Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 449, The Tastemaker.

Aside from last week, we've spent the last two weeks in the orbit of the early Heyon period,

the first few centuries of what is sometimes called classical Japan.

Today we're moving over to the exact opposite end of the Hain era to look at a man who lived during the tumult

that saw the power of Kyoto's aristocracy begin to crumble. Yet despite living in what could

definitely be termed interesting times, our subject today had very little to do with politics

or the fortunes of his own social class. He was focused primarily on his art, poetry,

and was possessed of so much talent that he was indisputably the greatest master of his age.

Indeed, his name is often attached to phrases like the single most influential figure in the

history of Japanese classical poetry,

or a leading figure in the coterie of poets who revolutionized the Waka, the style of Japanese poetry,

or it can be said without risk of exaggeration that he is largely responsible for how scholars

and students of classical Japanese literature read Waka even today.

Our subject this week is Fujiwara no Teika, though you sometimes see his personal name

rendered using the Japanese style of Sada'e, but I'm going to use Teika here because that's

more common from what I've found.

Certainly, it is no exaggeration to say he is one of the most influential poets in all of

Japanese history.

Fujiwara No Teika was born, like most aristocrats of his day, in Japan's aristocratic capital

at Kyoto, and he was born in the year 1162.

That last name of Fujiwara should always perk your ears up in the context of Japanese history.

The Fujiwara clan was easily Japan's most preeminent aristocratic family for about half a millennium,

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