was a mid Heian ''

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

'' poet, scholar and nobleman. He was also a male-line descendant of

Emperor Saga was the 52nd emperor of Japan,#Kunaichō, Emperor Saga, Saganoyamanoe Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Saga's reign spanned the years from 809 through 823 ...

. He was the original compiler of the ''

Wamyō Ruijushō The is a 938 CE Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The Heian period scholar Minamoto no Shitagō (源順, 911–983 CE) began compilation in 934, at the request of Emperor Daigo's daughter. This ''Wamyō ruijushō'' title is abbreviated ...

'', the first Japanese dictionary organized into semantic headings. He was designated as one of the

Thirty-six Poetry Immortals The are a group of Japanese poets of the Asuka, Nara, and Heian periods selected by Fujiwara no Kintō as exemplars of Japanese poetic ability. The oldest surviving collection of the 36 poets' works is ''Nishi Honganji Sanju-rokunin Kashu'' ...

for his distinguished poetic accomplishments. In addition to the ''Wamyō Ruijushō'', his remaining works include a poetry collection known as the . Some scholars claim that he is the author of the ''

Taketori Monogatari is a (fictional prose narrative) containing elements of Japanese folklore. Written by an unknown author in the late 9th or early 10th century during the Heian period, it is considered the oldest surviving work in the form. The story detail ...

'' (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter). Ziro Uraki also posits him as a possible author of '' Utsuho Monogatari'' (Tale of the Hollow Tree) in the foreword to his English translation of that work. As one of the

Five Men of the Pear Chamber {{Unreferenced, date=August 2020 The Five Men of the Pear Chamber (梨壺の五人 ''Nashitsubo no gonin'') are a group of Heian period Japanese poets and scholars who cooperated in the compilation of the Gosen Wakashū. They also compiled '' kundok ...

he assisted in the compilation of the waka anthology ''

Gosen Wakashū The , often abbreviated as ''Gosenshū'' ("Later Collection"), is an imperial anthology of Japanese waka compiled in 951 at the behest of Emperor Murakami by the Five Men of the Pear Chamber: Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu (922-991), Kiyohara no Motosuke ...

''. He also compiled ''

kun'yomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequent ...

'' readings for texts from the revered ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

'' anthology.

External links

E-text of his poems
in Japanese
Online text of the Wamyō Ruijushō
911 births 983 deaths Minamoto clan Japanese lexicographers 10th-century Japanese poets {{japan-writer-stub