• • Period: Heian Period
  • Occupation: Waka Poet
  • Family: Mibu no Tadami (son)
  • Birth: fl.893-920
  • Death: –

Mibu no Tadamine

Mibu no Tadamine (壬生忠岑) was a Heian poet who flourished between 893 and 920AD. He was the father of Mibu no Tadami and acted as one of the four compilers of the Kokinshū.

We can find 82 of his poems in the Imperial Anthologies, 35 of them coming from the Kokinshū. He also had a personal collection of poems.

Even after his death his poetry was held in high regard, with Kintō placing one of his poems in the highest level of his waka kuhon (Nine Levels of waka) alongside Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.

One of his poems (No.30) can be found in the ogura hyakunin isshu and goes as follows:¹

Japanese text2	Romanized Japanese1	English translation1
有明の つれなくみえし 別れより 暁ばかり うきものはなし	Ariake no tsurenaku mieshi wakare yori akatsuki bakari uki mono wa nashi	How cold the face of the morning moon! Since we parted nothing is so miserable as the approaching dawn.

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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.

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