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Nijō Tameuji

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]

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]

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]

He was the father of Nijō Tameyo,^[1] Nijō Tamezane^[3] and Nijō Jōi.^[3]

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]

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]

• 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) (6). Keiō University Kokubungaku Kenkyūshitsu: 80–86. Retrieved 2017-11-03.