was an important and innovative Japanese poet, who compiled the ''

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 was the son of

Minamoto no Tsunenobu was a Japanese nobleman and ''waka'' poet in the Heian period. One of his poems is included in the ''Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese ''waka'' by one hundred poets. ''Hyakunin isshu'' can be tran ...

(1016–1097); holder of the second rank in court and of the position of Grand Counsellor). Shunrai was favored by

Emperor Go-Sanjo An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

and to a lesser degree

Emperor Shirakawa was the 72nd emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 白河天皇 (72)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Shirakawa's reign lasted from 1073 to 1087. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Th ...

; in no small part for political reasons. At this time, the

Fujiwara family was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since the ancient times and dominated the imperial court until ...

dominated the country, and its branch, the

Rokujō family The Rokujō family () was a poetically conservative faction in the Japanese Imperial court, founded by Fujiwara no Akisue (1055–1123 CE); it was the first clan to specialize in attaining power and influence via success in poetry, and was orig ...

, similarly dominated the court poetry scene; by favoring their rivals, the Emperors could thus strike back. Although Shunrai was passed over to compile the ''

Goshūi Wakashū :''"The language of poetry should be like brocade and the feeling deeper than the ocean."'' -from Michitoshi's Preface The , sometimes abbreviated as ''Goshūishū'', is an imperial anthology of Japanese waka compiled in 1086 at the behest of ...

''. Shunrai's angry polemical ''Nan Goshūi'' ("Errors in the ''Goshūishū''") appears to have somehow convinced Shirakawa to have Shunrai compile the next

imperial anthology Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...

, the ''

Kin'yō Wakashū The , sometimes abbreviated as ''Kin'yōshū'', is a Japanese imperial anthology of waka whose two drafts were finished in 1124 and 1127. It was compiled at the behest of the Retired Emperor Shirakawa, by Minamoto no Shunrai (~1055–1129; somet ...

''. This

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

, when completed, embroiled Shunrai in dispute, and his ''Gosen Wakashū'' was especially criticized with various uncomplimentary nicknames; Brower and Miner mention that one critic, Fujiwara no Akinaka ( fl. 1100-1125) wrote a now-lost ten-part work called the ''Ryōgyokushū'' ("Collection of Genuine Jewels") which did nothing but mock and criticize the ''Kin'yō Wakashū''. In 1113, Toshiyori wrote the poetic treatise known as "Toshiyori zuinō (俊頼髄脳)." Zuinō, which is also seen in the title of

Fujiwara no Kintō , also known as Shijō-dainagon, was a Japanese poet, admired by his contemporaries "... Fujiwara no Kinto (966–1008), the most admired poet of the day." pg 283 of Donald Keene's ''Seeds in the Heart''. and a court bureaucrat of the Heian pe ...

's poetic treatise the "Shinsen zuinō," can be translated literally as

myelencephalon The myelencephalon or afterbrain is the most posterior region of the embryonic hindbrain, from which the medulla oblongata develops. Development Neural tube to myelencephalon During fetal development, divisions of the neural tube that give ...

, but this term was used to refer to books that contained essays on poetry and figuratively means that it knows the "mind" of poetry.

References

*pgs. 237, 242-243 of ''Japanese Court Poetry'',

Earl Miner Earl Roy Miner (February 21, 1927 – April 17, 2004) was a professor at Princeton University, and a noted scholar of Japanese literature and especially Japanese poetry; he was also active in early modern English literature (for instance, his obit ...

, Robert H. Brower. 1961,

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Press, LCCN 61-10925 {{DEFAULTSORT:Minamoto no, Shunrai 1055 births 1129 deaths 12th-century Japanese poets Hyakunin Isshu poets