Nijō Tameuji (二条為氏, 1222–1286), also known as Fujiwara no Tameuji (藤原為氏), was a Japanese courtier and waka poet of the mid-Kamakura period. His Dharma name was Kakua (覚阿).
Biography
Ancestry, birth and early life
Nijō Tameuji was born in 1222.[1] His father was Fujiwara no Tameie,[2] and his mother was a daughter of Utsunomiya Yoritsuna.[1] He was Tameie's eldest son,[3] and a grandson of Fujiwara no Teika.[4] He was not known as Nijō in his early life; he received this moniker from his son Tameyo.[5]
Political career
At the height of his political career, he had attained the Senior Second Rank,[1] and held the position of Provisional Major Counselor (gon-dainagon).[2]
Later life and death
He entered Buddhist orders in 1285,[6] acquiring the Dharma name Kakua.[6] He died on 3 October 1286, or the fourteenth day of the ninth month of Kōan 9.[6]
Descendants
He was the father of Nijō Tameyo,[1] Nijō Tamezane[3] and Nijō Jōi.[3]
Poetry
Tameuji learned waka composition from his father Tameie and his grandfather Teika, who between them had compiled three of the imperial anthologies.[5] He was the founder of the conservative Nijō poetic school.[4]
In 1247, he took part in the Hyakusanjū-ban Uta-awase (百三十番歌合),[6] and the following year in the Hōji Hyakushu (宝治百首).[6]
In 1278,[3] on the command of Retired Emperor Kameyama,[1] he compiled the Shokushūi Wakashū.[2] He may have also compiled the Shin Wakashū,[7] although other theories as to its compiler's identity have been proposed.[8]
As the heir to the prestigious Mikohidari house, he was a central figure of the waka society of his day.[6] His disagreements with his brother Tamenori and stepmother Abutsu-ni, however, gave rise to the split between the Nijō, Kyōgoku and Reizei poetic schools,[6] the latter two of which were founded by his brothers Tamenori and Tamesuke, respectively.[3] He had a bitter dispute with his stepmother over valuable manuscripts related to the waka traditions, as well as the inheritance of his father's landholdings.[9]
Among his most famous poems is the following,[6] which was included in the Shokugosen Wakashū, compiled by his father Tameie.[6]
| Japanese text[6] | Romanized Japanese[10] | English translation[11] |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
He left a private collection, the Dainagon Tameuji-kyō Shū (大納言為氏卿集),[2] which collects the poems of both Tameuji himself and his son Tameyo.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Katō 1994; Gotō 1994.
- 1 2 3 4 Katō 1994; Gotō 1994; Mypaedia 1996.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Gotō 1994.
- 1 2 Gotō 1994; Mypaedia 1996.
- 1 2 Mypaedia 1996.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Katō 1994.
- ↑ Gotō 1994; Nakagawa 1986, p. 84, note 7.
- ↑ Nakagawa 1986, p. 84, note 7.
- ↑ Gotō 1994; Keene 1999, p. 709.
- ↑ Carter 2005, p. 187.
- ↑ Carter 2005, pp. 186–187.
Works cited
- Carter, Stephen D. (2005). Just Living: Poems and Prose of the Japanese Monk Tonna. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50077-7. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
- Gotō, Shigeo (1994). "Fujiwara no Tameuji" 藤原為氏. Encyclopedia Nipponica (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
- Katō, Mutsumi (1994). "Nijō Tameuji" 二条為氏. Asahi Nihon Rekishi Jinbutsu Jiten (in Japanese). Asahi Shinbun-sha. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
- Keene, Donald (1999) [1993]. A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1: Seeds in the Heart – Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century (paperback ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11441-7.
- "Nijō Tameuji" 二条為氏. Mypaedia (in Japanese). Hitachi. 1996. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
- Nakagawa, Hiroo (1986). "Shin Wakashū seiritsu jiki shōkō" (PDF). Mita Kokubun (in Japanese). Keiō University Kokubungaku Kenkyūshitsu (6): 80–86. Retrieved 2017-11-03.