was a noted Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 poet

Japanese poetry

Japanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...

 and nobleman, son of Fujiwara no Toshitada. He was also known as Fujiwara no Toshinari or Shakua (釈阿); in his younger days (1123-67), he gave his name as Akihiro (顕広), but in 1167, changed to Shunzei. He was noted for his innovations in the waka

Waka (poetry)

Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...

 poetic form, and for his achievement in compiling Senzai Wakashū ("Collection of a Thousand Years"), the seventh Imperial anthology of waka poetry; this work was at the behest in 1183 of the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa

Emperor Go-Shirakawa

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...

, who despite Shunzei's low rank (he was merely "Chamberlain to the Empress Dowager", a nominal rank Miner describes as "pitiably low" ), admired him. Go-Shirakawa's trust in Shunzei is significant, as Imperial anthologies were landmarks in the poetic circles of the court, second to no other events in significance; poets were literally willing to risk their lives just for the chance to have a poem included.

Fujiwara was a member of the famous poetic and aristocratic clan, the Fujiwara. As his father and grandfather and a number of other relatives were all men of literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 and poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

, he began writing and composing poetry at a young age. He tended to hew to an older style of poetry such as that seen in the Man'yōshū, but he also drew upon recently-imported and translated T'ang dynasty Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 poetry.

From a literary criticism

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

 perspective, he notably was an early supporter of theTale of Genji, and past his 30s and 40s, he was especially known for his criticism and judgments at various poetry gatherings and contests, where he favored poems that displayed his preferred poetic style of yugen (one of the ten orthodox styles of poetry which focused on conveying romantic emotion, with characteristic undertones of nostalgia and regret); his style was sometimes summarized as "old diction, new treatment". He wrote that poems "should somehow... produce an effect of both charm and of mystery and depth. If it is a good poem, it will possess a kind of atmosphere distinct from its words and their configuration and yet accompanying them." An example:

Japanese Japanese language is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...	English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Yū sareba Nobe no akikaze Mi ni shimite Uzura naku nari Fukakusa no sato.	As evening falls, From along the moors the autumn wind Blows chill into the heart; And the quails raise their plaintive cry In the deep grass of Fukakusa village.

His style was disciplined, determinedly sensitive and emotional; the poet Shinkei (140-1475) wrote this description of Shunzei's composition of poetry:

"Very late at night he would sit by his bed in front of an oil lamp so dim it was difficult to tell whether it was burning or not, and with a tattered court robe thrown over his shoulders and an old court cap pulled down to his ears, he would lean on an armrest, hugging a wooden brazier for warmth, while he recited verse to himself in an undertone. Deep into the night, when everyone else was asleep, he would sit there bent over, weeping softly."

At the age of 63, in 1177, Fujiwara "retired from the world" and took Buddhist

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 vows, taking the religious name of "Shakua". Most of his critical philosophy of poetry is known from his sole major work of criticism, written a decade (in 1197, and revised in 1201) after he was asked by the Emperor to compile the anthology, Fūteishō ("Notes on Poetic Style Through the Ages"). His son, Fujiwara no Teika

Fujiwara no Teika

Fujiwara no Teika , also known as Fujiwara no Sadaie or Sada-ie, was a Japanese poet, critic, calligrapher, novelist, anthologist, scribe, and scholar of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods...

, would succeed him in prominence as a poet, and would be more successful in court politics than his father; Shunzei attained only the rank of "Chamberlain to the Empress Dowager". Shunzei's granddaughter , Fujiwara Toshinari no Musume (c. 1200; often simply called "Shunzei's Daughter

Shunzei's Daughter

Fujiwara Toshinari no Musume , 1171? – 1252?, was a Japanese poet; she was probably the greatest female poet of her day, ranked with Princess Shikishi...

" as little seems to be known about her), whom he raised and taught, would also be successful as a poet in the vein of Teika (who would seek out her advice after Shunzei died).