Asukai Masaaki (飛鳥井雅章, 1611–1679) was a Japanese courtier and waka poet of the early Edo period. His Dharma name was Kukyō-in Gendō Bunga (究竟院原道文雅).
Biography
editAncestry, birth and early life
editAsukai Masaaki was born on the first day of the third month of Keichō 16 (1611), according to the Kugyō Bunin.[1] He was the third son of Asukai Masatsune (ja).[1] His two older brothers had both been banished by imperial command (ja) on the fourth day of the seventh month of 1609,[1] but the younger of the two, Masanori (雅宣), was later pardoned,[1] and raised the young Masaaki.[1]
Political career and poetic achievements
editHe was a prominent poet at the court of retired emperor Go-Mizunoo,[1] and from the end of the Kan'ei era in 1644 until a year before his death more than three decades later he virtually monopolized the setting of the topics of poetic gatherings at the imperial palace.[1] In Meireki 3 (1657), he along with three others received the Kokin-juden (secret traditions of interpretation of the Kokinshū) from Go-Mizunoo.[1] Seven years later, he was permitted to hear the same once again.[1]
He was made buke-tensō (court intermediary with the samurai class) in Kanbun 10 (1670).[1] This position required him to travel back and forth between Kyoto and Kantō, and as a result he had many disciples in the eastern regions, especially among the warrior class.[1] He became one of the most prominent waka poets of his era.[1]
At the height of his political career, he had attained the Junior First Rank,[1] and held the position of Provisional Major Counselor (gon-dainagon).[1]
Later life and death
editAccording to the Kugyō Bunin, he died on the twelfth day of the tenth month of Enpō 7 (1679),[1] when he was in his 69th year.[1] He was cremated at the Kengō-in in northern Kyoto,[1] and was given the Dharma name was Kukyō-in Gendō Bunga.[1]
References
editWorks cited
edit- Ueno, Yōzō (1983). "Asukai Masaaki". Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典 (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. p. 52. OCLC 11917421.