Nijō Tameuji

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]
人問はば
見ずとや言はむ
玉津島
かすむ入江の
春のあけぼの
hito towaba
mizu to ya iwan
tamatsushima
kasumu irie no
haru no akebono
If anyone asks,
I shall say I haven't seen it—
Tamatsu Isle,
where haze spreads over the inlet
in the dim light of spring dawn.

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. Katō 1994; Gotō 1994.
  2. Katō 1994; Gotō 1994; Mypaedia 1996.
  3. Gotō 1994.
  4. Gotō 1994; Mypaedia 1996.
  5. Mypaedia 1996.
  6. Katō 1994.
  7. Gotō 1994; Nakagawa 1986, p. 84, note 7.
  8. Nakagawa 1986, p. 84, note 7.
  9. Gotō 1994; Keene 1999, p. 709.
  10. Carter 2005, p. 187.
  11. 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.
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