Kenreimon-in Ukyō no Daibu (建礼門院右京大夫) was Japanese noblewoman and waka poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods.

Biography

She was a daughter of Fujiwara no Koreyuki[1] and Yūgiri (夕霧), a daughter of Ōga no Motomasa and a renowned koto player.[1] It has been postulated that she was born in Hōgen 5 (1157).[1] In 1173, she entered the service of Taira no Tokuko, then empress to Emperor Takakura.[1] She may have come to court under the patronage of Fujiwara no Shunzei.[1] Her mother had previously given birth to a son, Son'en (尊円), by Shunzei,[1] before marrying Koreyuki and taking Son'en with her into Koreyuki's house,[1] and Ukyō no Daibu's nickname (literally "Ukyō High Steward") comes from the political post held by Shunzei at the time she came to court.[1] She served less than six years as a lady-in-waiting,[1] but during this time she began a love affair with Taira no Sukemori,[1] and also took Fujiwara no Takanobu as a lover.[1] Takanobu was the son of Fujiwara no Tametsune and Bifukumon-in no Kaga,[1] who later married Shunzei,[1] so it is possible that Takanobu's mother and foster-father were involved in the relationship.[1] In around the autumn of 1178, she left court and went to live with her mother,[1] but the following year her mother fell ill and died,[1] and Ukyō no Daibu went to live with her half-brother Son'en in the Nishiyama district of the Capital.[1] Her relationship with Takanobu came to an end around this time,[1] and she came to rely on the love of Sukemori.[1] With the growing tensions between the Taira and their rival Minamoto clan, however, their relationship was short-lived.[1] The Taira were driven from the Capital in the seventh month of 1183 (according to the traditional Japanese calendar),[1] and Sukemori left her,[1] before drowning at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura in 1185.[1] Ukyō no Daibu heard the news of her lover's death,[1] and later entered religious orders along with her brother at Hosshō-ji (ja).[1] She went on treasuring the memory of her lover Sukemori,[1] but around a decade later, in 1196 or 1197, she went back to the court of Emperor Go-Toba,[1] and then entered the service of the empress dowager Shichijō-in.[1] She lived until at least 1233,[1] but her date of death is unknown.[1]

Writings

Poetry

She left a personal anthology, the Kenreimon-in Ukyō no Daibu Shū (建礼門院右京大夫集).[2]

23 of her poems were included in imperial collections from the Shin-chokusenshū on,[1] and her poems were also included in the Fuboku Wakashō (夫木和歌抄), the Gyokuyōshū and others.[1] The ten poems by her that were included in the Gyokuyōshū are indicative of both her individual poetic style and the style of that anthology.[3] These poems can all duplicates of those in her personal collection,[4] but the two poems included in Jien's Shūgyokushū (拾玉集) and the Tsukimōde Wakashū (月詣和歌集) are not found in her personal anthology.[4]

Other works

It has been hypothesized that Yamaji no Tsuyu, the unofficial sequel to The Tale of Genji, was written by her.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Hon'ida 1983a, p. 464.
  2. ↑ Hon'ida 1983a, p. 464; Hon'ida 1983b, p. 465.
  3. ↑ Hon'ida 1983a, pp. 464–465.
  4. 1 2 3 Hon'ida 1983a, pp. 465.

Works cited

  • Hon'ida, Shigemi (1983a). "Kenreimon-in Ukyō no Daibu". Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典 (in Japanese). Vol. 2. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. pp. 464–465. OCLC 11917421.
  • Hon'ida, Shigemi (1983b). "Kenreimon-in Ukyō no Daibu Shū". Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten (in Japanese). Vol. 2. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. p. 465. OCLC 11917421.
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