Sanmi

Daini no Sanmi, (大弐三位) also known as Fujiwara no Katako was a member of the Fujiwara Clan, born in 999AD. She was the daughter of Fujiwara no Nobutaka and Murasaki Shibuki.¹

With Fujiwara no Kanetaka she had a daughter, and later she married Takashina no Nariaki.³

In total, 37 of her poems were included in the imperial waka anthologies¹ and she also has a personal collection of poetry called the Daini no Sanmi shū.³ Her poem included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (Poem 58) goes as follows and is a reply to Poem 709 in the Goshūishū:

Japanese text2	Romanized Japanese1	English translation1
有馬山 猪名の笹原 風吹けば いでそよ人を 忘れやはする	Arimayama Ina no sasahara kaze fukeba ide soyo hito o wasure ya wa suru	Blown down from Mount Arima through Ina's low bamboo the wind whispers, 'I swear of my love- how could I forget you?'

During her life, in addition to her poetry, she was known to have acted as the wet nurse to the Emperor Go-Reizei. There are some who believe the final ten chapters of the Tale of Genji may have been written by her, however, the evidence to support this is none existent.¹ Sometimes she has been credited as author of the Sagoromo Monogatari.³

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.
3. Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth (2002) “Japan Encyclopedia”. London: Harvard University Press.

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