Nijō Tamefuji

Nijō Tamefuji was born in 1275.[1] He was the second son of Nijō Tameyo,[1] and his mother was a daughter of Kamo Ujihisa (賀茂氏久),[1] Tameyo himself being a son of Nijō Tameuji,[2] a grandson of Fujiwara no Tameie,[2] and a great-grandson of Fujiwara no Teika.[3] He was a member of the Nijō branch of the Fujiwara clan, so is known as both Nijō Tamefuji and Fujiwara no Tamefuji.

He was initially raised by his uncle Nijō Tameo (二条為雄),[1] but following the death of his brother Tamemichi in the fifth month he returned to his father's household.[1]

On the eleventh day of the sixth month of 1302 he participated in an uta-awase,[1] and the following year took part in the Go-Nijō-in uta-awase.[1] He was also included in the Kagen sentō on-hyaku-shu (嘉元仙洞御百首)[1] and the Bunpō on-hyaku-shu (文保御百首).[1] In 1317 he was awarded the position of Acting Middle Counselor (gon-chūnagon).[1]

When Emperor Go-Daigo, with whom he had worked closely, succeeded to the chrysanthemum throne, his position in poetic circles continued to grow in importance.[1] On the second day of the seventh month of Genkō 3 (1323), he was selected as the compiler of the Shokugoshūi Wakashū.[1] Five days later, he took part in the Kameyama-dono shichihyaku-shu (亀山殿七百首),[1] to which he contributed 68 poems (third after Retired Emperor Go-Uda and his father Tameyo).[1] In the second month of the following year, he wrote the Iwashimizu-sha uta-awase (石清水社歌合).[1] Soon thereafter he abandoned work on the Shokugoshūi Wakashū with it still incomplete.[1]

116 of his poems are included in imperial collections from the Shingosen Wakashū on.[1] Several of his poems are also known from private collections (私撰集 shisenshū),[1] such as the Shoku Gen'yō Wakashū (続現葉和歌集) and the Tōyō Wakashū (藤葉和歌集).[1]

He died on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of Genkō 4 (1324).[1]