Fujiwara no Akiuji

Fujiwara no Akiuji was born in 1207.[1] A member of the Northern Branch (Hokke) of the Fujiwara clan,[2] he was the second son of Fujiwara no Akiie[2] and the younger brother of Fujiwara no Tomoie.[1]

He reached the Junior Second Rank at court,[2] and founded the Kamiyagawa lineage (紙屋河家 Kamiyagawa-ke) within the Rokujō branch of the Fujiwara clan.[2] He is occasionally mentioned in the Azuma Kagami as a court envoy to Kantō (関東祗候).[2]

He died on the eighth day of the eleventh month of Bun'ei 11 (1274).[2]

Akiuji was a central figure in the Kamakura waka poetic circle,[2] and in Kyoto helped establish the anti-Mikohidari faction, along with his brother Tomoie and Fujiwara no Mitsutoshi.[2] His poetry was a regular fixture in the uta-awase contests and other poetic gatherings organized by the members of this faction,[2] but it was not highly appreciated.[2]

His poems were included in the records of a large number of uta-awase,[2] including the Kasuga Wakamiya-sha Uta-awase (春日若宮社歌合)[2] and the Munetaka-shinnō-ke Hyakugojū-ban Uta-awase (宗尊親王家百五十番歌合),[2] as well as in the Hōji On-hyakushu (宝治御百首).[2] His poems were also included in private anthologies that collected the works of Kamakura poets,[2] including the Tōsen Waka Rokujō (東撰和歌六帖),[2] the Genzon Waka Rokujō (現存和歌六帖)[2] and the Un'yō Wakashū.[2]

Eleven of his poems were included in imperial anthologies from the Shoku Gosenshū on.[2] He left a personal collection, the Akiuji-shū,[2]