was a mid

Heian The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to: * Heian period, an era of Japanese history * Heian-kyō, the Heian-period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto * Heian series, a group of karate kata (forms) * ...

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

Emperor Saga was the 52nd emperor of Japan, Emperor Saga, Saganoyamanoe Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional order of succession. Saga's reign lasted from 809 to 823. Traditional narrative Saga was the second son of ...

. He was the original compiler of the '' Wamyō Ruijushō'', the first Japanese dictionary organized into semantic headings. He was designated as one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals 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'' (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 he assisted in the compilation of the waka anthology '' Gosen Wakashū''. He also compiled ''

kun'yomi is the way of reading kanji characters using the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. This pronunciation is contrasted with ''on'yomi'', which is the reading based on the original Chi ...

'' 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 Nobility from Kyoto 10th-century Japanese nobility Deified Japanese men Imperial House of Japan Japanese lexicographers 10th-century Japanese poets {{japan-writer-stub